Running a startup to success is challenging for most Black-owned Startups in the United States.
Many Black founders force themselves to lead from the back and hide the fact that they own a particular startup or business type.
Why would a person of color decide to hide their image from the face of his own business they’ve started?
Well, many black entrepreneurs and Black business founders fear that they could lose patronage once they position themselves as lead faces for their companies or businesses they started.
Mr. Duane Draughon, an African-American entrepreneur, started his patio-installation company, and he had to create an impression that he wasn’t the owner of the business.
He had to covertly recruit a white insurance company representative to conduct job interviews in assembling his white sales team.
You may think Mr. Duane’s decision to hide his face from the company he owns was over-reactionary.
Well, Duane had often encountered racist clients who slammed doors in his face or refused to allow him in their homes because of being Black, and he had no other option than covertly leading from the background.
It is outrightly clear that racial and socioeconomic barriers are some of the obstacles facing Black entrepreneurship in America. When you’re Black and start a business, it is easier to misperceive your products or services as only for Blacks and geared towards Caucasian clients.
The problem is even more profound than you think, and Black-owned startup entrepreneurs find it challenging to convince investors to be part of his business idea.
Rich white men predominantly own most venture capital firms.
More insight
According to a joint study project conducted by RateMyInvestor and DiversityVC, they examined the publicly available VC-backed deals and polled over 10,000 founders. However, their findings reveal that only 1% of venture-backed founders were Black.
Joseph Heller, an entrepreneur and the founder of both SuppliedShop.com and TheStudio.com, once wrote on the Black Enterprise website,
Despite the challenges mentioned above, many Black entrepreneurs have and continue to push on to ensure their visions and dreams come to light.
A true entrepreneur will never give up on what they want to achieve, no matter their challenges.
Even with limited media attention or follow up, many African-Americans are currently running or have successfully established multimillion-dollar startups.
Black-owned StartupS
LISNR
LISNR is a fintech company that leverages the power of its own patented ultrasonic technology to facilitate proximity secure payment solutions like QR scanning, token authentication, and events card verification.
LISNR, Co-founded by Rodney Williams, an African American entrepreneur, helped raise over $30 million in funding and boasts of backing from big brands like VISA, Intel, to name a few.
Calendly
Calendly App lets you schedule meetings without all the back and forth emails. The company’s founder and CEO, Tope Awotona, left Nigeria as a teenager and moved to the US.
Calendly is considered one of the top-rated apps with good reviews on Capterra, a community review-generated site. The application has raised over $300,000 from Atlantic Ventures, an Atlanta based venture capital firm.
Plum Perfect
This app takes users’ selfies to find the perfect makeup for their skin tone – for various women of color founded by Asmau Ahmed, a former African-American engineer raising over $10 million in funding for the company.
Moving Analytics
Moving Analytics Inc. is a digital health company dedicated to conquering heart disease through digital cardiac recovery programs.
The Moving Analytics program combines evidence-based medicine, behavioral science, remote monitoring, lifestyle coaching, and a mobile app to help people recover after a cardiac event.
Adelanwa Adesanya founded the company; an engineer turned entrepreneur raising $2.5M in funding.
Sudu
Sudu is a technology-based logistics company, which uses data and analytics to help companies ship their freight efficiently using a network of carriers.
The company has already raised about a million dollars in funding founded by Amari Ruff, a previous CEO of R2 Trucking Solutions.
If you want to support these brands and many others, align yourselves with as many Black-owned startups that you will complement your business.
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