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If you watch television long enough, you’re led to believe that Black women millionaires only exist in the public eye. The acting, modeling, singing, and “influencing” girlies certainly have their place in the business world — and far be it from us to say otherwise. But for those of you who wish to pursue your wealth anonymously, in peace and quiet, without strangers in your business on Instagram all day, there’s more than a little bit of hope for you. Earlier this year, CNN released a report about the wealth gap between Black women — especially — and their non-Black counterparts. “America’s Black women hold more than 90% less wealth than American White men,” reported the outlet. “ Only 0.5% of Black women own their own businesses — White men are 24 times more likely to own their own business than Black women. Access to funds and investment is a major barrier to successfully opening a business — Black business owners are 20% less likely to fund their startups with bank business...
Black women working full-time make nearly $1 million less than white men during their careers, the National Women’s Law Center recently shared in a research report. While the wage gap affects all women, it arguably affects Black women the most since they face race and gender discrimination. Black women, on average, are currently paid 63 cents for every dollar that White men make. That amounts to a loss of $2,009 a month, $24,110 a year, and $964,400 over 40 years for Black women. This stark reality is why Aug. 3 is marked Black Women’s Equal Pay Day every year, which signifies the extra 214 days Black women would need to work each year to catch up to white men’s salaries. Put it this way; Black women will have to work until they are 83-years-old to reach the salaries white men make at age 60. “I don’t think it’s talked about as much as it should be,” Tiffany Williams, a business and marketing strategist, told AfroTech. “The wage gap is so prominent because there’s a lack of...
When Black Women Talk Tech announced that Peggy Alford — the EVP of sales at PayPal — would be hosting a fireside chat at the Roadmap to Billions conference, attendees couldn’t have been more excited. But, perhaps, no one was more excited than Alford herself. “You know, I have to say this was a long time coming,” she told AfroTech. “It’s nice to see that, more and more, Black women are taking charge of their own careers, especially in the tech sector, and to see them come together in such a way to let everyone know that they’re here? I couldn’t be happier.” Photo Credit: Road Map To Billions The Roadmap to Billions is a conference built from the perspective of Black women that Black Women Talk Tech organizes. The organization empowers Black women who are driving innovation worldwide within untapped markets that can unlock billion-dollar opportunities. Roadmap to Billions is the only tech conference created by Black female founders for Black female founders and supporters of the...
The Domino Sugar factory in Baltimore, MD, is at the center of Black history in the making today thanks to the hiring of Coricka White. According to the Baltimore Sun, White is the first Black woman in history to be named the refinery manager. In the nearly 100 years since the factory has been part of the Baltimore skyline — with the Domino Sugar sign being the center point of the city — it has never had a Black woman leading the workers. The outlet reports that White will oversee a $20 million installation of newly refined sugar silos, which will provide 14 million more pounds of storage capacity. While that seems like a challenge, White says she’s ready for whatever comes her way in the new role. “I’m looking at myself as being a trailblazer and hope that I can pave the way for folks like myself to follow,” she said. “I definitely stand on the shoulders of some very strong folks here, and I’d like to think of my success as the success of the Domino family. It speaks to how...
When Alexis Hawkins was 15-years-old, she was expelled from high school. The teenager who had spent the first formative years of her life in foster care due to an unstable home life saw her entire world come crashing down in 2008. At that time, Hawkins was a student at Ballou High School in Southeast Washington, D.C. when she got involved in a 20-person brawl between people from warring neighborhoods, according to Because of Them We Can. And that, she said, was the ultimate low for her. “I love this community, but a lot of my friends’ blood is still on this concrete, so, like bittersweet,” Hawkins said to WUSA-TV. “I was labeled many things: the aggressor, the instigator, the fighter, and that was because I would often get into physical altercations. And these altercations weren’t just like myself and another party; they often consisted of 10, 15 children versus 10 or 15 other children from different neighborhoods.” Hawkins said that she grew up on survival, and not love, thanks to...
Visa is piloting its Tap to Phone technology in Washington, D.C., with hopes of aiding in the close of the digital divide for small Black-owned businesses and communities. This is the first time the multinational financial services corporation is bringing its new tech to the U.S. after piloting it in 30 other countries, Visa shared in a press release. Visa is also looking to provide resources and education through Visa Street Teams , an initiative it created to digitally-enable 50 million small businesses. Following this launch in D.C., Visa will be taking its tech to Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Miami as part of its small business revitalization initiative. “The way we shop and pay has forever changed. During the pandemic, tapping to pay and contactless checkout became more commonplace – and are now expected,“ Mary Kay Bowman, Visa’s global head of buyer, seller, core and platform products, said in a press release. “With our technology, networking and community...
CURLS just furthered its commitment to investing in wealth-building for Black woman entrepreneurs! According to PR Newswire , CURLS founder and CEO Mahisha Dellinger has partnered with Beauty by Imagination to launch the Black Women Making Millions Academy: Mastering the Business, the Money, & the Mindset. The goal is to empower 25,000 Black woman-owned businesses through a virtual initiative set to be held two days every weekend Between July 2021 and May 2022. Both current and aspiring business owners are encouraged to register for the free event which includes panels, presentations, and workshops for business success. The activities will be hosted by a range of experts in the business including CURLS founder and CEO Mahisha Dellinger who released a statement in an official press release: “I’m excited about this initiative because it’s about opening doors and building our communities. Black woman-owned businesses are up over 300% but only 4% of us will make it to millionaire status...
Who knew that building an app could be as easy as 1-2-3? Tara Reed is showing entrepreneurs that you don’t have to know how to code in order to build your app. As the founder of Apps Without Code, the No. 1 online school for app entrepreneurs, Reed is assisting others in bringing their app ideas to life and teaching them how to do it with ease. “So before it used to be that if you had an idea for an app or an online business you would have had to hire someone to build it for you and usually pricing for that starts at 20K and up,” Reed tells Will Lucas, host of Black Tech Green Money. She also explains that back then entrepreneurs would also have to find someone to be their tech business partner in order to make an app idea run smoothly, but now that has all changed. “What changed is that the platforms and software available to let people build apps are different,” she continued. “Before you had to know a coding language to get the job done, but now you can build apps in English.”...
Ahead of Juneteenth weekend, Western Union (WU) is pledging a commitment to two new programs supporting Black and brown communities. A press release reports that in partnership with the Western Union Foundation, the financial services company is launching two initiatives that aim to uplift both current and future business leaders across communities of color — including Project Finish Line, an extension of the Foundation’s WU Scholars program, and Sistahbiz, a Black women entrepreneurship program. The former initiative will be offering scholarships to Black and brown students working to finish their higher education — many of those who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) — while the latter plans to fund Black women-owned businesses and provide leadership development. Both of these programs are in response to the racial disparities that exist for Black, Indigenous and People of Color across educational institutions and the business world. “Social exclusion,...
Ofo Ezeugwu knows all too well what renters — especially Black renters — are up against when they go on the hunt for an apartment. That’s why he says that a platform like the WhoseYourLandlord app was all too important. “The problem is, when it comes to renting, there’s no real transparency,” he told AfroTech. “ And that’s on both ends. Landlords don’t know what to do when it comes to preventing a high turnover rate. They don’t know the steps they need to take to correct what’s wrong with their property. And renters, for their part, lack the means and tools necessary to ensure a fair and quality living experience.” Although designed for the renter, WhoseYourLandlord addresses both of those salient issues. Regardless of whether the property in question is a private home, a corporate-owned apartment building, or a city development, the app serves as a “ Yelp of home rentals. ” Here, landlords can read reviews from tenants — and, hopefully, use that feedback to improve the renter’s...
The advancement of technology doesn’t necessarily always have to be a bad thing. While many suggest that technology and social media alone have caused us to communicate less effectively, this Black founder says it can also mean the complete opposite. “If the pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that both of those things are kind of true,” said Travis Montaque on the latest episode of Black Tech Green Money (BTGM). “When I think about some of the things that we’ve done at Holler from a research perspective, one of the things we look for is how people are utilizing technology and platforms to connect with each other.” Holler is a messaging technology company that delivers content in messaging environments that includes texts, social media, and payment apps. Montaque shares that during his company’s most recent report, studies found that 42 percent of people message more than they did pre-pandemic. “If you think about the natural behavior that created the demand for messaging platforms...
As Black people, we deserve diversity when it comes to art materials too! Entrepreneurs Color Too is a best-selling Black-owned coloring book and supply company that was founded by Latoya Nicole to promote diversity within the art space and create adult coloring books that promote self-care, wellness, and most importantly, self-love. On the leg of its major milestone of selling 25,000 books, the company has launched its newest addition for adults: “Shades of Brown” colored pencils. “Thinking back to when I was a child I remember seeing very few books with Black women as the main character, let alone seeing a Black woman on the cover,” said Nicole in an interview with AfroTech. “My brand Entrepreneurs Color Too aims to be inspiring and relatable to young girls and women like me. ” The path to funding for Nicole has been all about bootstrapping her business through the money from her day job and now that the business has sold over 25,000 books on Amazon alone, the money is used as...
A recent report released by Harvard Business Review (HBR) revealed that while Black women are more likely than white men to start a business, they are less likely to succeed at the business they start than their white counterparts. According to their research, 17 percent of all Black women in the United States are in the process of starting their own business. That is in comparison to the 10 percent of white women, and 15 percent of white men, in the same position. But of the 17 percent of Black women who start a business, r esearch shows that only 3 percent of them will last or ultimately run what’s called a “mature” business. What that means is that if you’re a Black woman starting a business, you likely won’t be in business for very long. There are a number of reasons why this is so, according to the HBR. One reason has to do with the field in which this business is based. Health-based and beauty-based businesses, for example, have shorter shelf lives than service-based...
When it comes to doing things that you’re naturally good at, Davyeon Ross should be the poster child! The former athlete is the co-founder of ShotTracker, the revolutionary sensor-based system designed to deliver statistics and analytics to teams, fans, and broadcast networks instantly. He is also the Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) at R/GA Ventures and has founded and scaled companies from the ground up raising more than $40 million in capital. “I like to tell people this: it’s really important to put yourself in the position where you can use your natural abilities and your natural inclinations because it becomes organic and it’s not forced,” shared Ross with Black Tech Green Money host Will Lucas. “I think we excel when we put ourselves in those types of situations.” For Ross, that situation has been all about taking the skills he’s learned from the game and applying them in the business world. “I think that the relationships that you build allow you to really have a seamless...
When it comes to the ceiling, there’s no limit to what Damon Brown aims for as an entrepreneur. Plus, he’s helping others do the same. “The more secure you are in what you’re nourishing the world with, the less you’re worried about the timeline,” said Brown on the latest episode of Black Tech Green Money with host Will Lucas. As a tech entrepreneur, author, and speaker, Brown has seemingly mastered the art of the side hustle and he is now using his platform to help other solopreneurs and non-traditional creatives bloom. “I have a level of sympathy and empathy, as well as perspective for the nontraditional entrepreneur,” continued Brown. “This means someone who’s trying to make an impact but may be overlooked.” Through his latest book, “Build From Now: How to Know Your Power, See Your Abundance & Nourish the World,” Brown is working to help others bring their worth and build from there. “[In the book], I’m talking about the four resources that we all have: Focus, Agility, Time and...