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Entrepreneurship: A path to closing the racial wealth gap

Deadline for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs to apply for Black Ambition competition is February 18
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Black and Latinx people make up approximately 30% of the U.S. population, but only about 20% of its entrepreneurs, according to Black Ambition, a recently-launched nonprofit initiative created by Grammy Award-winning artist and producer Pharrell Williams.

In an effort to change that equation, the nonprofit has set up two competitions—the Black Ambition Prize and the Black Ambition HBCU Prize to fund and mentor Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. The areas of focus are tech, design, health care, and consumer products and services.

The Black Ambition Prize is intended for seed-to-early-stage companies. The top prize winner will receive up to $1 million, with additional teams receiving smaller prizes.

(Photo: Black Ambition)

The Black Ambition HBCU Prize offers two tracks to students at historically black colleges and universities. One prize of $50,000 is for students who want to develop a concept. The other top award of $250,000 is for an early-stage idea beyond concept. Other teams will also receive smaller prizes.

The application deadline for both prizes is Thursday, February 18. In July, teams competing for the prizes will present to investors and judges.

Access to Growth Capital is Not Equal 

The goal is of the initiative is to provide more access to capital to underrepresented groups in the startup community.

“If Black and Latinx people were supported to succeed as entrepreneurs at the same rate as white people, the United States could add 1.1 million new businesses and 9 million new jobs to the economy,” according to the nonprofit initiative.

Willa Seldon is a senior advisor to Black Ambition and a partner at The Bridgespan Group. “Black Ambition is focused on closing the racial wealth gap for Black and Latinx people through entrepreneurship,” explains Seldon.

The organization states, “Certain communities have historically, deliberately, and painfully been excluded from access to growth capital for their businesses. We believe entrepreneurs historically left out of traditional investment funnels are building the companies of tomorrow.”

“When you think about Black people in this country, there have been enormous contributions made and a lack of recognition of both the talents and the brilliance of Black and Latinx entrepreneurs,” adds Seldon.

Willa Seldon – Black Ambition and The Bridgespan Group (Photo: The Bridgespan Group)

“You look at, basically, income through salaries or wages, as compared to entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship can have a much bigger impact on long-term wealth building, as opposed to just short-term income. We know that many entrepreneurs don’t succeed, but when you look at on balance, as a whole, entrepreneurship is a driver of wealth,” says Seldon.

Seldon says the impact of entrepreneurship can extend beyond the actual entrepreneur. “Black and Latinx communities bring entrepreneurship into their families. They bring entrepreneurship into the communities by hiring people, by staying connected in communities around that. So we know, on average, many tend to give back in those ways.”

Creating a Community of Support for Young Entrepreneurs

“Pharrell is very much excited about supporting HBCUs,” says Seldon. “When you look at any major field, whether it’s the legal field, business, health or medicine, you can see that HBCUs have played very much a disproportionate role in educating and graduating those leaders in those fields.”

“How do we build the opportunity for students in every single HBCU to have the opportunity to see and participate in pathways to entrepreneurship?”

Every participant who submits a serious application will be given a membership in Betaworks Studios, a virtual community supporting founders, funders, and entrepreneurs, according to Seldon. Semifinalists will have the opportunity to meet in mentoring cohorts. Finalists will receive one-on-one mentorships.

Seldon explains the goals of Black Ambition are long-term. “Our goal is to have several hundreds be finalists so that we can basically provide that mentorship to as many people as we can at that stage.”

“The other part is to influence the venture community and capital to flow towards these entrepreneurs. To really change people’s minds about who they see as a successful entrepreneur.”

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.