Earlier this year, a new crowdfunding platform focused on getting early-stage capital in the hands of Black founders made its entrance in Louisville.
It successfully raised about $16,000 of non-dilutive funding for its first local cohort and helped build awareness for the businesses by leveraging the international reach of one of its major partners.
Now, Reunion is back again with five founders and four new Louisville startups.
As I previously reported, Reunion is the nonprofit arm of Washington D.C.-based Generation Titans, a for-profit social impact firm founded by Jessica Lynch, Raymar Hampshire and Max Skolnik. Louisville is one of only a handful of cities that is involved with Reunion, thanks to a unique partnership with Louisville native and former NBA star Allan Houston and NBA Cares.
Reunion's first cohort — which included Ricky Mason of BrainSTEM University, Megan Bell of Next Door Market, Tamika Bryant of Buy Black Lou and JoCari Beattie of JoBé Products — received $4,000 each, plus hours of pro-bono services from marketing, finance and other experts. Additionally, the group of founders were spotlighted by Houston and the NBA in the middle of the playoffs, garnering more than 65,000 views of its live social media broadcast in June.
The members of the new Louisville cohort were selected from more than 50 applicants, Skolnik said in an interview Friday. He shared that the group of founders tell a larger story of Black excellence in Louisville within several industries, including technology, health care, community and connections, which fed into the theme of the new cohort.
"The first one was called Louisville Triumphant and this one is Louisville Renaissance," Skolnik said. "It's about healing, rebirth, growth and reinvention... [The founders] came up with that title, deciding they wanted to focus on showing the best of Louisville, where it's been and where it needs to go."
Louisville Renaissance includes:
- Black Complex, founded by Aaron Jordan, provides professional development, tech training, events and more that are uniquely tailored to the Black community.
- Black UX Labs, founded by Amber Fields, connects Black and Brown User Experience (UX) practitioners to hiring managers through a fun and innovative professional development platform.
- Melanated Healthcare LLC, founded by Lecresha Sewell, increases access to quality care by helping Black and persons of color (POC) locate melanated health care professionals in their area.
- The Elephant in the Room, founded by Keionna Baker and Cherena Fox, is an interactive diversity and inclusion platform focused on creating comfortable spaces to have uncomfortable conversations.
In addition to Houston and NBA Cares, the second Reunion cohort is sponsored by PNC and Surdna Foundation. The crowdfunding platform is expected to launch on Nov. 5, and more information will be available on Reunion's website here.
Skolnik said the goal with Louisville Renaissance is to not only increase the amount of unrestricted capital raised, but also to build a community of diverse founders and partners. By the end of the year, there will be 10 Reunion cohorts scattered across the country with more launching in 2022.
"At the core of all of our work is community engagement and forming relationships and sustaining those relationships over time," Skolnik said. "We are constantly thinking about once our Reunions are over, how do we continue to tell the story and how do we make further connections for the founders, both investment and networking?"
