Finding a possible path forward
Minorities historically lack access to capital and connections, the lifeblood of American free enterprise
Forty Black female entrepreneurs across Houston logged into Zoom on a Wednesday and Thursday in August, waiting to pitch their products and services to representatives from Fortune 500 companies, including the San Francisco tech company Salesforce, the Boston conglomerate General Electric and the Houston company Waste Management.
Five of the entrepreneurs walked away with letters from the representatives stating interest in working with their companies. All of them left with an expanded network of contacts in the Black business community that could lead to partnerships, advertising opportunities and introductions to larger companies seeking to diversify their suppliers.
The event, Share the Mic and the Money Now, was perhaps as entrepreneurial as the telemedicine, consulting and workforce development firms launched by the women. As corporations rushed to pledge their commitment to racial justice after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the event’s organizers seized the opportunity, challenging companies to do more than just talk.
The approach represents a possible path forward for Houston’s Black business community, which historically has lacked access to the capital and connections that are the lifeblood of American free enterprise. The idea is to address both access issues by exposing corporations to the diversity of goods and services provided by Black-owned businesses and introducing Black entrepreneurs to potential customers, partners and investors.
JeNae Johnson, founder of CTM Unlimited, a consulting company, is closing on a contract with GE worth between $50,000 and $70,000 as a result of Share the Mic and the Money Now. She called the event “a case study for how you can make a lot of impact in a short period of time.”
“A lot of companies that I’ve seen, they’ve come out and said, ‘We really want to do something about the racial inequity we see, but we’re not sure where to start,’” Johnson said. “Waste Management, the Greater Houston Black Chamber, Leadership Houston — they set this up in four weeks.”
The cycle of Buy Black
More than 90,000 Black-owned businesses operate in Houston. Many received a boost from a Buy Black campaign that spread rapidly on social media following Floyd’s death. Others have not.
The Buy Black movement first emerged in 1955 as an attempt to change communities by helping Black families build wealth, said Dr. Asheli Atkins, a sociologist who has researched race, ethnicity, entrepreneurship and organizational theory. Since then, the movement has been entwined with the country’s history of racial violence, regaining prominence
“We have years of racism and discrimination to overcome.” Carol Guess, president of the Greater Houston Black Chamber
whenever the nation is forced to turn its attention to social justice.
“We continually see this happening where there’s a murder of a Black person and there’s a rise of economic justice for Black people,” Atkins said.
Carol Guess, the president of the Greater Houston Black Chamber, said tragedies like Floyd’s death shine a light on how race and economics are interwoven. Black Americans received none of the wealth their labor created during slavery. During the Jim Crow period, policies such as redlining blocked Black communities from credit and capital that help businesses, neighborhoods and families build wealth.
Black-owned businesses, particularly those led by women, continue to face obstacles in capturing venture capital funding. Black women received just 0.0006 percent of funding raised over the last decade, according to Digital Undivided, a startup supporting Black and brown women entrepreneurs.
People are realizing that buying products or services from Black-owned businesses can support the community as employers hire workers, who in turn spend their earnings locally to support other businesses, who also may start hiring, Guess said. This virtuous circle, as economists call it, can help build stable communities and families.
“People are recognizing, ‘If I support this Black-owned business, then I can see myself enabling families and communities to get out of poverty, get health care and save to send people to college,’” Guess said.
The latest wave of corporations pledging to support Black-owned businesses and diversify the companies with which they work with has inspired a mix of hope and wariness. Hundreds, if not thousands, of companies nationwide put out letters following the death of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, announcing their commitments to inclusion and diversity and condemning police brutality.
Waste Management, one of Houston’s largest companies by revenue, joined in the cacophony of inclusion and diversity statements. Then it took another step. It partnered with an organization with a long history of supporting Black business owners, the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce, and a nonprofit specializing in training leaders, Leadership Houston, to host a pitch event to help it connect with and coach Black entrepreneurs.
Such an approach, Atkins said, was always an easy way for corporations to engage with Black businesses.
“They could’ve been doing it with the Black chamber for the past 85 years,” said Atkins, who also does research for the Greater Houston Black Chamber.
Four days, one conference
The resulting program, Share the Mic and the Money, taught participants how to pitch their companies, providing sessions with procurement managers from various companies who offered advice on what they look for in a contractor. Many companies track how many of their contractors are minority-owned, so participants who were not already certified as minority business enterprises were fast-tracked through their applications.
Guess said there were lessons for both major corporations and Black entrepreneurs. For one, corporations need someone who will advocate for Black-owned businesses.
“It’s not just someone who is reciting a mantra of ‘We’ve got to do better, we’ve got to do more,’” Guess said, “but someone who’s passionate enough about helping our businesses and has a plan in mind.”
Entrepreneurs, Guess added, need to tailor their pitches to the services corporate customers need and adjust their own practices to comply with policies of larger companies.
During the sessions, Johnson learned that cybersecurity was a concern for large corporations sharing data with a small business. She immediately added cybersecurity insurance to her company’s insurance package. She came into the pitch meetings hoping to land a contract with a major company.
She left not only with a letter of intent that would result in a contract with GE but also with a wealth of knowledge on taking her consultancy to the next level. Johnson said her company, CTM Unlimited is now in talks with Salesforce and Sodexo.
Salesforce has offered the 40 entrepreneurs weekly webinars on how to develop their businesses. Some participants, including Johnson, are receiving one-on-one sessions.
Kyra Hardwick, founder of Kyra Company, a consulting firm that recently turned its focus to the pandemic, also participated in the pitch program. While she didn’t land a contract, she said she made connections with large national companies and local Black businesses.
She recently hired two contract workers and expects to hire more if the leads she acquired during the event pan out. “It’s the trickle-down effect,” Hardwick said, “and I love it.”
Another participant, Dr. Latisha Rowe, runs the telemedicine practice Rowedocs. She agreed that the program was a good opportunity, but noted that company representatives listening to pitches were diversity, equity and inclusion executives, rather than people who sign off on purchase orders.
“Companies are more aware, more open and trying to find ways to be more diverse and dispel racial disparities,” she said. But if companies want to show that they’re truly committed, she said, they would “send the decision makers to listen.”
Rowe also did not get a contract out of the Share the Mic event. But she expanded her contacts in the Black business community and plans to hold monthly calls with them.
Share the Mic and the Money Now could be the blueprint for big corporations to take action, Guess said. She saw it as a step toward creating a “scaffolding” effect, in which large companies support smaller businesses by offering capital, identifying weaknesses in business models and helping to find new connections and opportunities.
That’s the best way companies can put their words about diversity and racial justice to work, she said.
“Don’t let this be a flash in the pan,” Guess said. “We have years of racism and discrimination to overcome.”