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FOUNDER HUSTLE

Melissa Bradley interviews New Majority Founders about the spark that set them on their entrepreneurial journey and the lessons learned along the way as they grow and scale their businesses.

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About this Podcast

The road from founder to CEO success can be both hard and rewarding. Founder Hustle provides insight and inspiration so that New Majority founders can successfully continue forward on their entrepreneurial journey. Whether thinking about starting your own business, trying to push through 2nd year start-up blues, or raising financing for your next stage of growth, Founder Hustle is a master-class on how to navigate the many challenges of owning and growing your own business.

 

Kiley Summers

Kiley Summers

FOUNDER, SPENDEBT

Kiley Summers is an entrepreneur and champion for equity and inclusion for black and brown founders.  He, himself, is the Founder of SpenDebt, a financial technology company whose mission is to save one million people from financial fatalities every time they swipe their debit card or have a banking transaction.

Ceata Lash

Ceata Lash

FOUNDER, INVENTOR & CO-CEO

Ceata is a trailblazing CEO, inventor, and founder of PuffCuff, the renowned natural hair accessory company. She is the first and only African American woman to hold four U.S. patents in this field.

Mindelyn Anderson

Mindelyn Anderson

Founder + Principal, Mirror Group LLC

For 23 years, Dr. Anderson has researched social inequality and stratification, race and migration, education and social mobility, and health. Mindelyn’s happy place is co-creating the art and science of making data and evaluation meaningful, accessible, and actionable with learning organizations and the communities we at Mirror Group love!

Lorin Dixon

Lorin Dixon

FOUNDER AND CEO, ZAVERYCAKES

Lorin Dixon is the Founder and CEO of ZaveryCakes. With a mission to turn boring food into fandom, ZaveryCakes is giving a new meaning to being able to play with and enjoy your food.

Deidre Mathis

Deidre Mathis

OWNER, WANDERSTAY HOSPITALITY GROUP

Deidre Mathis is a hotelier, author, and world traveler. She created Wanderstay Hospitality Group, a hybrid hospitality brand in 2018. Mathis is the first Black woman to own a hostel in the United States. Mathis is also the Director for the Wander Abroad Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) organization that provides passports and short-term study abroad programs to college students (www.WanderAbroad.org).

Naza Shelley

FOUNDER & CEO, CARPEDM

Naza left her legal career to create a solution to the challenges professional Black women face finding love online. With her vision and execution, her team launched CarpeDM, a first of its kind dating app and matchmaking service powered by a patented video-based matching process. Naza’s mission: Elevate Black women, help create generational wealth in the Black community, and give B[l]ack by donating 5% of CarpeDM’s profits to organizations supporting the community.

K.J. Hughes

K.J. Hughes

FOUNDER, CEO, MANIFEST BARBER. SHOP AND BAR

K.J. has spent over 18 years building and guiding the businesses of today’s most notable entertainment and sports figures through the agency he founded in 2004.  Most recently, founding and managing, Manifest Barber. Shop and Bar – a cultural destination in DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood that has taken the hospitality industry by storm.

Terri-Nichelle Bradley

Terri-Nichelle Bradley

FOUNDER & CEO, BROWN TOY BOX

Founder and Principal of Play at Brown Toy Box, Bradley believes that Black children should see themselves positively represented in every space the experience regularly, starting with their toybox and the toy aisle. Bradley, an equity in play advocate, is on a mission to disrupt the $27B toy industry by creating a brand that reflects the world we live in today.

Barbara Jones-Brown

Barbara Jones-Brown

FOUNDER & CEO, LILLII RNB

Barbara Jones is the founder/CEO of Lillii RNB Inc and has been in the Retail Technology sector for over 20 years and have been on the founding teams of 2 Retail Technology startups that both exited for close to $100M.

Jacquelyn Rodgers

Jacquelyn Rodgers

FOUNDER, CEO, GREENTOP GIFTS

Jacquelyn Rodgers is on a mission to bring diversity to all celebrations by making them culturally inclusive in an era where representation matters. As Founder and CEO of  Greentop Gifts her company brings joy to thousands of households across the United States with their unique and captivating gifting products.

Roz Brooks

Roz Brooks

FOUNDER, HEALTHY CREATIONS

Roz Brooks is a Health and Wellness Coach, Farmer and Creator of Well Women of Color, a transformative movement that empowers women to holistically heal their bodies from the inside out.

April Harris

April Harris

FOUNDER, KEEPING YOU SWEET

April Harris is the founder of the New Jersey-based company, Keeping You Sweet. April Harris launched Keeping You Sweet in 2017, offering a delicious array of health conscious desserts.

MBallou Conde-Kouyate

MBallou Conde-Kouyate

VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP MANAGER, M&T BANK

MBallou is an accomplished financial service professional and a business strategist. Her career spans over two decades in leadership, management, and banking. She has experience working at two significant fortune 500 financial institutions and a minority-owned bank in the Greater Washington DC Metropolitan area.

Kalilah Wright

Kalilah Wright

FOUNDER, MESS IN A BOTTLE

Kalilah Wright, born in Jamaica W.I., is the Founder and CEO of expressive brand Mess in a Bottle. The Mess in a Bottle brand was established to evoke change, question Kalilah’s audience and allow individuals wearing their messages to be vocal without saying anything at all. Each item is designed and printed at her Baltimore in-house studio space.

Chris Denson

Chris Denson

FOUNDER, INNOVATION CRUSH

Chris Denson is an award-winning innovator, marketer, recovering comedian, and host of the Innovation Crush podcast, with over 750,000 subscribers around the world.

Credits

  • Founder Hustle is produced by Ann Kane
  • Podcast editor is Sonya Harris
  • Social media producer is Misako Envela
  • Intro theme is “Vuelta al Sol” by Tomas Novoa
  • Interstitial music is “Ratata” by Curtis Cole
  • Outro theme is “Glide” by Columbia Nights

Reviews

Sheilisa McNeal-BurgessFounder and CEO at Fria LLC

Melissa, this topic is spot on. In the approval process for business loans, most new majority founders are judged based on their personal credit. Many, like me have bootstrapped our companies, using personal credit to fund the business. The result is high credit usage. However, lenders ignore an excellent payment history preferring to measure creditworthiness by how much you owe. How is this not another way to limit access to capital? Thank you for giving voice to the issue. Perhaps it will shed light on the inequality in the process and result in revised guidelines.

Michelle @ OgraphikaThe Essential Entrepreneur Guide

I recently started my own business and Founder Hustle has become everything I didn’t know I needed. Part history lesson, part mentorship, each episode offers a valuable lesson as well as the hard truths we have to face in building a business. Thank you to the Founder Hustle team, I can’t wait to hear more.

YhaneSmithReal Talk From Real Founders

I’m really enjoying listening to the journeys of these inspiring New Majority Founders! I also like learning the history of banking in this country and how it relates to banking today.

Karen WrightEntrepreneur / Luxury Gifting Specialist / Philanthropy & Fundraising Executive / Social Impact Strategist / Board Member

Conversations that empower and help you win! 👏🏽👏🏽👊🏼

Darryl Wharton-Rigby

Just added @founderhustle a podcast to the rotation. It’s hosted by @bradleyml who has conversations with New Majority entrepreneurs about navigating the world of business. Produced by @kineticNRGent The first few episodes have been enlightening. ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥