Meet The Two Women And Two Ventures Tackling The Same Mission Of Building Black Wealth

Lenore Champagne Beirne is an experienced investor who uses her platform, Bright Ventures, to help spark transformation within people and companies, as well as various industries, through “capital, coaching, and community.”

During the 2023 Essence Festival of Culture, she brought her expertise to the main stage to plant the seed in the audience for building brighter financial futures.

“It became clear that there’s an opportunity to really make the conversation about investment and wealth building more accessible,” Champagne Beirne told AfroTech shortly after her panel. “One key takeaway would just be making monies for everyone and, actually, we can remove the systemic barriers to doing that if we have intentionality around our investing.”

She continued: “Whether they’re fund managers or founders, having a really clear sense of purpose and a willingness to persist through ‘no,’ and taking it as a learning opportunity, is a second key takeaway.”

Lastly, she revealed that collaboration and growing with people around you is another key factor when it comes to building wealth.

Being in New Orleans, LA, for the annual Essence festival was a fitting synergy as the lifestyle brand continues to add programming that helps the community tap into more resources to reach their goals, wherever they are in their financial journeys.

“One of the key tenants of our mission is to build Black wealth and to build equity for our community, especially for Black women, or the CEOs of home, culture, and community,” Pauline Malcolm-Thornton, chief revenue officer at Essence Ventures, said. “So you’ll see that permeated, not just through the festival, but through our content. You go to the marketplace, and there are over 250 Black-owned businesses that make the majority of their revenue in these three days at the Essence Festival, for the entire year. So, closing that wealth and pay gap is at the epicenter of our mission and super-serving the Black audience we’ve been serving for over 50 years.”

What’s more, Bright Ventures also aims to help entrepreneurs past, present, and future understand the tools that they already possess to make their business dreams a reality.

“We give people really real tools like information, resources, capital, but some of it’s also kind of tucked down,” Champagne Beirne explained. “Like, we create space where people can imagine and envision and experience something new, and that has opened up a lot of possibilities as well. So, I think being able to bring people into these experiences is what’s unique about this.”

As an avenue for innovation, Bright Ventures offers both executive and team coaching as well as strategic advisory services, networks, and capital necessary for innovators of diverse backgrounds to succeed.

“In the next year, you will see more from Bright’s strategic network, the Constellation,” Champagne Beirne shared. “This is our pathway to bringing more value to more founders, operators, and investors. We will offer additional digital and in-person events, as well as more opportunities to access world-class leadership and personal development. You can also expect to see more capital invested from the venture fund, where I invest in early-stage digital health, fin-tech, and future-of-work companies.”

Additionally, she is intentional about helping leaders accomplish success but knows that a work-life balance is vital for maintaining it.

It looks like the future of financial wealth for diverse creators is promising thanks to these ladies at the forefront. Who knows what they’ll have in store for the future.