Would you define the innovation economy?
The innovation economy, simply put, uses technology to scale business. In the Black community, we’ve had small businesses since the beginning of our freedom, and we’ve been very good at starting small community businesses. [Techstars] takes those same ideas, those same sharp entrepreneurs, the same Black founders, and bring in the digital side of it. So now, instead of just focusing on your community, you can take that product, take that service and scale it across the globe, instantly using technology. That’s how you get these really fast scaling, high-growth businesses that can create a lot of wealth for not only the founders but the people that they hire and their communities.
What makes this program legitimate and necessary for Black entrepreneurs?
With as many problems as innovation and technology have solved over the past 60 or 70 years, racism wasn’t one of them. That’s because people haven’t had the intentionality and Black people haven’t been in the seat, and in leadership positions to make those decisions. Now, I feel like it’s my responsibility during these times as a Black man in this leadership position, to call it out and say, we have the ability now to make this change.
