Founders Unfound

Keara Kindelynn is Founder and CEO of Foreverly, a company with a mission to make dealing with death--a little less stressful. Foreverly helps organizations support their employees who have experienced the death of a loved one. 

Kera was born to a family with deep roots to her hometown of Brooklyn. She emerged from college and business school, climbing the corporate ladder. Leading all the way to Seattle and Microsoft. But it was he...

Sabrina Williams is Founder and CEO of SEED, a company that helps consumers and underserved farmers grow smart and feed more by democratizing access to agriculture technology.

Sabrina is a native Californian, born and raised in Compton. Her curiosity and passions led her to pursuits in architecture, law, and urban planning. Through her non-profit, she dedicated herself to social justice challenges in urban communities. It was in thi...

Sean Bovell is Founder and CEO of Invidica, a company building a marketplace platform that is transforming the reseller economy one product at a time. 

Sean has an amazing background. Born in the UK, raised in predominantly white communities in Utah and Idaho, before landing in Oakland for his formative year. A natural at math and STEM, Sean has been drawn to tech from an early age. He built his first ecommerce company from the grou...

James Chapman is Founder and CEO of Plain Sight, a company that helps you make the right connections at events and workspaces, or connect online from anywhere.

James started as an aspiring NBA player from Chattanooga Tennessee. He made it to the NBA’s D-league, but that's where that dream ended, and the next season began. Basketball’s loss was entrepreneurship’s gain. James started loading boxes for FedEx. His hustle led him to ...

Serge Amouzou is Founder and CEO of Finmod, a startup that helps companies forecast financials 10X faster. Finmod’s predictive-financial projection technology uses company data sources to give decision-ready data and actionable next steps for growth. 

Serge was born and raised in Togo. He came to the US at age 12, determined and curious. He set out to master English and assimilate. He thought he would be a neurosurgeon, but a pursui...

Navalayo Osembo is Co-Founder and CEO of Enda, a company that is building on Kenya’s reputation as the global leader in distance running. With “Run Kenyan” as its motto, Enda makes running shoes in Kenya, for runners around the world. 

Navalayo is the first guest we’ve had on from the place of my ancestral heritage - Kenya. She grew up with a military father and a teacher mother, which meant strong themes of discipline and excellenc...

Jarrett Wright is Founder and CEO of Higher Rewards, a company that offers nonprofits and faith-based organizations the ability to provide their members a self-branded credit card where a percentage of every purchase goes back to the organization.

Jarrett is from several generations deep in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jarrett showed drive and ability from an early age. Reading by 2 years old. Doing the family’s grocery shopping at 6...

Isaac Lymon is Co-Founder and CEO of Raxplay, a company that enables music artists to perform live real/time concerts via virtual reality. Raxplay puts fans in the front row, VIP, and backstage - all in the comfort of their homes.

Isaac was born and raised in Detroit. At an early stage, he felt called to music. But after a taste of the grind artists endure, Isaac gravitated to what made music happen behind the scenes. It was then th...

Khalid David is Founder and CEO of TracFlo, a company with a predictive financial management platform that is empowering America’s contractors.

Originally from the Bronx, Khalid was born into a family of tradesmen with a deep connection to his Afro-Caribbean roots. So it’s no surprise that, even with education from Morehouse, Columbia, and MIT, Khalid ended up in the construction industry. And it was those experiences that opened hi...

Patrice Darby Neely, Founder and CEO of GoLogic, a data aggregation and economic development platform helping small businesses accelerate growth and reduce failure, while increasing the capacity and capabilities of the organizations that support them. 

Patrice spent many years in childcare before starting her first startup, GoNanny, to address the fragmentation of care occurring with the busy schedules of families on the go. Timing ...

Roger Roman, Co-Founder of AfriBlocks, the global Pan-African freelance marketplace and collaboration platform. They are building THE resource for devs, designers, and virtual assistants. 

Roger hails from Chicago, and in his home neighborhood there the Roman name is well known. He was pre-ordained to be a lawyer, but Roger took a different path: business. He leveraged his degree from Howard University to immerse in industries as va...

James Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Ownors, an AI-driven Fintech platform that helps artists retrieve payouts from streaming services. 

Ownors isn’t James’ first startup. Inspired by his upbringing, James became an attorney. But he saw the gaps in the system. The fundamental way that legal services are sold and distributed is a straight-up disconnect with the vast majority of people who need it. So he and his wife formed Court Buddy,...

Melanie Akwule is Founder and CEO of MINWO, a DE&I tech company that connects companies with organizations that have a specific mission to support Black-owned businesses on their path to scaling. 

Originally from Virginia, Melanie was an NCAA track athlete who did her undergrad at Georgia Tech.She worked and excelled in the corporate world with GE. But it was at the Haas School, Cal Berkeley where she built her startup muscle. S...

Daricus Releford is Founder and CEO of StoreCash, a company that provides mobile banking for teens, as well as for unbanked and underbanked adults.

Daricus is the twin son of a mom in the military. And as you just heard, he came home one day as a kid to find that his dad had taken everything from the house. Since that fateful event, Daricus has been on an entrepreneurial journey, that's gone from cutting lawns to building a FinT...

Black Entrepreneurship & Fundraising in 2021- have we made any progress?

In this special episode, we bring you the fireside chat moderated by Dan with:

 Amira Rasool, CEO of The Folklore

Daricus Releford, CEO of StoreCash

Kwame Boler, CEO of neu

In the session we talked about the state of black entrepreneurship and fundraising in 2021.

As we experience Juneteenth for the first time as a National holiday, we ask:

What has changed? Wha...

Ezinne Iroanya-Adeoye is Founder and CEO of SKNMUSE, the premium beauty brand dedicated to elevating the beauty experience for the modern black woman. 

Ezinne was born and raised in Nigeria. After graduating from high school at 15 and ace-ing her SATs, she came to the US for college. She thought she was going to be a petroleum engineer. Lucky for the rest of us, that didn’t happen. Ezinne never forgot the joy she found in the soothi...

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In this episode Sonja and Dan discussed:

Delivering clear analysis and powerful insights on what's shaping the Black innovation economy.

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In this episode Amira and Dan discussed:

OUR SPONSORS FOR THIS EPISODE:

A brand new book by entrepreneur and investor Dave Parker.

This hot-off-the-presses publication is THE playbook for those at the earliest stages of the startup journey. Or even if you are just contemplating the jump to entrepreneurship. To get this great resource, go to dkparker.com or find anywhere you buy books.

In this episode Stephen and Dan discuss...