Black Star Fund

Check out this week's Meet The Black Stars: How to Catch TWO Sharks featuring Dawn Myers, Founder & CEO of Richualist! This Tuesday July 23rd at 11am PT / 2pm ET. Hear Dawn's remarkable story of building a global beauty brand while battling Stage 3 cancer and ultimately landing a deal with TWO Sharks on Shark Tank ABC! Incredibly excited to host this 1:1 conversation with such a powerful Black Star Fund founder! This event will be exclusively on LinkedIn Live. Register NOW to join us and SHARE! Black Star Fund Richualist

This will be one for the history books! Have you wanted to learn how Philanthropic Capital can fuel Venture Capital with Purpose? Have you wanted to know who some of the key earlier believers were in Black Star Fund that enabled us to build the fund that we have today? I thought so! Join me for an EXCLUSIVE LINKED IN LIVE with my great friend and business partner Patrice Brickman, Founder & CEO of Inspire Access on Tuesday, July 16th at 11am PT / 2pm ET! Patrice and I will be talking about our new partnership with Black Star Fund and Inspire Access which allows donors to invest charitable dollars in a for-profit company of their choice that aligns with the organization's charitable purpose of supporting diverse founders. For those of you who don't know, Patrice is one of partners with Monumental Sports which owns the Washington Wizards, the Washington Mystics and Capital One Area. She is the Managing Partner of Inspire Capital and a partner at WE Capital and serves on the board of both Ascend at The Aspen Institute and Halcyon. Please share far and wide with anyone who lives or wants to live at the intersection of Philanthropy, Growth Investing and Impact! #blackstarfund #inspireaccess

Great News to Share! Black Star Fund portfolio company, Acclinate just closed $7M Series A! Congratulations to Co-Founders Del Smith, PhD and Tiffany Whitlow! Proud day for Birmingham, Alabama! Learn more about Acclinate and the recent funding close here: https://lnkd.in/gxwYFw7R #blackstarfund #acclinate #Bham

Just Wow! Denise Woodard, CEO of Partake Foods at the partnership announcement with the Phoenix Mercury yesterday in Phoenix! Black Star Fund Partake Foods Cleveland Avenue Phoenix Mercury #womenssports #womenfounders #wnba

Black Star Fund history was made last night on Shark Tank ABC! Black Star Fund portfolio founder Dawn Myers won a deal with TWO SHARKS!!! Mark Cuban and Emma Grede are now officially investors in Dawn’s company Richualist!!! Black Star Fund was Dawn’s very first institutional investor. I actually met Dawn on Clubhouse during the pandemic and knew right away she was destined for entrepreneurial greatness! To make all of this that much more awe inspiring, last year Dawn was diagnosed with colon cancer…she opted to battle the potentially deadly disease while fighting to keep her company alive. By the end of the year, she was cancer free and made it on Shark Tank! Last night, the world was able to witness grace, power, faith and uncompromising tenacity in action! Congratulations Dawn for this amazing achievement! Congratulations and welcome Mark & Emma to Richualist investor family! We honored to have you and walk alongside you as you take Dawn and her company to heights that only you two can! Please support Dawn and her company here by becoming a customer and a partner by clicking here: https://richualist.com To watch the entire episode of Shark Tank, click here: https://lnkd.in/gU9cm222 Shout out to our other partner investors who saw, believed and invested when most made up reasons not to: Conscious Venture Partners Melissa Bradley 1863? Ventures Dow Venture Capital

When your buddy the Lt Governor of Michigan, Garlin Gilchrist II invites you as his guest to an event at SXSW, you show up! Phenomenal time hanging with this crew - The Honorable Lt. Governor Gilchrist, Dug Song an Icon in the Investing & Entrepreneurial World and my mentee Ollie Howie of New Community Transformation Fund in Grand Rapids which I co-founded and serve on the Board of Directors. This event was the Black & Brown Founders Brunch hosted at the Midwest House and shot me back to my Ohio roots! Beautifully curated event with great people, great conversations and great food!

Great time judging the Entertainment, Media & Content Pitch Competition at SXSW in Austin, Texas this weekend! My esteemed fellow judges included: Katherine Rice - Partner, GingerBread Capital; Jett Fein - General Partner, Headline; Ollie Howie - Managing Director, New Community Transformation Fund; and Becky Center - CEO, Indiegogo. Our event was sponsored by KPMG. Congratulations to OPUS who won both our category and BEST IN SHOW out of 45 Companies! Congratulations to all of the other winners and finalists! The competition was fierce judging from what I saw the future is incredibly bright! Thank you, Chris Valentine & Team SXSW for the gracious invite and running a first class operation! #blackstarfund #sxsw2024 #kpmg