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A Morehouse School of Medicine graduate has opened a bookstore to uplift her surrounding community. According to a news release, Dr. Viola Lanier, who boasts a Master of Science in biomedical research and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences, has launched Better Today Books & Boutique, located at 2300 Shallowford Rd., Ste. 8, Marietta, GA 30066. In a video shared on the bookstore’s Instagram page, Lanier recounts her journey to owning the storefront. It began after a spa visit, when she noticed a “For Lease” sign on the door of the location while heading home. Intrigued, she reached out to the landlord to arrange a tour. “Wasn’t too impressed about the condition, but I said, ‘You know what? This is a place.’ But I figured I could make it work, even though I was skeptical about a lot. I got it. Anyway, so we’re putting a check mark on these dreams. Y’all stick with me as you renovate,” she explained in the video. Seeing the potential, Lanier’s interest put her on the path to establishing...
Melissa Bradley is turning a new leaf! Since 2016, Bradley, who was featured as an AFROTECH™ Future 50 Dynamic Investor, has been the proud founder of Washington, DC-based 1863 Ventures, which provides business development programs, coaching, mentorship, and access to capital primarily for new entrepreneurs, as noted on her LinkedIn profile. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the venture aims to create $100 billion in wealth for the “New Majority,” Black and brown entrepreneurs. This goal is reflected in its portfolio, which comprises 90% Black-owned businesses, including the following: Nubian Heumann Eu’Genia Shea Harlem Candle Co. The Black Girl Doctor Now, eight years into 1863 Ventures’ inception, the Washington Business Journal has reported that the organization’s board voted to close down 1863’s nonprofit arm, which focused on early-stage companies. Currently, Bradley is on the hunt for a partner who can take on ownership of its portfolio companies, which have benefited from an...
Somtochukwu “Somie” Agunwah wants to empower the next generation of dental students. QCity Metro reports that Agunwah, who moved from Lagos, Nigeria, to Charlotte, NC, in 2003, initially pursued a career in nursing. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte and worked as a critical care nurse in Washington, DC, at Howard University Hospital. However, she soon realized that nursing was not the career path she wanted to continue. “I didn’t like the lifestyle of the medical doctors that I was interacting with,” Agunwah told the outlet, referencing the lack of work-life balance and long hours. Agunwah discovered her true calling while working under a Maryland dentist. She pivoted to attend Howard University College of Dentistry, later completing a pediatric residency in Brooklyn, NY. Reflecting on her mission, she decided to focus her efforts on prioritizing children. “They are still teachable,” Agunwah explained, according to QCity...
Queen Latifah is helping a Black woman-owned soul food restaurant receive a well-deserved blessing. During a taping of “Street You Grew Up On,” hosted by actress Kerry Washington, it was revealed that Latifah selected Newark, NJ-based Vonda’s Kitchen to receive a $10,000 financial award. The investment is made possible through a partnership between fintech platform Intuit QuickBooks and Washington, aimed at fostering discussions around entrepreneurship, community, and mentorship. As part of the initiative, featured guests are given the opportunity to select a small business to receive funding, according to information shared with AFROTECH™. As a Newark native, the selection was full circle and Latifah emphasized its importance, believing the funds would be well-used under the leadership of owner Vonda McPherson. According to the company website, McPherson transitioned into entrepreneurship after a corporate career with Fortune 500 companies, opening her first restaurant in 1988....
After co-creating the beauty app Beautified, Hannah Bronfman recognized the importance of investing in startups, which are often the last to receive funding or the resources needed to scale. Today, she takes pride in her work as an angel investor, helping to advise and raise venture capital for budding businesses. As a former DJ, content creator, and now trusted angel investor, Bronfman’s desire to help companies achieve their goals by putting investments behind them began when she joined Annie Evans and Peter Hananel as a co-founder of Beautified. This app allows users to book beauty services, including haircuts, manicures, facials, massages, and more, with various salons and spas offered on the platform. Since the inception of Beautifed in 2013, Bronfman has also become an expert in marketing. She’s advised companies on building a strategic online presence well before the rise of today’s influencer-driven marketing landscape. In 2017, she became an investor. “I started actually to...
Ira Salls is an inspiration for her history-making role as a McDonald’s franchisee. Salls, a Cincinnati, OH, native, graduated from Northern Illinois University and later earned both an MBA and a master’s degree in public administration from Northwestern University. She secured her franchise title in 1991, as she explained during an interview with WHAS 11 in 2021. Before becoming an owner and operator, she first worked at the fast-food chain as an accountant. “I was hired by McDonald’s because I already had a degree and (was) a CPA. McDonald’s was forward thinking, and they wanted Black CPAs working in their accounting department,” she recalled to the outlet. Salls’ pivot to owning her own McDonald’s locations led her to become the first Black woman franchisee of the chain in Kentucky and Indiana in 1991, the Louisville Business Journal reports. She would go on to become one of the company’s most successful operators, managing six locations in Louisville, KY. She also understood the...
An observation Amber Hill made as a medical researcher jumpstarted her founder journey. In conversation with TechCrunch, Hill notes that she found manual administrative tasks tedious and felt that the time could have been put to better use. “I was spending so much time doing manual tasks that didn’t require any medical expertise. It’s a process that’s completely broken, and I knew it could be fixed,” she told the outlet. In 2020, Hill launched London, England-based Research Grid. The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven platform is intended to increase efficiency in clinical trials by automating manual processes, its website mentions. It currently offers two products: Inclusive and Trial Engine. Inclusive is described as a “community engagement sourcing and management platform” to support early trials through smart automations and patient engagement. This feature has grown a network of over 300 million patients across at least 90,000 communities. Its second product is Trial Engine, a...
Whoopi Goldberg is launching a sports platform for women. During a taping of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” she announced the launch of All Women’s Sports Network (AWSN), which has already broken ground in Asia, the Middle East, and India with the help of partners CommonSpirit and Jungo TV. “It’ll be the home for live women’s sports from around the world. Everything from soccer, basketball, tennis, cricket, curling — you name it. If a woman is playing it, we’re showing it,” Goldberg said on the show. Goldberg’s motivation for the network was planted when she was a child. She recalls a time when her brother would play a variety of sports, but she was often left out due to her gender, mentions Yahoo Sports. Throughout her career, she recalls engaging in conversations about how to move the needle in women’s sports. “Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to play sports. My brother could play … he played everything,” she explained. “So, for years, I’ve been talking to...
Tori Bell is helping companies ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is not an afterthought. Interest In DEI Work The Agnes Scott College graduate’s interest in DEI work was sparked during her early career stages in investment banking in Atlanta, GA, at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. She served as an analyst and associate program manager between 2012 and 2015, managing the summer analyst program, her LinkedIn mentions. She later joined Jopwell, a career platform for minority students and professionals. The platform had received backing from a number of investors, including Magic Johnson, who had participated in a $3.25 million seed round in 2016, according to Inc. magazine. “What I saw during my time there was that you can hire diverse individuals into these major companies, but if they’re not prepared to support them i t’s kind of like you’re yelling into a void, ” Bell told AFROTECH™. “You’re not really doing much to move the needle, because you’re going to see turnover...
Kristen Dunning has received a stamp of approval from Oprah Winfrey. The entrepreneur’s recognition is the result of her foray into entrepreneurship. As AFROTECH™ previously shared, Dunning’s journey as a founder began with a desire to create a soap for sensitive skin and people struggling with skin conditions. She has battled severe scalp eczema since the age of four, but prescribed remedies like creams and steroid shots continued to cause discomfort. According to her website, Dunning turned to medicinal plants and botanicals, deepening her knowledge while studying agricultural communication and horticulture at the University of Georgia. Under the guidance of faculty member Dr. David Knauft, she was able to discover botanical alternatives commonly found in anti-inflammatory treatments. Her first soap was created in 2019, and she developed more recipes during the COVID-19 quarantine. In 2020, Gently Soap made its official debut in the market and now offers four products, including:...
Shontay Lundy has revealed she has only one regret in her journey as a founder. Lundy’s brainchild, Black Girl Sunscreen, launched with a personal investment of $33,000, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. The company offers products designed to provide hydration without leaving a white residue—a common issue encountered by many in the Black community when applying sunscreen. It was this gap in the market that incentivized Lundy. “I’m a woman of the sun, the time I was living in Miami, I currently live in Los Angeles. I love being on the beach. It was ‘Okay, what do you think about sunscreen?’ My friends would offer me sunscreen and I would tell them, ‘Do you see my complexion? That sh-t don’t work on this complexion,'” she explained during a conversation on with AFROTECH™ Brand Manager Will Lucas on the Black Tech Green Money podcast. “So I jumped on the computer and just started to type in keywords, sunscreen for ethnic skin. Sunscreen for Black girls. Sunscreen for brown girls....
Former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe continues to champion the future of STEM. In 2020, Bowe founded LINGO, a company that offers kits allowing individuals of all ages to engage with projects that promote problem-solving and coding. The goal is to increase exposure to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lingo (@stemlingoco) What’s more, LINGO has been well received in the education sector and among Fortune 500 companies, its LinkedIn notes. It is also faring well among investors, raising $2.3 million in a November 2024 round led by Pinnacle Private Ventures, according to a news release. 1863 Ventures, Sequoia Capital via the Scout program, and Dr. Joy Johnson also participated in the round. “This funding round highlights LINGO’s potential to reshape the future of STEM education,” Sean McCurry , founder of family office-owned private investment firm Pinnacle Private Ventures, said in the news release. “We...
The journey of building a carbon negative future is going to require all hands on deck. Lisa Dyson, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Air Protein, fully joined in on the mission before she founded her startup. The idea was initially sparked when the scientist visited New Orleans, LA, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “As a scientist, I was thinking about climate science and how climate scientists have been telling us that we’re going to have these weather events that are going to be more intense and more frequent,” Dr. Dyson recalled at the 2023 AFROTECH™ Conference in conversation with James White, executive chair of Air Protein and former CEO of Jamba Juice. “And just seeing how that impacted people’s lives, it caused me to want to see how I could be a part of creating a different future, a different reality, and join the many people that are out there, and started working on climate solutions.” Purchase your ticket to AFROTECH™ Conference now! During the fireside chat, Dyson shared how...
Jessica Taylor has landed her coffee product in a new major retailer. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Taylor, a former Toyota diversity, equity, and inclusion business partner, became the founder of Ezra Coffee in 2021. The idea for the company stemmed from a soy and nut allergy developed by her sister who was also lactose intolerant. Taylor started conjuring recipes on a stove top, creating flavors that could be enjoyed without milk-based creamers. That passion and drive has now grown into an array of products sold through Ezra Coffee such as Candied Yams and Toasted Southern Pecan light roast coffee, as listed on its website. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ezra Coffee Company (@ezracoffeeco) Since launching, the company has secured placements in Target’s online store and was also stocked in more than 40 Texas-based H-E-B stores by October 2023. “This has been such a labor of love and an amazing experience, and I can truly say I could have not done this with out you...
Sheena Allen has announced the closure of a venture supporting unbanked communities. Since 2018, Allen has been the founder of CapWay, a mobile bank inspired by her upbringing in Terry, MS, a small town near Jackson, where there was only one bank at the time. “Jackson has some of the highest rates of unbanked residents in the United States,” Allen previously told AFROTECH™ . “I was very familiar with people not having fair or proper access to mainstream financial services and products.” Creating a solution, CapWay offered savings tools and allowed users to cash checks, establish checking accounts, and send money from their phones, as AFROTECH™ reported. Allen also believed the fintech company’s offerings geared for underserved communities were essential back in 2018 given that she felt this area had been overlooked by Silicon Valley. “Silicon Valley’s definition of real-world problems and everyone else’s definition of real-world problems are not the same,” Allen said. “They live in...