Former bankers Lyndsae’ Peele and Casey Ariel are turning to web3 to empower and uplift Black women entrepreneurs with Zubachee, their “metaverse ecosystem for Black women in business.” The pair plan to onboard one million Black women onto the metaverse by 2023. What is Zubachee? Zubachee aims to become the go-to space in the metaverse for Black women entrepreneurs to find the tools and support needed to scale their businesses. Zubachee is also developing a curriculum and planning events to educate Black women needed to run profitable business operations. While
Kickstarter, the crowdfunding platform which brings creative projects to life by directly connecting them with their communities, has hired Sindy Wilson as their new chief financial officer (CFO). Who is Sindy Wilson? Wilson has two decades of experience as a finance executive. She previously held leadership roles at Oldcastle Infrastructure, Ernst & Young, Cox Automotive, and, most recently, Lyft as their VP of finance transformation and analytics. Throughout her two decades in finance, Wilson told Forbes she never once worked for a Black female CFO, and most of the time, it wasn’t even
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) went into effect this week and should help Black pregnant or postpartum workers get the accommodations they need to stay healthy and working. What is PWFA? PWFA explicitly gives pregnant and postpartum workers the right to temporary accommodations at work to keep them in their jobs during and after pregnancy. After being in the works for over ten years, the law has finally been passed, allowing millions of pregnant women to ask for what they need to help them in their position. A Bipartisan Policy Center poll last
The media industry has lost Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) leaders over the last two weeks with layoffs and resignations at Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Who Has Gone? After more than six years, Disney’s chief diversity officer Latondra Newton was the first to exit her role. She oversaw the company’s “commitment to producing entertainment that reflects a global audience and sustains a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone.” Disney said she was leaving to pursue “other endeavors.” Netflix’s first-ever head of
Black Women Empowered, a global platform aimed to inspire women of color, has launched the Black Women Empowered Business Network. The platform will unite leading business and inspiring leaders to share their roadmap to success. Black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, according to a Harvard Business Review report that found that 17% of Black women are in the process of starting or are running new businesses, compared to 10% of white women and 15% of white men. Additionally, while Black women represent 14% of the female population,
This Juneteenth, we want to celebrate some Black startups that have set out to uplift and support the Black community. What is Juneteenth? Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, finally learned that slavery had been abolished – two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. The first Juneteenth was observed in 1866 and has been celebrated by Black Americans ever since. It is often referred to as the country’s second independence day and became an official
The regulation and ethics of AI image generators have been a topic of conversation for several years, with EU lawmakers considering proposals for safeguards to address some of the issues. In March, more than 31,000 people signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause in AI research and development to answer questions about regulation and ethics. Recently, the free-to-use graphic design tool Canva came under fire after DEI Thought Partner Adriele Parker prompted its text-to-image app to generate a Black woman with Bantu knots. An error appeared and told
Retail technology consultant Jessica Couch is launching an AI-generated fashion tech platform with co-founder Bo Hu Yang, aiming to help stylists and stylish people to monetize their influence. The AI-powered platform, which officially launches in October, is a personalized fashion discovery engine that matches people to products based on fit and style. How does Looks work? Stylists, can tag and post their looks on the platform and share them with their community. The stylist will get paid whenever someone buys an item that they post. The platform incentivizes peer-to-peer relationships
HelloBeautiful and Madame Noire’s special cover, Women To Know: Tech Titans, is a celebration of Black women blazing trails in tech. Despite making up just 1.7% of the tech workforce, Black women are leading, innovating, and disrupting the industry. So, HelloBeautiful and Madame Noire brought eight Black women changemakers and visionaries together for a shoot by Black women-owned production company Oracle Media and photographer JD Barnes. HelloBeautiful and Madame Noire also hosted a roundtable discussion with four Tech Titans: Kelsey Davis, Michelle James, Bozoma Saint John, and Kimberly Bryant. Together, they celebrated each other’s strengths and successes, were candid
When Olivia Hylton graduated from the University of Cambridge, she found herself struggling to make friends as an adult in a post-pandemic world. The 26-year-old spoke to POCIT about creating a meet-up app to empower Black women to make friends anywhere they go. Sistren is a digital platform that empowers users to make connections based on interests and proximity, with users able to create a profile, host events, and reach out to others that are local to them via the user directory. Hylton, who had never considered becoming an entrepreneur
