San Francisco, CA — Today Black & Brown Founders announced Microsoft for Startups and Microsoft’s venture fund M12 have collectively signed on as the Diamond Corporate Sponsor in support of the organization’s mission to help Black and Latinx entrepreneurs build and launch tech businesses.
Read More"We’ve seen a number of leaders and companies speak out, but Black and brown people in tech are still waiting to see if this will lead to transformational change," Aniyia Williams and Syreeta Martin, of Black & Brown Founders, an organization that supports entrepreneurs of color, wrote over email. "Use your privilege, platform, resources and influence to help bring about a change. A change that is measurable, sustainable, shaped and led by Black and Latinx people."
Read MoreSan Francisco – Black & Brown Founders has received a $22,500 grant from The Nielsen Foundation to further develop the organization’s Bootstrapping Bootcamp, a 10-week training program for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs who are building tech or tech-enabled businesses.
Read MoreNow, Williams stands tall among tech industry movers and shakers as the founder of Black and Brown Founders and co-founder of Zebras Unite.
Black and Brown Founders holds events including an upcoming boot camp that give entrepreneurs knowledge and tools to launch startups without relying on venture capital.
Read MorePhiladelphia's answer to SXSW's diversity problem, Project Northstar transformed a professional boxing arena into the city's newest tech conference.
Named for Frederick Douglass’ abolitionist newspaper, the idea came after Mayor Jim Kenney left the 2017 South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas disappointed by the lack of diversity among the participants and speakers. His office teamed up with Black and Brown Founders, a local nonprofit that supports black and Latinx entrepreneurs, especially those with modest means, to create a new conference to engage communities of color in technology.
Read MoreBlack and Brown Founders executive director Aniyia Williams dropped by the studio to talk about the Project Northstar Conference that is taking place this week. The conference is working to close the wealth gap in the communities that have typically been marginalized. At the conference, you can expect entrepreneur and technology discussions.
Read MoreWhen Philadelphia is thinking about what it means to become a tech city, it’s not about “how do we retrofit this Silicon Valley model, but more so how do we use technology to do what Philadelphia does best,” said Aniyia Williams of Tinsel and Black & Brown Founders, who was onstage with Hamilton.
Read MoreIn 2017, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney returned from his first visit to megaconference South by Southwest (SXSW) with one concern: The rooms he was in did not reflect his city’s demographics.
As a response, Kenney said, Philly should host its own big tech conference and call it the NorthStar Conference, in honor of Frederick Douglass’s anti-slavery publication. On Tuesday, the City announced the event was indeed coming together, with the help of a nonprofit called Black & Brown Founders.
Read MorePHILADELPHIA — The City of Philadelphia and Black & Brown Founders, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, announced they are partnering to bring Project NorthStar to life this fall. The 3-day tech conference and pre-conference “NorthStar Mayor’s Summit” will take place October 2-5, 2018, providing connections, education, and opportunities to 500+ current or aspiring entrepreneurs and knowledge workers from the Black and Latinx community that want to participate in the innovation economy.
Read MoreOakland Startup Network of the Kapor Center in partnership with Black & Brown Founders is launching the Tech x Oakland (Tech x OAK) Summit, a two-day gathering for founders of color created by founders of color, which will take place April 20, 2018 (9:30 a.m.–7 p.m.) at Kapor Center and April 21, 2018 (9:30 a.m.–9 p.m.) at Port Workspaces in Oakland, California. The event will consist of workshops, lightning talks, panels, mentor sessions, and networking.
Read MoreHowever, there is a real problem when it comes to safe spaces to discuss these issues are discussed in a productive manner. Luckily, there are strong collectives and voices that have emerged from across the country. Enter Hustle House. The event, held at this year’s SXSW Interactive conference, was packed with content that called out for tangible solutions to common start-up founder problems.
Read MoreIn a push to level the playing field, Tinsel founder Aniyia Williams launched an effort called Black & Brown Founders, which held its first conference in May of this year in San Francisco.
“People who are trying to build a businesses are being told a story of how to get venture capital money, but the reality is a different one for women and people of color,” said Williams, a Penn State grad. “The checks just aren’t being cut.”
Read MoreFed up with ugly plastic headphones that tangled up in her purse and ruined her cute outfits, Aniyia Williams created a solution: ear buds that look like a fashionable necklace. This past fall, her company, Tinsel, debuted its first product, the Dipper, a stylish necklace that has the full functionality of regular headphones. But starting a wearable tech company as a black female founder was not easy.
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