PitchBlack, an event where Black entrepreneurs pitch their businesses and compete for cash prizes, happened for the first time since 2019 at The Redd on Salmon Street Thursday night.
You can meet the winners here.
Sipping on Deadstock Coffee and snacking on caramel corn, hundreds of people greeted friends they had not seen in years and cheered for innovative BIPOC businesses.
As a newcomer to Portland, PitchBlack was one of the first community events I attended. I was shocked in the greatest way possible at the joy that filled the room and the community on hand to support some of city's brightest startups.
Portlanders know how to make someone feel welcome, and they know how to pitch ideas as well. Here are two takeaways from the evening.
Great things can come from hard times
Drink Mamey’s founder Cydnie Smith-McCarthy started her health juice business to honor her father, who passed away from a heart condition he did not even know he had. The goal of her juices is to promote balanced and healthy living in a way that is fun and enjoyable.
As Smith-McCarthy wrapped up her pitch, she teared up and said how proud her father would be to see her now.
The founders of an all-inclusive camping experience, Camp Yoshi, told the crowd the story of their families vacationing in Glacier National Park in Montana amid the protests following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.
Shequeita Frazier, co-founder with her husband and brother-in-law, said people were texting the three asking why they were in nature with all the racial justice demonstrations happening around the world, and Frazier said she responded that they had finally found their peace.
“It’s the safest that we'd felt since the start of this pandemic, to be honest, and we’d established a community since we’d been out there. We met people, we belong here, we feel safe here,” Frazier said. The trip inspired their business that invites the Black community and its allies to connect with nature in ways they may never have before.
Another PitchBlack participant, Jeremy Roberts, shared his own experience being pulled over and interrogated in his car before being let go with no ticket or charges filed. He founded Dashdok — a document holder that attaches to a vehicle's dashboard — so other BIPOC folks would not have to feel anxiety he said he felt.
The “make it” culture lives on.
One of the first things I noticed about Oregon when I moved here is how determined everyone is to solve problems themselves in creative ways. Oregonians don’t wait long for others to solve their issues, they do it themselves and they do it with passion.
Plant Bomb was founded, Rajiv Harry said, on an observation that there were so few plant-based, healthy sauces and dressings for people to spice up their food.
Panga began when co-founder and dental hygienist Ingrid Adeogun saw how many plastic toothbrushes were filling up landfills, and how few compostable dental hygiene options there were.
Paula Hayes, a chemist, founded Hue Noir because she had difficulty finding makeup for people with deeper skin tones.
Anyeley Hallová founded Adre with the purpose of developing buildings that create social and economic benefits for BIPOC communities through affordable housing, mixed-use developments and more, because she saw no one else doing it.
There was plenty to look forward to when I moved to Oregon in late December. The outdoor beauty, the food, the beer, the coffee. The spirit of innovation and its contributions to the regional economy has been an unexpected surprise, and one that was on full display at PitchBlack.
