BLKTECHCLT co-founders Sherrell Dorsey, Enovia Bedford and Freda Hendley are handing over their company's reins in an acquisition by City Startup Labs.
Dorsey said she, Bedford and Hendley made the decision to transition out of BLKTECHCLT as they work to build their own entrepreneurial endeavors. City Startup Labs' acquisition, she said, will enable the organization to continue its important work.
"We wanted to continue under the guidance of an organization like City Startup Labs that's been working for the last six years to really develop a very strong foundational base of entrepreneurship programming for Black and brown founders in Charlotte," Dorsey said.
BLKTECHCLT was founded as a direct result of the murder of Keith Lamont Scott in 2016. It was created to be member-driven space for Black innovators, entrepreneurs and investors to gather and discuss how they want Charlotte's future to look.
City Startup Labs founder and executive director Henry Rock created his organization in 2014 to share valuable education tools and resources with Black millennial founders. In early 2019, through City Startup Labs, Rock launched The ReEntry Entrepreneurship Program. REEP aims to give those people the tools they need to earn a living wage through innovation and entrepreneurship.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Rock said that he was excited to learn of the opportunity to acquire BLKTECHCLT.
“I’ve been a fan of [Dorsey] and [Bedford] right from the start with their interest in addressing what they felt was a gap in developing Black tech talent," he said in the statement. "This acquisition now makes it possible for us to focus our activities with young entrepreneurs within technology fields, especially advanced technologies.”
Dorsey declined to disclose financial details of the acquisition. She said the BLKTECHCLT founding team will step away from day-to-day operations into informal support roles through the transition period.
"BLKTECHCLT programming will continue under the purview of City Startup Labs, with ongoing support of job opportunities, training opportunities and ongoing community building," Dorsey said.
