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The 2024 NFL season has begun, but there’s one person making noise off the field that is impacting the game. Sports agent David Mulugheta had reportedly made history as the first agent in the league to negotiate more than $1 billion in NFL contracts in one year, per his reps. According to Forbes, the 41-year-old has 86 clients and $1.3 billion in contract deals under his portfolio. As the president of team sports at Athletes First, Mulugheta has cemented himself as one of the most sought-after agents in the industry. However, this wasn’t something he had anticipated in his life. Based on a USA TODAY profile, Mulugheta never planned on becoming an NFL agent. As a kid, he didn’t play football and wasn’t even aware of what a sports agent did. His original goal was to become an entrepreneur or work in corporate law. “When kids see someone who looks like them in these roles, they think, ‘OK, that’s something I might be able to do,’” Mulugheta said. “I never saw anybody that looked like...
Since 1908, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and its members have made their marks across several industries and impacted communities and spaces. Some influential members include Phylicia Rashad, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Vice President Kamala Harris, according to ESSENCE. Harris was officially sworn in as vice president of the United States on Jan. 20, 2021, making her the first woman, Black person, and South Asian American to be elected to the office. While this historical marker is noteworthy, it was not the beginning of her story. Kamala Harris’ Road To Howard University A native of Oakland, CA, Harris’ roots in education and public service start with the influence of her mother, Shyamala Gopalan. According to a profile from the White House, Gopalan earned her doctorate in 1964, the same year Harris was born, and worked as a breast cancer scientist. Harris’ father, Donald J. Harris, came to the United States from Jamaica to study...
The year was 2002, and moviegoers were introduced to what would become a Black movie universe with the release of “Barbershop.” The film centered around the importance of communal gathering through a local institutional staple, the Black barbershop. In it, we see the struggles of entrepreneurship, the importance of relationships, an exposition of gender equity, and an emphatic acknowledgment of Black cultural norms. Among the many characters in the film, one of the most memorable was “Eddie,” portrayed by Cedric The Entertainer. However, the audacious and opinionated onscreen uncle we all grew to love almost didn’t come to life in the same way. Born Cedric Antonio Kyles, Cedric The Entertainer started his career as a stand-up comedian gaining some acclaim as the host of BET’s “Comic View.” From there, his career would blossom as he became a co-star of the WB’s “The Steve Harvey Show” as well as a co-headliner on the comedic tour and movie “The Kings of Comedy,” with Steve Harvey, DL...
The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) of the State University of New York (SUNY) has joined forces with influential partners and brands in the fashion and creative industries to help tackle the systemic issues that the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) community face in their respective spaces. On Dec. 8, FIT launched the Social Justice Center (SJC), a f irst-of-its-kind higher education initiative for BIPOC p re-college youth, college students, and creative industry professionals, according to a press release provided to AfroTech. Behind the SJC’s launch are its founding partners PVH Corp., Capri Holdings Limited, and Tapestry, Inc., which each have pledged $1 million for FIT’s mission to increase opportunity and accelerate social equity within the creative industries for the BIPOC community. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tapestry, Inc. (@tapestry) Leading brands including Ralph Lauren, Prada, Saks, Target, and G-III Apparel Group have also committed...
Many of the successful trailblazers from past generations, up until now, are praised for creating their path to success. Although such stories are inspiring to the masses, the likelihood for most aspiring career professionals to reach a similar fate without external guidance isn’t the norm, and t ech investor and entrepreneur Cortney Woodruff and music executive veteran Cortez Bryant are aware of that. To provide that external guidance and help the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) community gain access to mentorship to jumpstart their careers, they created Assemble, an online educational platform with courses from Black and brown experts and innovators. With Woodruff as Assemble’s CEO and Cortez alongside him as its president, they aim to lead as the first platform to purposely highlight successful BIPOC professionals in their respective fields and showcase their journeys to a wide audience online. “I just had this idea to do something that was a bit bigger than just...
Elaine Welteroth is more than a triple threat. She has stacked up an impressive work portfolio, which includes becoming a New York Times best-selling author, serving as a judge on Bravo’s hit show “Project Runway” and also as the former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue. On top of her impressive arsenal of business ventures, Welteroth is intentional about using her platform to help others. During her time at Teen Vogue, diversity and social justice were pushed to the forefront of the outlet’s coverage, and she also created the 15 Percent Pledge encouraging major retailers to commit 15 percent of their buying power to funding Black-owned businesses. Now, Elaine Welteroth is continuing her commitment to help the BIPOC community in a new arena by partnering with investment platform Public , which AfroTech previously told you has an online community bolstering one million users with a demographic of 40 percent women and 45 percent BIPOC. The partnership will lead the future generation...
What oftentimes stands between an entrepreneur’s innovative idea and the act of them starting a business is the lack of funding — especially for Black and brown communities. Seed At The Table is an equity crowdfunding platform that’s working to bridge such funding gaps while empowering Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs. As previously reported by AfroTech, the initiative not only helps provide Black and brown entrepreneurs with access to capital, but also allows non-accredited investors to invest in businesses that are founded by those who look like them. “Prior to the pandemic, BIPOC-owned businesses were already the least likely to receive access to capital,” Seed At The Table co-founder Suzen Baraka told AfroTech. “When they went out for funding, they were either denied or they received less than what they needed in order to start up. I think that’s why Seed At The Table is necessary because we are a team of subject matter experts in our respective...
This fraternity is putting brotherhood to the test with a new initiative to help startups and their respective communities build wealth. According to Watch The Yard, 18 members of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. from all over the nation have partnered with 12 Black and brown executives to form an Equity Crowdfunding Portal. Seed At The Table is FINRA approved and a win-win situation as that it will provide access to capital for diverse founders and allow investors to place their stake in private businesses at lower minimums. “[Seed At The Table] is committed to spurring economic advancement and firmly believes both a founder’s ability to access capital and an individuals’ ability to invest in the business and products they consume are paramount to the viability of Black and Brown commerce,” said founding member and brother of Kappa Alpha Psi, Pierre Le Veaux, in an interview with Watch The Yard. Generally to invest in an early-stage startup, one must have an accredited investor...