Even beyond ABC’s “Shark Tank,” Daymond John remains committed to supporting small businesses.

During his second annual Black Entrepreneurs Day, Daymond John awarded $250,000 in NAACP Powershift Grants to Black entrepreneurs across the U.S., ET reports.

The event featured conversations with Kevin Hart, Shaquille O’ Neal, Tyra Banks, Michael Strahan, Marcus Samuelsson, Rev Run and D Nice — where they all shared stories of their journey as business owners.

“One thing I preach, ‘Different is better than better,’ I preach that, I preach that, and it is. However, when you are even a female founder, it’s not just about being different, you’ve gotta be better,” Banks shared at the event. “It’s like as Black people, momma has taught us, you can’t just do the same thing, you’ve gotta do better just to get this much.”

Along with sharing their stories, the special guests were all a part of awarding the grants to small business owners who fought through the impact of the pandemic.

According to ET, the grants were funded by Chase for Business, JPMorgan Wealth Management, The General, T-Mobile for Business, Salesforce, Johnson & Johnson, Shopify, Quickbooks, Klaviyo and Logitech.

“It’s free money to help you, maybe keep the doors open longer, maybe get your books in the right order, maybe it will order more inventory, maybe it will increase your market. So this is amazing,” John told ET prior to the event. “I love the fact that these brands are supporting and believe in our solution, and they are also giving a lot of resources. A lot of data bases, things for people to go and learn from, so this does not mean that it came out last night, and said, ‘Here you go,’ they created a lot of things to help support this cause and to help support black entrepreneurs.”

Black Entrepreneurs Day

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