Black Tech Green Money

From AfroTech 2022 in Austin, TX, Stephanie Ogbogu, who was Associate Director of Editorial at Blavity, speaks with Tim Henshaw, Head of Hip Hop & R&B at Amazon Music, and Wallace Joseph, VP of A&R at Warner/Chappell Music. There’s a lot of money in the music business, some of it is pretty obvious even to laypeople, but the fine print on the contracts is where the real money is. Find i...

At AfroTech 2022, we spoke with Ruben Harris, Co-Founder and CEO at Career Karma and Sydnee Sampson Blackwell, an engineer who came through Career Karmas pogromming about how we better prepare ourselves for the changing demands of the workforce. Career Karma is technology which helps match students to educational opportunities like boot camps, to better prepare you for product and technical career...

Frederick Hutson, co-founder and CEO at Pigeonly is on the main stage at AfroTech 2022 (Austin, TX) talking with Blavity Co-Founder and COO Jeff Nelson. Pigeonly is a simple, affordable way to stay in touch with loved ones who are behind bars nationwide. Follow Will Lucas on Instagram at @willlucas Learn more at AfroTech.com https://instagram.com/afro.tech Learn more about your ad-choices at https...

Kalah Haley is an NFT strategist, and founder at Saint Rock Media, which helps companies all over the world craft culture experiences and events. A frequent speaker on NFT related topics, Kalah is a prolific investor and trusted voice on blockchain technologies. On this episode, Kalah speaks with AfroTechs Will Lucas about the current NFT bear market and investor outlook. Whats happening in the wo...

Derrick 'Moe' Moore, Clint Gray, and Emmanuel ‘EJ’ Reed are the founders of Slim & Huskey's Pizza Beeria, a fast-casual artisan pizza shop with a love for Hip Hop and R&B culture. The Nashville Based company now boasts restaurants in Antioch, Chattanooga, Memphis, Murfreesboro, TN as well as Atlanta, GA and Sacramento. CA. On this episode, Clint and Moe talk with AfroTech's Will Lucas abou...

Telva McGruder is the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at General Motors, and has spent more than 28 years at the company - starting as an engineer. Today, she’s focused on weaving DEI into the fabric of the company, working in partnership with internal and external leaders to champion the broad and diverse workforce. On this episode recorded at the 2022 AfroTech Conference in Austin...

Everett Harper is the CEO and Co-Founder of Truss, a human-centered software development company. He is the author of the new leadership book Move to the Edge, Declare it Center , which was published by Wiley earlier this year. He was previously Director of Customer Acquisition and Community at Linden Lab (maker of Second Life). A CEO and technologist who also hits many stages around the world to...

Ursula Burns was CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016, the first among black women to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and the first woman to succeed another as head of a Fortune 500 company.   Most pertinent to todays conversation is her board roles. Ms. Burns sat on the Boards of Directors for more than 15 companies, including Boston Scientific, the University of Rochester, the MIT Corporation, Amer...

Collab Capital is an investment fund helping Black founders build sustainable, innovation-centered businesses. The partners, Barry Givens, Jewel Burks and Justin Dawkins are previously operators and engineers who've raised significant venture capital, and successfully sold their companies. The partners chat with Will Lucas about whats missing in venture capital to meet the needs of Black founders,...

Jehron Petty is Founder and CEO at ColorStack, a non-profit collegiate organization that helps Black and Latinx Computer Science students get degreed and hired. When he was at Cornell, he worked as an intern at google, and later turned them down for a full-time role to start his own entrepreneurial journey. On this episode, Jehron talks with AfroTech's Will Lucas about the pipeline for Black talen...

Elliott Robinson is partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. He’s focused on growth stage series C, D and E opportunities investing across the spectrum of Cloud Software, Consumer Internet, and Frontier Tech with check sizes between $20M and $150M. Elliott chat's with Will Lucas about how cloud computing accelerates innovation during the age of COVID in stubborn industries, how Black people can final...

Candice Matthews Brackeen is the Founder and CEO of Lightship Capital, the Cincinnati based portfolio service firm including accelerators Hillman and NewMe, and venture capital fund Lightship. Candice raised the most money ever for a first time fund ran by a Black woman, a $50 million fund. Candice chat's with Will Lucas about why she can't make early bets on startups, and how she impacted state a...

Chandra Vasser is Vice President and Chief DEI officer of Nissan Americas and her job is to drive DEI and develop plans and partnerships to share the company's DEI commitment with employees, customers and the community. On this episode, she chat's with Will Lucas about what 'doing what others don't dare to do' means in practice at a major automotive company, what robotics will mean for the future...

Trell Thomas is the Founder of the Black Excellence Brunch, an annual event that gives #BlackExcellence a seat at the table. His work spans from career beginnings on the historic Obama Presidential Campaign in 2008 to overseeing talent relations and communication within some of the biggest brands at Viacom to perfectly aligning social good causes, corporations and celebrities. On this episode, he...

Dr. Key Hallmon is the founder and CEO of The Village Market, and cultivates events to provide a platform for socially-conscious, black-owned startups and entrepreneurs to get support, build community, and showcase their products and services. On this episode, Dr. Key talks with Will Lucas about 'Support' as a verb, strategies to building community around commerce, and how communities can replicat...

Damon Brown is a tech entrepreneur, author and speaker who helps side hustlers, solopreneurs, and other non-traditional creatives bloom. He co-founded the popular platonic connection app Cuddlr and led it to acquisition within a year, all while being the primary caretaker of his infant first son. On this episode, Damon talks with Will Lucas about how anyone can succeed in starting their own ventur...

Pierre Laguerre is CEO and Founder at Fleeting, a commercial fleet management and services company and the first Black man ever to raise more than $1 million from a crowdfunding campaign. On this episode, he speaks with Will Lucas about how tech can avoid displacing people while still aiming for disruption, how technology improves logistics and the wealth opportunity for truckers, and why autonomo...

Lo is the Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital, which is an institutional investment firm he incubated and spun out from GV (Google Ventures). On this episode, Lo talks with AfroTech's Will Lucas about how VCs raise capital, the myth of Silicon Valley, and how legislation keeps would-be Black founders from large wealth-building opportunities. Follow Will Lucas on Instagram at @willlucas Lear...

Maurice Jones is CEO at OneTen, a coalition of leading chief executives and their companies (like AT&T, Delta and more) who are coming together to upskill, hire and promote one million Black Americans over the next 10 years - Black people who do not yet have a four-year degree into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement. On this episode, Maurice talks to AfroTech's Will Luca...

Florence Kasule is the director of procurement at U.S. Digital Service (USDS), and leads a team focused on   building amazing digital experiences for the American public by modernizing the acquisition process. Jordan Ginn is Director of Talent Acquisition for United States Digital Service (USDS) and initially joined the organization  in 2016 under the Obama administration to make sure the organiza...

Ryan Glover is the co-founder and chairman of Greenwood bank, a new digital bank designed for Black and Latinx communities. Previously he was co-founder and CEO at Noontime, a music publishing and production company, and he's co-founder and CEO at Bounce TV. Ryan talks with Will Lucas about why Black banking efforts haven’t led to generational and transformative wealth for African Americans, and t...

Bimma Williams is a creative industry leader, former executive at Nike, Yeezy (Adidas) and Saucony. Currently, he runs the #1 iTunes rated career podcast, 'Claima', which is a career discovery podcast to help Black and Brown creatives discover their dream careers. On this episode, Bimma talks with Will Lucas about the institutional constrains to building big brands, how design collaborations work,...

As founder and CEO of The Mane Choice, Courtney Adeleye, built her innovative hair empire to reported net sales of over $25 million. The company was acquired by MAV Beauty Brands. Her products are sold in over 20,000 retail stores and has a lineup of more than 90 hair treatments. Courtney chat's with Will Lucas about how to scale a hair care brand, and remain profitable when the consumer is increa...

Oladosu Teyibo is founder at Analog Teams, which connects talent people from underrepresented backgrounds with tech companies looking to build digital products. Follow Will Lucas on Instagram at @willlucas Learn more at AfroTech.com https://instagram.com/afro.tech Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oladosu Teyibo is founder at Analog Teams, which connects talent people from underrepresented backgrounds with tech companies looking to build digital products. Follow Will Lucas on Instagram at @willlucas Learn more at AfroTech.com https://instagram.com/afro.tech Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.