As the founder and CEO at Upsie, Clarence Bethea has the magic sauce when it comes to securing funding. During the latest episode of AfroTech’s Black Tech Green Money (BTGM), he shares how he managed to raise an $18.2 million funding round thanks to his perseverance. He also breaks down what Silicon Valley looks like for Black companies and founders — an experience that surely came with lessons. “I remember we had like 80 Silicon Valley investors there and it was a hard lesson for me to learn,” he shared about one particular experience with the Village Capital program. “They didn’t give a damn about me and it was clear that I meant nothing to them. I was just a Black guy in the room.” Clarence Bethea also recalls a sobering experience with an investor during his time in the program. “I actually had an investor say to me, ‘Clarence, I’ve never seen a Black founder go to exit or IPO at like a billion-plus exit. So, I just have a hard time believing that a Black founder can build a big...

When lockdowns began in early 2020, Will Lee took the opportunity to go on a much-needed vacation. He went to Tulum, Mexico to decompress by the beach. While in Tulum, Lee booked a yacht experience with a local company and noticed something peculiar: the luxury yacht services didn’t seem to cater to Black customers. From there, he decided to curate an experience specifically for the Black consumer. This includes carefully selecting drinks, food, music, and experiences that Black customers want. According to Lee, the business took off rapidly, far exceeding his expectations. “Within the first month of operating, we were able to close over 30k in revenue,” he said. According to Lee, Yacht Club Company has already hosted several celebrity clients including Meg Thee Stallion, Trey Songz, and Johnny Venus of EarthGang. Now their three-man team — including co-founder, Jon Roberts, and head of partnerships, Ryan Fletcher —  is setting their sights higher. “As we continue to develop our...

We’ve talked about Tristan Walker and his startup , Walker, and Company as one of our favorite Black-owned startups. Their custom hair care line, Form , which focuses on Black women’s natural hair, has been wildly popular. On Monday, Walker and Company announced its additions to its product line BEVEL. BEVEL is a line of grooming products designed specifically for Black men. Previously, the collection consisted of the BEVEL Beard Balm, Trimmer, and T-Blade. Now, they are offering BEVEL Body, and BEVEL Hair, Skin, and Shave collections. In total, they have launched 11 new products — including a beard softener, a face serum, and an exfoliating bar soap —  that will offer head-to-toe grooming options for Black men. The line has even gotten some good publicity from celebs like Steve Harvey. In 2018, the company was acquired by Proctor and Gamble and set up shop in Atlanta, GA. With the new expansion of their product line, we can’t help but get excited to see what’s next for Walker and...

If you want groceries delivered to your door, you might choose between Amazon Fresh or Instacart. If you want to book a last-minute appointment with a beautician or a makeup artist, you might turn to StyleSeat. Spotlist, Inc. wants to be the one-stop-shop for various kinds of services so that customers never have to leave the house for their needs. The on-demand New Jersey-based platform is set to provide services across industries whether customers are in need of a makeover, a new hairdo, deliveries, or in-home massage. Spotlist, Inc., founder and CEO, Jae Pesante began developing her idea for the company while caring for her father, who was healing from surgery. “I always tell people that Spotlist wasn’t a company I came up with sitting around thinking of a way to make money. My father suffers from heart disease, and after his defibrillator surgery, he couldn’t drive,” Pesante said. “He told me that he wished he could have someone to service him at home.” Spotlist allows users to...

This piece has been edited since its original publish date of March 29, 2019. Persisting stigmas around mental health can make it difficult for Black youth to receive the help they need. They’re often forced to navigate misconceptions within their communities and anti-Blackness within the medical industry. One North Carolina based grad student is using tech to erase some of those barriers. Henry Willis, a PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Clinical Psychology Graduate Program, is developing a mental health app for Black youth. Finding ways to provide Black youth mental health resources is an absolute necessity.  Everyday factors of being Black — like exposure to racism — can drastically impact people’s mental health. This is something Willis himself noticed in his own research. “I’ve published papers that have looked at how things such as online racial discrimination can lead to increased PTSD symptoms, or how positive racial identity beliefs can lead...

For anyone struggling with dry skin, shea butter is a popular choice. It has the benefits of being super moisturizing, while not being all that hard, to find. But have you ever paused to think about how the shea butter you use is sourced? Shea butter is extracted from the nut of the shea tree that’s indigenous to Africa. Unfortunately, many of the women who make shea butter are exploited or abused . The exploitation of African women living on the continent isn’t unique to the shea butter industry alone, but it is something that has to change. That’s where Real Raw Shea (RRS) comes in. Founded by Aisha Suraz and Alfred Glover, RRS is a global supplier of shea butter and other natural ingredients with a focus on sustainability. Ghana is one of the largest producers of shea butter in the world. According to the European Union’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Ghana has the largest mechanical shea processing capacity. Suraz and Glover are both of Ghanaian descent — and even learned later...

Founder Gym , the popular 6-week online training program for entrepreneurs, is partnering with Google to elevate more underrepresented founders and help them gain the skills to scale their businesses. Google and Founder Gym’s first project was a pilot program that started last March. “For the first time, Founder Gym is bridging this gap by giving underrepresented founders the opportunity to be directly trained by some of the most experienced and successful venture capitalists and founders in the world,” Founder Gym CEO Mandela SH Dixon told AfroTech. Google Startups is paying for startup leaders to participate in Founder Gym’s virtual courses. Founder Gym has online pre-seed and seed cohorts to help founders at various stages of their companies. The pre-seed cohorts offer daytime and evening sessions that educate entrepreneurs on the legal preparation of their company, how to find funding and effectively pitch to investors. The seed cohorts cover topics on the mentalities of venture...