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Cliff Vmir continues to build on his success as a seasoned hair stylist. Turning His Passion For Hair Into A Brand Vmir began showing interest in hair care at 8 years old. However, at 14, when his parents separated, he fully committed to his passion. This allowed him to financially support his mother, who had been out of work for three months due to a knee replacement. “It wasn’t until my mom and my dad split up completely, when I was 14, that I was able to kind of go in full-throttle and understand that this isn’t something that I wanna just play around with. This is something that I can make money from,” Vmir told AFROTECH™ in an interview. “It’s crazy ’cause it’s something that I love to do… I also feel like with my mom and my dad splitting up, it was just kind of something that financially I wanted to help my mom. So not saying that I was forced into it, but I felt like it was only right for me to just use what I have to get what we need, and I was able to kind of help support...
Rapper and entrepreneur Pusha T has entered the coffee scene. A post on his Instagram page revealed his latest venture, Grindin, a coffee brand inspired by the Clipse single. Some customers got an exclusive first look at Pusha T’s creation at Café Tropica in Los Angeles, where they sampled its high-caffeine blend on Nov. 16, 2024, Complex notes. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pusha T (@kingpush) Reflecting on the venture Pusha T commented, “All my dreams & ideas start from my passions. Luckily I have been able to find partnerships and platforms to help bring my visions to life. This is just a piece of me & how I start my day.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pusha T (@kingpush) “Looking ahead, Pusha T plans to launch a proprietary blend in the upcoming year. He also aims to expand nationally, positioning the brand as ‘premium yet accessible’ within the market.” “Like-minded hard workers will find that Grindin is the tool they need to get things done,” a...
Jessica Taylor has landed her coffee product in a new major retailer. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Taylor, a former Toyota diversity, equity, and inclusion business partner, became the founder of Ezra Coffee in 2021. The idea for the company stemmed from a soy and nut allergy developed by her sister who was also lactose intolerant. Taylor started conjuring recipes on a stove top, creating flavors that could be enjoyed without milk-based creamers. That passion and drive has now grown into an array of products sold through Ezra Coffee such as Candied Yams and Toasted Southern Pecan light roast coffee, as listed on its website. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ezra Coffee Company (@ezracoffeeco) Since launching, the company has secured placements in Target’s online store and was also stocked in more than 40 Texas-based H-E-B stores by October 2023. “This has been such a labor of love and an amazing experience, and I can truly say I could have not done this with out you...
A movement that was birthed out of the COVID-19 quarantine has raised millions of dollars to support Kamala Harris’ quest as the first Black woman president of the United States. “Win With Black Women” (WWBW) is a mantra and group conceptualized by Jotaka Eaddy, a social impact consultant in politics and technology who founded Full Circle Strategies. She understood the importance of community early on as a high school student looking to attend a conference geared towards those seeking law careers, Fortune reports. Raised in a humble environment in South Carolina, the $3,000 cost for the conference was out of reach for her parents. However, through the support of Black women church-goers she was able to attend. “Black women in my church and in my community sold chicken dinners and held bake sales to raise money to send me to that conference and to put me on an airplane that many of them have still never been on,” Eaddy said, according to Fortune. She went on to make history as the...
Will Drewery previously worked with Tesla and now works for himself through his own technology company. From Tesla To Building His Own Technology Company Silicon Valley Business Journal reports Drewery worked with Tesla in 2013. Among his contributions to the company includes sourcing $3.5 billion in equipment to its plants based in Fremont, CA, and Buffalo, NY, over a five-year period. TechCrunch mentioned the delivery, testing, and installation of equipment was a process that could often take months or even a few years for companies that lacked the team members or tools. “This is why I felt the market needs a Diagon,” Drewery told TechCrunch. He later transitioned to work for Astra and recognized discrepancies in the market that would lead him to launch his own company, Diagon Technologies. What he recognized were issues with the sale of manufacturing equipment — including satellites, rockets, batteries and semiconductors — from some other countries due to national-security...
Initialized, a standalone San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm that now has $3.2 billion in assets under management and more than 200 active companies in the portfolio, has announced Abdul Ly as its fourth principal. In a post made on the company’s official website, it was revealed that the United States-born, Senegal-raised Ly is the third principal to join the team through their open search process. “At Initialized, we don’t evaluate founders based on education level or work credentials,” wrote the company in its official announcement. “Instead, we are more interested in their lived experience and the product they are building. [Abdul Ly]’s philosophy about how he meets founders complements that of our investment team. He is most eager to learn about the distance a founder has traveled and the steps they took to get to where they are today.” According to a blog post, prior to his work at Initialized, Abdul Ly had a background at such companies as Google. He was...
These Black startups are groundbreaking on their own — and they have the added benefit of being founded by HBCU graduates. Despite the lack of diversity within the tech industry, Black pioneers continue to set the industry on fire. Innovative approaches and insightful strategies provided by Black leaders in tech widen representation and opportunity for technological advancements. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have showcased great rapport for graduating Black students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). They play a great part in the success of Black leaders by providing support systems, opportunities, and resources for them to thrive. And recent studies reveal that HBCUs are incubators for thriving Black talent. A study conducted by Bloomberg (via TurningPoints ) reveals that Howard University produces the lion’s share of Black founders — which is why schools like Clark Atlanta, Morehouse, and Spelman are receiving $1.5 million in...
Rarely do we get to see travel depicted in a way that’s racially diverse, but this travel enthusiast is looking to change that. Claire Soares, entrepreneur and founder of Up In The Air Life , created a travel company that focuses on curating luxury experiences all around the world while making Black travelers a priority. Soares left corporate America to pursue this business venture in hopes of providing other Black travelers with the same quality experiences she was accustomed to. “I couldn’t find travel companies that were providing luxury to people who looked like me—most of the market offering that targeted people of color was predominantly budget travel—even still today. I wanted to share my love of luxury and epic experiences at an affordable price with excellent customer service,” Soares told Black Enterprise . While Soares came into the business with her own expertise and personal experience, she still found it difficult to navigate a space where her counterparts didn’t look...
As the digital age continues to take over our everyday lives, we must stay in tune with reality and connect as a community. Tech founder and CEO of Squad , Isa Watson is helping drive this initiative by pushing professionals in the tech industry to connect online as well as offline in a notable way. Watson has devoted her time to building a culture within tech through her app, Squad, a highly-functioning connective app that allows young tech professionals to network and better connect with their peers in real life. In this day and age where people feel more connected to those while online, Watson and her app are helping to bridge the gap between technology and humanity. “We’ve been so complacent in the way that we connect on social media. But those connections are very loose. And quite frankly, when you look at the increase in social media use it’s actually parallel with the increase in loneliness, depression, social isolation, and especially in the millennial and Gen Z...
According to a comprehensive study entitled Women and Girls of Color in Computing , U.S. women obtain less than 20 percent of college degrees in computer science, and minority women make up less than 10 percent of women earning undergraduate degrees in the field. While the numbers tell one story, they fail to showcase a more troublesome tale of the barriers to access that lurk behind them. Barriers like these are precisely what Wonder Women Tech Founder Lisa Mae Brunson is seeking to deconstruct. During her childhood, Brunson, who is Black and Latina, observed barriers to opportunity firsthand. “I knew I was capable of great things, but not having that support meant that I lacked access to opportunity,” said Brunson. Seeing the inequities in her own world made Brunson want to make a difference in adulthood. “My mom told me that as a child, I walked around saying, ‘I want to change the world,’” she said. When she grew up, Brunson went about doing just that. In 2014, Brunson...
The underrepresentation of minorities in technology has long been a barrier to higher income generation and career advancement. According to a troubling report on equity in technology , minority women constitute less than 10 percent of U.S. women earning undergraduate degrees in computer science. Equally concerning is the significant achievement gap in the percentage of minority males graduating with computer science degrees when compared to the accelerated pace of their white counterparts. Software engineer and inventor Bukola Somide is working to change these disturbing statistics by motivating young people of color to learn more about technology. To advance computer science education in underserved communities, Somide has developed a range of pioneering products for children. She created a children’s book series entitled “Somi the Computer Scientist: Princess Can Code,” and recently brought the book’s title character to life with a new invention: the Somi doll. The interactive...
According to a 2015 report from PwC , millennials lack the financial education that they need to thrive in today’s world. The report found that over 40 percent of millennials relied heavily on costly payday loans and rent-to-own financing alternatives, and more than 20 percent made withdrawals from their retirement accounts. While parents may shake their heads at these figures, Kevon L. Chisolm, Esq. is one parent who believes the solution is simple — start early. Chisolm, who is president of Umoja Investments, LLC, began teaching his 11-year-old son , Kamari Chisolm, about finances at an early age. The need to share this knowledge with other young people led the father-and-son duo to establish Black Wallstreeter Consultation Services in 2019. The company works with schools to increase youth knowledge of building and retaining wealth through investments and other means. “It is important for youth to learn about how to build financial wealth and investing, because the sooner...
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...
This piece originally published on 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 to better mental health over...
Danielle Leslie is an online course creator and growth strategist for startups and personal brands. As founder of the Founder Course Alchemy, she helps brands and startup founders create & launch online courses. She previously worked as a course launch strategist at Udemy where she helped influencers including Guy Kawasaki earn collectively millions of dollars by monetizing their content & expertise through online courses. She has created 4 courses that have over 50k people enrolled around the world. In this interview produced by OF10podcast , Will Lucas (OF10podcast host) and Danielle Leslie discuss personal branding and why nobody signs up for your online course. Note: This portion of the interview is derived from the audio interview heard on the OF10podcast with Will Lucas . To hear the podcast, subscribe in iTunes , Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. This interview has been edited for length. Will: So, you’re an expert in likely the biggest challenges for startups,...