December 1, 2021

Google Black Founder Fund Winner SaLisa Berrien Set To Expand Energy-Saving Start Up

SaLisa Berrien, who recently received a $100,000 Black Founders Fund award from Google for Startups, is expanding COI Energy, a Tampa-based company, across the United States.

Recognized by Jason A. Scott last year as one of 30 U.S. black founders to watch in 2021,  Berrien was one of 50 companies to receive a $100,000 Black Founders Fund award from Google for Startups.

She participated in Google Startups for Women, which she completed last December, and has raised $2 million-plus in funds.

Now her goal is to make her firm a global company.

With just 19 staff members, COI Energy serves more than 350, a high percentage of them in Florida.

It expects to add five full-time positions in January, in addition to some six to eight internship positions.

Employees have been given an option to work in person or virtually; for those that work on-site, Tampa is the preferred location for applicants because it is the largest market, according to 83 degrees media.

Berrien says that COI will be hiring product managers, customer success coordinators, full-stack engineers, and interns in software development.

How did she get into tech and business?

Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab introduced her to the startup ecosystem and fundraising in 2018. She also had assistance from Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, Embarc Collective in Tampa, and USF Tampa Bay Technology Incubator, which received the Outstanding Client Specialty Award last May from the International Business Innovation Association for helping her. 

But in terms of how her journey with COI started.

Berrien reportedly bought a home in Tampa, her father’s hometown, in 2014 and opened her business in 2016.

She’s steadily been growing COI, incorporating and beta testing her energy-saving business-to-business platform in 2018. She continued to recruit customers for beta testing through 2019 before going live in 2020, reported 83 degrees media.

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Abbianca Makoni

Abbianca Makoni is a content executive and writer at POCIT! She has years of experience reporting on critical issues affecting diverse communities around the globe.

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