As the news of George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police reverberated across the country, a change began to occur. Protests were incited, businesses began to take action and a reckoning within many individuals began to occur.
According to a report from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., more than 85% of companies discussed the death of George Floyd with their teams and over 57% of those companies said they are scheduling ongoing discussions on race.
"It's great for us to have these conversations and get feedback," Monica Angel, community coordinator at Synapse Florida, said. "But if we don't move into action our team's fear is that it would be like anything else, where the world's attention goes back to business as usual. And we don't want to go back to business as usual; we want to change."
In Tampa Bay, discussions became action for some. Local nonprofits have created programs to specifically help Black entrepreneurs. Others want to change the inequity that's occurred in the venture capital world for decades. And some are offering their products to Black-owned companies in need.
Tampa Bay Inno has rounded up the initiatives launched, promises made and resources offered to help inequity in the region below.
What's launched
Synapse Florida is in the process of launching the "Inclusion Lives Here" committee, which will be comprised of nine members that will vote on both short- and long-term goals for the nonprofit organization.
"Back in Q1 we announced during our impact board meeting to make stronger efforts on diversity and inclusion," Angel said. "Then you end up in the pandemic and everything started to shift. And then unfortunately, with another murder of a Black man, it served as a fast forward button of needing to do more and do more quickly. We realized we were lacking diversity in our own staff, so we needed help."
The group's first meeting will be July 22.
Seedfunders, an early-stage investment firm, launched the Seedfunders Opportunity Fund in June to specifically focus on Black tech-enabled entrepreneurs.
“We have always been interested in investing in startups with social value in addition to the economic potential,” Seedfunders founder Dave Chitester said in a statement. “This fund takes that a step further by making that part of the selection and investment process.”
A Tampa-based nonprofit has launched the Equity in Entrepreneurship program, which takes entrepreneur-hopefuls through the entire process of creating a startup, from forming an idea to sealing in funding.
“We want to target people who are marginalized by the ecosystem, who have an idea but don’t have access to venture capital,” Terri Willingham, executive director for the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation, said. “How do you start at that early-stage level and have anywhere to go? All our VCs and accelerators are supporting companies that have the infrastructure, that have the advantages, to try an idea.”
The Advanced Manufacturing & Robotics Center, or AMRoC Fab Lab, teamed up with the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation and Grow to Greatness Ventures to launch the program which will span 16 weeks and begin in August. Learn more here.
Deon Bradley, a local entrepreneur, has launched a nonprofit with national aspirations. Hired or Wired puts it simply: “Either hire minorities or write them a check.”
“The lightbulb went off and I said ‘I need to do this,'” he said. “I’m starting a national nonprofit geared toward those two missions, geared to people with disabilities and minorities: get jobs in tech or get funding to launch their companies. There is some tremendously hard working people out there who just need a fair shot. We don’t need anything more, just a fair opportunity.”
What's being offered
Press PR + Marketing has launched a program called "Above the Fold," which offers a variety of free resources for the Black and Indigenous people of color, including:
• Media kit how-to's: Offering a free how-to communication and PR guide to equip BIPOC businesses and organizations with the tools to succeed in media relations
• Hosting free one-on-one communication strategy meetings with BIPOC small business owners⠀
• Highlighting BIPOC community members, businesses, organizations and initiatives that are making a difference in Tampa Bay with community spotlights
Tidal Marketing, which counts Synapse Florida and Blind Tiger Coffee as clients, is offering free social media and digital marketing consultations to Black-owned small businesses through the end of July. The company is also donating 20% of profits through the end of July to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Greenbook Tampa Bay allows for any small Black-owned business to list their company in a directory of other Black-owned business in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
The Tampa Bay Wave has long held its TechDiversity cohort, an accelerator program for any company majority owned by a minority, woman, veteran or member of the LGBTQ+ community. You can get notified the next time applications are open here.
And if you've offering resources to Black-owned businesses, email us.
Who's spoken out
The University of South Florida, which is nestled within the community that came under literal fire when protests first began, has a student population comprised of 10% of Black students. The university released a lengthy letter from USF's president Steve Currall, along with USF's associate dean for diversity, Haywood Brown. The university pointed toward its USF Black Leadership Network and its Student Support Systems programs, the latter which provides extra support to limited-income students as they transition into the university environment. The university also acknowledged Juneteenth, celebrating the emancipation of slaves.
Embarc Collective released a statement on social media in early June, touting its "open opportunities" pillar as one of four that makes up the organizational values.
"This has been a very important topic for our team internally," Tyana Daley, communications manager at Embarc Collective, told Tampa Bay Inno in an email on June 29. "We’re currently working to ensure our internal metrics better help us measure our impact on the Black entrepreneurship community in Tampa Bay. It’s important to us that our positive impact is integrated into our existing work."
Daley added Embarc Collective is also re-evaluating its local and national partnerships, to "ensure that they are helping us amplify our support to a diverse set of entrepreneurs, specifically Black entrepreneurs."
