black-women-founders
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digitalundivided counted the founders venture capital overlooked
A missing dataset became a business-building mission. Inside the nonprofit helping overlooked founders test ideas, find investors and get past the warm-introduction problem.
Kimberly Moore Built a Startup Around the Trip Everyone Else Took for Granted
At 53, after Verizon, national events and a year beside Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Kimberly Moore began again. Her big idea was hiding in her sister’s kitchen: access to school often depends on the ordinary trip between home and the classroom.
Crystal Etienne Built the Product, Then Built the Capital She Couldn’t Find
She turned a stubborn apparel problem into a patented company, then turned the silence of investors into a new kind of first check for Black women founders.
Jan Seale
Jan Seale is the CEO and co-founder of Out of Office, a Chicago-based travel app that turns recommendations from your own friends and trusted circle into bookable trips across thousands of cities. A Cornell grad who spent years at Gap, Trunk Club, and Havenly before building her own company, she launched a travel startup in the middle of a global pandemic - and became one of the first 100 Black women in the United States to raise more than a million dollars in venture capital. She runs on gratitude, literally: she starts every morning by naming ten things she is grateful for.
Shanel Fields
Shanel Fields is the founder and CEO of MD Ally, a public safety telehealth company that plugs virtual care directly into the 911 system so non-emergency callers get routed to the right help instead of an ambulance. A Cornell graduate and Wharton MBA, she spent her first year doing ride-alongs with dispatchers and first responders before building the platform solo. The daughter of a volunteer EMT, she has raised more than $23M, taken MD Ally through Techstars, joined the Techstars board of directors, and been featured by The New York Times and Good Morning America.