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If it’s one thing that Black founders know how to do, it’s make something out of nothing. During this week’s episode of Black Tech Green Money, viewers get a blast from the past from AfroTech World 2020 with Motley Fool Ventures Managing Partner Ollen Douglass. He gives insight on the keys to fundraising, trends in venture capital (VC) that founders who look like us need to tap into, and more. At Motley Fool, the underlying goal is to help people learn how to invest in the stock market to create generational wealth. “It’s really interesting in the sense that when you think about all the opportunities to create wealth, the stock market, I believe is probably the most democratized access by far,” he explained. “Ameritrade does not care what you look like and they don’t ask. Schwab doesn’t care. There are none of the barriers that you have when [you’re] just like [engaged in] real estate investing and someone has to sell you. I don’t have to call up Tim Cook to buy Apple.”
Bootup has secured new funding. According to a blog post, Bootup — a company that aims to help individuals land jobs in tech — has raised a seed round totaling $2.1 million. The round was led by Kapor Capital, in addition to participation from Lightship Capital, other Black-led funds, investors, and more. “I feel that allocation of capital is the most useful form of activism in a capitalist society,” said Founder and CEO of Bootup, Chandler Malone, in a statement. “This idea was inspired by a conversation with Candice Matthews Brackeen back in 2018 and led to us being intentional about raising from all Black-led funds and angels for our seed round as our work is directly focused on targeting the wealth gap.”
LinkedIn is on a mission to support the Black community. According to information provided exclusively to AfroTech, LinkedIn will distribute $500,000 in grants to digitalundivided and Blavity.org. The contribution will propel LinkedIn’s Black entrepreneurship fellowship programs and provide new economic pathways for the community. LinkedIn will work alongside the selected organizations to uplift the stories of rising entrepreneurs and instill awareness for additional capital and resources year-round. “As a company, we are on a journey to create equal access to opportunity and help drive more equitable outcomes. Our strategic partners are essential in that journey and since 2020, we have donated $5 million in funding and services to organizations that support economic and workforce development within the Black community,” LinkedIn said in an article published. “We selected digitalundivided and Blavity.org because of their holistic approach to developing, supporting and funding...
After nearly two decades at Microsoft, Michelle Bozeman has proven that she gets things done. Since joining Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2019, she’s done just that in her role as a Senior Practice Manager. Officially embracing a new phase of her career, Michelle’s found a role that both challenges and inspires her as she develops consultants at Amazon. “My position today is in professional services. I manage a team of consultants that are early in their careers. I manage a program that is meant to grow them into more senior consultants, and I started doing that with college hires. That led me to a passion that I have mentoring and growing people, which led me to AWS,” Michelle says. Understanding that there’s room for everyone to win, since joining AWS, Michelle says her greatest achievement has been “seeing people grow.” As a manager and mentor, Michelle has been instrumental in developing a new generation of tech professionals . “Watching them come in so unsure of the position,...
There are many paths to success in tech, but the most notorious is software development and engineering. We want to introduce you to Makho Ngazimbi, a software development manager with Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services helps businesses scale and grow by offering secure cloud services on its platform along with database storage and more. Makho’s team of engineers is responsible for making sure that the operating system is distributing to all the data centers. Makho spoke with Will Lucas at AfroTech about his journey into tech and what he wants other Black professionals to know when venturing into the field. One of the proudest responsibilities that Makho has is in recruiting Black engineers into tech. Resources like Amazon’s Black Employee Network have allowed him to be hands-on in recruiting, retaining, and even advancing Black talent in engineering. “There’s a lot of programs that I am really proud of and [recruiting] is actually a huge passion of mine,” said Makho. If...
Studies show that Black babies are three times more likely to die during childbirth if cared for by White doctors in the United States reports CNN . This shows racial disparities in human health have an effect on a person even in their first few hours of life. Research showed that after Black physicians took charge of the birth, the mortality rate of Black newborns decreased between 39 percent and 58 percent, according to George Mason University Research . On the other hand, that same research revealed mortality rates for White babies wasn’t affected by the doctor’s race on a scale as wide as it is for Black babies. These findings also support prior research that shows that although infant mortality rates have fallen in the past decades, Black children are still more likely to die earlier than their white counterparts. The authors of the study reveal “the findings suggest that Black physicians outperform their White colleagues when caring for Black newborns,” according to CNN . They...
In this day and age of entrepreneurship, seldom do we have voices or representatives that truly encompass building within our communities and providing structure for the next generation to do so. On the inaugural episode of the Black Tech Green Money podcast hosted by Will Lucas, founder and CEO of Blavity Inc., Morgan DeBaun, offers her perspective on having a majority-Black workforce and how, as a people, we should strive to achieve a similar goal within our own startups and businesses. @morgandebaun Instagram In 2014, Morgan DeBaun along with Aaron Samuels and Jeff Nelson founded Blavity Inc. as their solution to the lack of Black millennial representation in media. Under the Blavity Inc. umbrella are the online publications Blavity.com, Shadow & Act, Travel Noire, 21Ninety, and AfroTech. Blavity also launched the AfroTech conference which serves as the largest Black tech conference in the country. “I need people around us, around our mission, around my employees, around my...
The summit focused on how corporations can combat systemic racism in America. Over 450 attendees logged into the Forward From Floyd virtual summit hosted by Blavity and Edelman on Thursday, June 11th. Blavity Founder and CEO Morgan DeBaun moderated the panel-style event with the goal of creating a dialogue around how corporations and institutions can support the fight against systemic racism. In attendance were employees, directors, executives, managers, and all those willing to be instruments of change in the business and non-governmental industries while on the brink of making history. Guests of the panel were: • Shelley Stewart III, a partner of McKinsey & Company • Stan Little, Chief Experience Officer for United Way • Lisa Ross, COO of Edelman U.S., and • Dr. Uche Blackstock, the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity The guests shared their advice on how businesses, NGOs, nonprofits, media, and medical institutions can spark change internally and fight systemic racism in...
On November 8th during AfroTech in Oakland, Black women techies, entrepreneurs and CEOs gathered together at Scott’s Seafood Pavilion in Jack London Square for the conference’s first annual Women in Leadership Dinner, presented in partnership with Hilton. The event, co-hosted by Morgan DeBaun, CEO and founder of Blavity, Inc., and Andréa Richardson, Head of Multicultural Engagement at Hilton, converged more than 70 women in tech for an inspirational evening of connection, camaraderie and well-deserved commendation. Over an intimate dinner setting, DeBaun and Richardson spoke about the opportunity for women in tech to continue taking on leadership positions and the importance of extending their network. T he dinner provided attendees the chance to connect and celebrate one another and promote even more advancement for women in the field. AfroTech “Hilton, you have been such a huge support to Blavity for so many years, since the beginning,” DeBaun said in her opening speech. “Thank...