This article was first published by Lindsey Redd on Medium. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been meeting with current and hopeful founders who want to become Y Combinator founders. They’re applying to the Winter 2024 batch, and naturally have a ton of questions about our experience applying and being accepted to YC. One of the main questions I get is “What was your interview experience like?” Of course, before there was the interview, there was the application. This is a story in and of itself that I’ll save for
Black entrepreneur Chriss Rogers has created the first ever protective mouth grill through her company Ease. Houston-born Rogers launched Ease in 2021 after closing her eight-year-old online boutique shop Chriss Zoe the year before. To date, Rogers has primarily self-funded her venture, and her social media has played a huge role as clips of her products have gone viral, leading to increased sales. Mouth Grills Rogers told AFROTECH she wanted to attach herself to a product she could be proud of, which is why she invented the new protective mouth
TIME chose the 100 Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence for the TIME100/AI, featuring several people of color. TIMES’ most knowledgeable editors and reporters spent months fielding recommendations from dozens of sources to assemble hundreds of nominations they whittled down. “We wanted to highlight the industry leaders at the forefront of the AI boom, individuals outside these companies who are grappling with profound ethical questions around the uses of AI, and the innovators around the world who are trying to use AI to address social challenges,” said executive editor Naina
Copenhagen-based Unconventional Ventures has announced the second close of its €30 million fund ($32 million), dedicated to investing in diverse founding teams and founders. Unconventional Ventures According to Tech Funding News, Unconventional Ventures (UV) is the only European fund with a diversity impact at its heart. It is an impact-focused investment firm investing in early-stage startups led by underrepresented founders in Europe. Launched by Thea Messel and Nora Barvey in 2018, UV has a VC structure and invests across the Nordics in healthcare, women’s health, diversity tech, sustainable fashion, food
With the increase of Black-owned businesses, there have been concerns about Black companies being sold or taken over by white firms. From 2017 to 2020, the number of Black-owned businesses across the country increased by 13.64%, and Black-owned firms brought in an estimated $141.1 billion in gross revenue in 2020 – an 11% increase since 2017. However, according to Forbes, there has been a trend where Black-owned businesses are being sold to or acquired by white-led companies. They raised the question of whether the business acquisition is a sign of
UK-based bladder health startup Jude has closed a $4.24 million seed round to expand into the U.S. Bladder Health: Jude Jude is a healthcare and wellness brand with a mission to bring bladder care to the forefront. 2.3 billion globally suffer from bladder issues, whether overactive bladder, leaving or incontinence and Jude is on a mission to help change that. Jude’s initial focus is on women’s health, as founder Peony Li said she wants to establish the business as a category leader in a space that’s been overlooked and hasn’t
As Coco Gauff stood up to the umpire in her recent U.S. Open match [Gauff has gone viral on social media after confronting an umpire who turned a blind eye to her 35-year-old German opponent allegedly breaking the rules], demanding fairness in the rules that seemed to be applied differently to her and her opponent, I couldn’t help but see this as a microcosm of what black women face in workplaces every single day. When someone from a marginalized community excels, we often see tears and reluctance from others, who
Walgreens Boots Alliance has announced the departure of its CEO, Rosalind Brewer. According to Bloomberg, Brewer was the sole remaining Black female CEO of an S&P 500 company; the last Black woman to lead an S&P 500 company was Ursula Burns, who left Xerox in 2016. Like many retailers, Walgreens faced challenges this year as the demand for COVID-19 testing and vaccines declined, and retail sales experienced a slowdown. Brewer’s departure is part of the company’s transition into a healthcare company instead of a drugstore. According to CNBC, shares of
Black-led venture capital firm Growth Warrior Capital is launching Elevo, an AI-powered pitch deck generator to help founders secure funding for their startups. Investing in overlooked founders Elevo is the brainchild of Promise Phelon, the founder and managing partner of Growth Warrior Capital. An experienced entrepreneur, Phelon’s track record includes raising $100 million in capital, transforming companies, and successfully navigating exits and acquisitions. Phelon’s early-stage venture capital firm, invests in “dangerous” startups led by traditionally overlooked founders that have the potential to “fundamentally change the way we work, earn, and
Melonie D. Parker, Google’s Chief Diversity Officer, has been appointed to Kanarys, Inc., Board of Directors. Google’s Chief Diversity Officer, Melonie D. Parker As Google’s CDO for over four years, Parker aims for innovative change and advances Google’s employee engagement strategy across Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. With years of experience in similar roles, Parker was Vice President of Human Resources and Communications for Sandia National Laboratories and became the first Blak woman to serve. She also spent eighteen years at Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace, arms, defence, information security, and
