Black-owned Cleo’s Southern Cuisine is still thriving nearly a year since it received a visit from Keith Lee. The Chicago, IL-based restaurant was founded by Kristen Ashley Harper, and she has swayed the hearts of locals through dishes inspired by her grandmother Cleo and her Southern roots, NBC News reports. “Technically Biloxi, (MS) — and I went to school at Grambling State University in Louisiana, so I took the Mississippi and the Louisiana and put it together and boom — there was Cleo’s,” Harper told the outlet. Customers can look forward to staple menu items including fried catfish fillet, fried chicken wings with Belgian waffles and sides that include butter herbed rice, “24-karat gold” muffins, and Creole crab mac and cheese, among others. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cleo's Southern Cuisine (@cleos_southerncuisine) In September 2023, the restaurant’s second location on The Loop was visited by Keith Lee, a popular social media food reviewer who currently has...

Black-owned rideshare company Goldsainte is making significant strides. The Charlotte, NC-based company, founded by Andre Powell in 2021, is marketed as “the world’s first franchised rideshare.” The business is looking to disrupt the $70 billion dollar industry and is taking on a business model that will allow riders to benefit from luxury vehicles with advanced proprietary technology provided by franchisees. The model is also inspired by Powell’s background as a multi-unit Jimmy John’s franchisee through his venture APEM Restaurant Group. “It made more sense to scale through franchising because the better part of my career was spent as a multi-unit franchisee,” Powell told the Charlotte Business Journal. Currently, Goldsainte offers two verticals featuring franchisee-owned vehicles. The first, Goldsainte XL, offers Infiniti QX80s to lease or own by the franchisee and is available for franchising across 38 states . Goldsainte Premium is available in select U.S. markets, according to...

Sterling Coleman left his role at a Fortune 500 company to become one of the top Zaxby’s franchisees. According to the SJAC Food Groups website, The St. Louis, MO, native’s business prowess was displayed at an early age while living in a single-parent home with three brothers. An article on his Instagram business page states he performed countless tasks for neighbors to earn money , such as cutting grass, pumping gas, and running a paper route and hot dog stand. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SJAC Food Groups (@sjacfoodgroups) Coleman’s entrepreneurial muscle would lead him to Tennessee State University, in Nashville, TN,  at the age of 18. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration and secured a position as a sales manager at a Fortune 500 Company. However, Coleman’s longtime vision wasn’t to work for another company. Instead, he wanted to be his own boss. In 2001, he established SJAC Food Groups, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, “the largest...

It was always bigger than football for Jaylon Smith. Raised in a town like Fort Wayne, IN, Smith connected with his purpose early on, describing himself as a natural-born visionary. By age 11, he developed aspirations of becoming an entrepreneur, following in the footsteps of his mother, who ran a daycare business for 13 years, he told AFROTECH™ in an interview. Yet, that was not his only early-seeded vision. He also hoped to play in the NFL when he was 7, but he knew his calling would extend beyond the field. “I never wanted to be remembered as just being a great athlete,” Smith told AFROTECH™. Sports agent Eugene Parker, who worked with football greats including Deion Sanders, guided Smith and taught him valuable lessons. The two connected through Smith’s grandmother, Parker’s aunt. “I had to take a lot of principles of what I learned from him and just from observing him,” Smith said. “He had a huge impact on a lot of Hall of Famers, a lot of the greats that played the game. So,...

Three Black women are on a mission to uplift food entrepreneurs in Dayton, OH. In March 2024, Jamaica White, Dabriah Rice, and Charlynda Scales celebrated the soft opening of their nearly five-year passion project, the 6888 (pronounced “six triple eight”) Kitchen Incubator Project. According to a press release, it serves as a business incubator that will support food entrepreneurs through a commercial kitchen, training, and business — including ingredient sourcing, marketing and distribution, and access to capital services. This initiative serves as an extension of the endeavors of their nonprofit organization, OH Taste Foundation. “We’ve been working on this for four and a half years now, and we’re just excited to be able to open up this project and offer these resources to our food entrepreneurs here in the Dayton area,” Rice said, Dayton Daily News reports. The need for the 6888 Kitchen Incubator Project became evident during the pandemic. Rice, who serves as the executive...

From humble beginnings in a garage, co-founders Pernell Cezar and Rod Johnson have steered their business to become one of Iowa’s rapidly expanding companies.

The passing along of wisdom, particularly in the Black community, is a rite of passage. Learning from an Elder or an “OG” is a core part of Black culture and can even find roots in the historic nature of storytelling and oral history exchanges. NBA veteran Andre Drummond has found himself in the proverbial seat of an uncle and was recorded dropping some knowledge on a group of young athletes while coaching. But what makes Drummond’s words of wisdom worth digesting for future and practical use? Drummond is a Mount Vernon, NY, native. The center entered the league in 2012 as the ninth pick of the Detroit Pistons. As a current player for the Chicago Bulls, Drummond has experienced a range of career highlights, including making the NBA All-Rookie Team 2nd Team in 2013. While he’s spent time with other NBA teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Brooklyn Nets during his ten-season career, his current placement with the Bulls is proving beneficial....

T-Pain is a gift to the culture — period. Before being discovered, T-Pain, whose real name is Faheem Rashad Najm, had developed a love for music with the talent to match. By age ten, the Tallahassee native completely transformed his bedroom into a mini studio complete with a keyboard, beat machine, and four-track recorder as a rapper in a group that went by Nappy Headz.