Month: October 2020

Attorney Alisia Ford was struggling to find skincare products made from natural non-toxic ingredients that would work for her darker hue when she realized this represented a big hole in the beauty market. She responded by creating an e-commerce platform to fill it, Black Enterprise reported recently.

Ford is the founder and CEO of Glory Skincare, which personalizes clean skincare products for a customer’s hue and then delivers them directly to the door. Although the brand began as a side hustle that Ford focused on around her day job, its growth meant making a decision.

“I left my career as an attorney, and I have never looked back,” she told Black Enterprise. “I am so glad that I took that leap because it has given me the opportunity to pursue this journey wholeheartedly and not have to juggle career responsibilities.”

For our regular curation of must-read innovation and tech news, the Plug In South LA Beat, we’re learning more about Ford’s transition from full-time attorney to full-time entrepreneur:

How This Attorney Created an E-Commerce Platform Dedicated to Clean Skincare Products

Photo Credit: Glory Skincare on Facebook

PayPal plans to invest more than $50 million in eight Black- and Latinx-led venture capital firms, the New York Times reports. One of the firms is Slauson & Co. in Los Angeles, founded by Austin Clements.

This new investment “certainly moves the needle in terms of what we’re trying to do,” the longtime Plug In South LA mentor and Urban Tech Connect speaker told the paper. Clements was a principal at TenOneTen Ventures prior to starting Slauson & Co. with Ajay Relan, who was previously a GP at Century City-based Queensbridge Venture Partners, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Over the summer PayPal vowed to put $530 million toward supporting Black-owned businesses and minority communities in the United States. By investing in the VC firms, the company hopes to “provide crucial capital to entrepreneurs at a stage that PayPal itself can’t,” the Times article said.

For our regular curation of must-read innovation and tech news, the Plug In South LA Beat, we’re spotlighting this big win for South LA:

PayPal Invests in Racial Equality

PayPal Invests in Local Black, Latino VCs

We’ve heard tech industry leaders promise to do something about their lack of diversity for a while now. Two recent Fast Company articles, written by pros with firsthand knowledge of the issue, explore what it will take to create lasting change.

Michael Ellison, CEO and co-founder of the nonprofit CodePath, noted that the share of Black technical workers at Facebook, Google, and Microsoft is still below 4% at each company.

“The root cause is not just the low number of Black students who are trained in software engineering, which makes up about 6% of all computer science graduates,” he wrote. “The problem comes down to our whole system for training, finding, and retaining underrepresented engineers.”

Pervasive barriers to entry remain throughout the fintech industry as well. Lauryn Nwankpa, head of social impact at LA-based fintech company Dave and a speaker at Urban Tech Connect 2020, detailed ways for industry pros to foster diverse talent and put their insights into practice.

“Fintech companies can be the solution if they do it right,” she wrote. “A new breed of neobanks and tech-driven financial services companies have an opportunity to change the deeply entrenched racism that plagues our financial system.”

In today’s Plug In South LA Beat, our regular curation of must-read innovation and tech news, we’re taking a deep dive into how the tech industry’s current system fails Black talent — and the ways that we can transform it:

This is How Big Tech is Failing its Black Employees

I’m a Black Woman in Fintech. My Industry Has to Overcome its Racism to Survive

Google For Startups announced that 76 Black-led startup founders were selected to receive non-dilutive cash awards from the Black Founders Fund, which launched over the summer. Two founders in Los Angeles are among the entrepreneurs receiving capital to help their businesses grow.

NanaEfua Afoh-Manin of Shared Harvest Fund and Dante Tolbert of Florence Technologies each received $50,000 from the Google accelerator, L.A. Biz reported.

“Original consideration was based on the founder’s application, their startup’s size as well as readiness for funding,” the news outlet noted. “Google said it only considered companies with less than $3 million in total funding and weighed other variables like demonstrable funding need.”

Florence Technologies is a demand labor marketplace for the healthcare system designed to help licensed nurses find nearby open shifts right away. The Shared Harvest Fund platform connects professionals with pro bono opportunities to earn relief from student debt burdens. Afoh-Manin, an emergency room physician, is also working on a portal called myCovidMD to connect residents with telehealth resources in real time.

In our regular curation of must-read innovation and tech news, the Plug In South LA Beat, we’re taking a deeper dive into the Google accelerator’s new $5 million Black Founders Fund — part of a broader $175 million economic opportunity investment — and getting to know the recipients:

Google for Startups funds 2 Black founders of L.A. startups

Google Is Providing Cash Awards to 76 Startups through a Racial Equality Initiative Announced in June

Black Founders Fund: Meet the Recipients

Photo: NanaEfua Afoh-Manin, MD, founder of Shared Harvest Fund.

Daymond John wants to give Black business owners a boost. The FUBU founder and CEO, who also co-stars on the show Shark Tank, plans to bring expert advice directly to entrepreneurs through an upcoming free livestreamed event.

Black Entrepreneurs Day is set to start at 4 pm PST on Saturday October 24, 2020. The agenda includes one-on-one conversations with Shaquille O’Neal, Gabrielle Union, Jamie Foxx, and LL Cool J about their entrepreneurial journeys. In addition, Daymond John will speak with serial entrepreneur Robert Johnson, Backstage Capital’s Arlan Hamilton, JP Morgan Chase’s Brian Lamb, and Elicia Azali, chief revenue officer at the General Insurance.

A panel called “Bridging the Digital Gap” showcases resources for entrepreneurs, according to Black Enterprise.

“The event will offer guidance and inspiration to the next generation of rising entrepreneurs,” Black Enterprise reported. “Plus, it will provide $175,000 in bottom-line financial support via its ‘NAACP Powershift Entrepreneur Grant’ created in partnership with the NAACP. The funding is expected to be broken into seven grants totaling $25,000 each.”

For today’s Plug In South LA Beat, our ongoing curation of must-read innovation and tech news, we’re checking out the lineup for Black Entrepreneurs Day and marking our calendars:

Jamie Foxx, Gabrielle Union, Shaq, Robert Johnson and More to Headline ‘Black Entrepreneurs Day’ Hosted by Daymond John

Photo: Daymond John. Credit: Black Entrepreneurs Day on Facebook

Dwight Neptune became interested in drones as a high school student studying electrical engineering. Now 22 years old, he turned his hobby into a startup that’s on track to reach $100,000 in sales this year, CNBC reports.

Neptune is the co-founder and CEO of Beagle Drones, which specializes in producing user-accessible first person view — FPV — drones. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been messing around with tech and it just stuck with me,” he told CNBC. “I saw FPV as the entryway to building really cool tech products.”

The business has taken off. After three semesters in college, he left school to work on the company full time. During the first half of 2020, the company sold more than $37,000 worth of drones, according to CNBC. Neptune raised $20,000 in early round investments, and told the outlet that he’s currently in the process of raising $1 million at a $4 million valuation.

In today’s Plug In South LA Beat, our curation of must-read innovation and tech news, we’re taking a look at how the co-founders got started, what their first customer taught them, and why Beagle Drones could become a billion-dollar company:

How This 22-Year-Old College Dropout Started a Drone Company On Track for $100,000 in Sales

Photo: The Neo 2 from Beagle Drones. Credit: Beagle Drones on Facebook