Black founder Jim Gibbs decided to launch parking payment app Meter Feeder after facing challenges breaking into the software engineering sector. Who is Jim Gibbs? Jim Gibbs, co-founder and CEO of the digital parking app, Meter Feeder, has built an impressive portfolio in software engineering over the years. Despite his entrepreneurial journey being a lot harder than most, Gibbs has always believed in the success of his business model. Jim Gibbs, a New York native, decided to move to Pittsburgh to attend Carnegie Mellon University as a computer science major. Due
Invesco QQQ’s startup pitch competition is back; this time, it’s even bigger than before. The competition has returned for its second year in partnership with MaC Venture Capital and Concrete Rose Capital. Invesco’s QQQ Legacy Startup Pitch Competition Invesco QQQ, an exchange-traded investment firm based near Chicago, first launched the Legacy Classic startup pitch competition last year. Initially, the competition was only open to Black founders from HBCUs. However, according to AfroTech, the 2023 competition is open to all Black-founded seed-stage companies with less than $3 million. Since the news was announced,
Chicago entrepreneur Arthur Burton is working to increase access to the clean energy sector by providing job training to youth in underrepresented communities. Who is Arthur Burton? After establishing his company in 2019, Arthur Burton has been committed to providing opportunities for members of disinvested communities by making training for green jobs more accessible. Before launching his clean energy initiative, Burton focused on expanding his experience within the sustainability sector. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in telecommunications, the entrepreneur worked at AT&T for 18 years as a technical
In June, Solo Ceesay, a 27-year-old first-generation immigrant, spearheaded a $26 million raise for Calaxy, an open social marketplace he co-founded with NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie. At the time, only 8% of VC funding had gone to Black startups. In this thought piece, Ceesay breaks down why funding for Black founders continues to fall short, despite efforts to turn things around. In Q3 2022, Black entrepreneurs raised $187 million in venture funding, equating to merely 0.12% of the $150.9 billion that venture capitalists deployed in totality. This figure is severely
Dealing with a co-founder breakup can be the most challenging experience business owners face on their entrepreneurial journey. According to Noam Wasserman, a professor at the University of Southern California, 10% of co-founders end their relationship within a year of starting a business, and an additional 45% within four years. Although co-founder splits are normal, they can be emotionally taxing for all parties involved. Regardless of what might have led to the co-founder’s divorce, both parties must reach a mutual understanding before choosing to go their separate ways. In a recent post,
Founder and CEO of Resilia, Severtri Wilson, is the definition of #BlackGirlMagic. Nearly two years after raising $8 million in a Series A funding round, Wilson has made history again for making the largest raise ever for a Black female-founded tech company, according to AfroTech. Who is Severtri Wilson? Severtri Wilson is the founder of the SaaS platform, Resilia. The entrepreneur has been described as “different from your average tech company founder” as a Black woman with no coding experience and no co-founder. A year after earning her master’s degree from
Black visionary Gianni O’Connor is on a mission to unleash the true power of technology. Through artificial intelligence, O’Connor is working to build a one-of-a-kind AI personality that will make it easier for users to converse with their game console – sound strange? We’re officially stepping into the future. Who is Gianni O’Connor? Gianni O’Connor’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2012 when he launched the music social media site Micsu (later Mozrt). The 29-year-old UK-based entrepreneur then founded the social trading app Trad3r and, most recently, Go Games. “I love being
Mentor Connect is a mentorship program that eliminates the loneliness of being an entrepreneur. The mentorship program, sponsored by Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT), currently has over 200 mentees and 130 mentors in its network. The network aims to provide a positive community for entrepreneurs to grow and connect with like-minded people. Not only does it give them space to share their concerns and issues, but it also helps provide them with a reliable network they can lean on in their time of need. “We always say
Olympic gold medalists Lauryn Williams and Sanya Richards-Ross, also of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, are embarking on a new journey in the venture capital space. As Debut Capital company investors, Lauryn Williams and Richards-Ross have become two of the first venture capitalists to invest in the Black-owned hiring platform Us In Technology (UIT). “We are incredibly excited about helping UIT connect many more people of color, women, military veterans, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community to life-changing opportunities within the tech industry,” said Richards-Ross. From Athletes
Kansas City recently mourned the death of Edward Chow, who died at the age of 83 due to lung cancer. For many, the Black army veteran turned tech entrepreneur is a pioneer; one of a few Black men working in the computer tech industry at his time. Who Is Edward Chow? Edward grew up in Greenville, Mississippi, during the 1930s. Born to a Black mother and Chinese father, Edward and his siblings were no strangers to racial discrimination After serving in the military as a machine account supervisor, where he
