Greenwood Rising: The Rise of Black Wall Street premiered on October 11, 2024, sharing the story of O. W. Gurley, one of the founders of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s famed Black Wall Street. Featuring Family Matters star Darius McCrary and Fatima Marie as O. W. Gurley and Emma Gurley, this historical drama’s distinctive soundtrack blends jazz with modern beats, bringing a fresh energy to this powerful story. From Tech to Storytelling Co-produced and directed by Aaron L. Williams, Greenwood Rising is first original film by ad-supported video-on-demand platform Fawesome. Williams began his
Vista Equity Partners (Vista), under the leadership of Robert F. Smith, has acquired JAGGAER, a global leader in enterprise procurement and supplier collaboration software. This acquisition comes on the heels of Vista’s recent milestone—a record $20 billion raised for its eighth flagship fund, marking the largest fundraising in the firm’s history. A Strategic Acquisition in the AI-Driven Procurement Space JAGGAER, known for its AI-enabled procurement solutions, serves over 1,400 customers worldwide, offering a platform that optimizes sourcing, spend management, and supply chain visibility. This acquisition aligns with Vista’s strategy of
29-year-old Chaymeriyia Moncrief, the founder of NSPRE, has unveiled her second smartphone four years after her first release. NSPRE Two years after founding Tesix Wireless Network, a millennial-focused wireless carrier., Moncrief launched NSPRE to ”inspire the culture through social technology“. From its inception in 2020, the brand swiftly progressed, raising $1.5 million in funding during its launch year. In June 2021, NSPRE established its headquarters in Alabama, reinforcing its foundation. NSPRE’s first smartphone launch was a significant milestone, demonstrating that a startup from Montgomery could succeed in the tech industry. Read: Meet The
Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian took to X, formerly Twitter, to thank Snoop Dogg for being one of the platform’s earliest investors during its spin-out and turnaround. Reddit Reddit, a social media platform and online community, ranks among the top 20 most visited sites worldwide and went public in March 2024. American internet entrepreneur and investor Ohanian is best known as the platform’s former executive chairman and co-founder, along with Steff Huffman and Aaron Swartz. He is also the husband of tennis legend and venture capitalist Serena Williams. Huffman and Ohanian began building Reddit for fun while roomates
Raioni Madison transitioned from a classroom teacher to the full-time leader of 3D Girls Inc., a testament to her unwavering commitment to empowering young women. Meet Raioni Madison In 2019, Raioni Madison, an educator with a rich family history in teaching, made a momentous decision. She bid adieu to her teaching job to focus entirely on 3D Girls Inc., a nonprofit she founded in 2012. Her dedication to addressing the disparities in resources and opportunities for young girls, particularly in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), fueled this leap.
The community-led startup Afropolitan, also known as the company behind “The Year of Return” event in Ghana, has raised $2.1 million (£1.8 million) in pre-seed funding to bring its vision to life, with Srinivasan being one of its investors. The funding round, which saw African-based VC firms Atlantica Ventures and Microtraction participate, also included angel investors Balaji Srinivasan, Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund, and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji of Future Africa. Afropolitan, co-founded by Eche Emole and Chika Uwazie in 2016, works to create community-led events for Africans and those in the
Yonas Beshawred, the CEO of StackShare and countless other ventures, is a man not afraid to tell it as it is and this skill has worked in his favor. His venture, StackShare, a platform that allows software developers and tech companies to share their tools and how they use them, has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2014. What first started as a side project on a WordPress blog, StackShare has raised $7 million and reached 1M developers, engineers, CTOs, VPEs, architects, and founders. Although the journey
Congratulations on getting into YC and being the first non-profit. Yeah. We’re about one of 15 non-profits, so I think USA Today called us out as the first diversity non-profit. It’s still a very early program for non-profits in there, they’re still adjusting to it. Why did you start /dev/color? And what has it been like thus far? I started it just seeing my friends and people that I had been connected to, as I discovered tips and secrets that were novel to me, I would share them with people
Amanda is the co-founder and marketing director of tiphub Africa . She has been honored as one of Business Insider’s 30 Most Important Women In Tech Under 30, as one of BET’s Blacks on the Brink of Greatness, one of 2016 Walker’s Legacy Power 50 and as one of 5 future leaders in technology by Black Enterprise Magazine. Talk about your company and why you decided to create it! Alchemy is a drink discovery community for sharing, saving, and recommending adult beverages. Curated by your taste and location, we help
Founder & CEO of Blendoor continued from the article on Essence.com Would those be great ideas for pitching for anything then? The secret sauce to the pitch competition is telling a compelling story and doing so in a way that it resonates with your audience. For me, it was showing my personal story about how I grew up. I started in very humble beginnings, and I learned to code early, and I did AP computer science in high school, Stanford engineering undergrad, Microsoft, MIT. I interviewed for Google for an