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The Global Black Economic Forum is proud to support the New Voices Foundation’s annual pitch competition for women of color entrepreneurs. Underserved by traditional capital markets, these entrepreneurs are provided with much-needed flexible capital and coaching to grow and scale their businesses via New Voices and a corporate partner, which this year is Entergy. (Entergy)
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Chief Revenue Officer of Essence Ventures.
00:15Good afternoon, everyone.
00:18Good afternoon, everyone.
00:21I am so thrilled to be with you all this afternoon.
00:25Again, my name is Pauline Malcolm Thornton,
00:27and I'm the Chief Revenue Officer at Essence Ventures,
00:32which Essence Festival of Culture is a part of.
00:36Welcome again to the New Voices 150,000 Power Pitch
00:42sponsored by Entergy.
00:46Give it up.
00:48Now, a little bit about New Voices.
00:51New Voices offers women of color,
00:53entrepreneurs unprecedented access to capital,
00:57and expertise to build growth,
01:00to build, grow, and scale their businesses with purpose.
01:04New Voices Foundation is focused on providing flexible funding,
01:09education, and networking opportunities
01:12to these entrepreneurs via pitch competitions like these,
01:17also accelerators, boot camps, coaching, and mentoring,
01:21both online and master classes, and so much more.
01:24And a word about our sponsor.
01:27We're especially pleased to have the support of Entergy
01:31in bringing you this important pitch competition
01:35as a part of Entergy's commitment to corporate citizenship
01:39in New Orleans and the rest of the regions in which they operate.
01:44Give it up for Entergy, everyone.
01:45Now, the fun stuff.
01:49Pitch time.
01:51I want you all to give these incredible entrepreneurs a round of applause.
01:57We have three black women that are going to be joining us.
02:01Mabel and Sharia Frias from Lunar Magic,
02:04Felicia Jackson from CPR Rep,
02:07Brooke Hill from Swella Beauty,
02:10they're going to be joining us very shortly on stage.
02:13And now I want to tell you a little bit about our distinguished judges
02:16that will be judging the competition.
02:19First, we have Darrell Thompson,
02:22Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner for New Voices Fund.
02:27Coming to the stage.
02:31Hey, Darrell.
02:32Next up is Beatrice Dixon,
02:37Founder and CEO of the Honey Pot Company.
02:40Give it up for Beatrice.
02:43And last but certainly not least,
02:46we have Rod West,
02:47Group President of Utility Operations for Entergy.
02:51Welcome.
02:53Now, the judges will evaluate the pitches
02:56of the three companies
02:57that you will be hearing from today.
03:01And they'll all be competing for one $175,000 grant,
03:06one $50,000 grant,
03:08and one $25,000 grant.
03:11Combined with vital business coaching for each winner.
03:16With that, I'm going to get to our finalists again.
03:20We have Mabel and Sharia Frias from Lunar Magic
03:24coming to the stage.
03:31Hey, ladies.
03:37Love those, that pink.
03:41Beautiful colors.
03:43Next up is Felicia Jackson from CPR Rap.
03:46She'll be in.
03:54Okay.
03:55And then Brook Hill,
03:56Swell of Beauty.
03:59Okay.
04:00Got it.
04:05Can we just go here?
04:07Here?
04:07Hello, everyone.
04:11So happy to be here.
04:13We will be sharing the mic.
04:14Well, hola, Essence.
04:16My name is Mabel Frias.
04:17And I am Zahira Frias.
04:19And we are the co-founders of Luna Magic Beauty.
04:22And we provide high-quality cosmetics
04:24at great prices con mucho amor.
04:27In the three years that we've launched our company,
04:29we are distributed in Walmart, Target, and CVS,
04:31and we're just getting started.
04:33And we are excited that we've gained so much traction
04:36by being featured on Shark Tank, Allure, Telemundo,
04:40just to name a few.
04:41When we take a step back
04:42and look at the economic opportunity
04:44of the beauty industry,
04:46the global makeup market size
04:48is valued at $350 billion.
04:51When we look at the United States,
04:53the makeup market size is valued at over $20 billion.
04:56And the vision that we have for Luna Magic
04:58is to capture 5% market share over the next 10 years.
05:02And I think that we are the right sister duo to do it.
05:06Absolutely.
05:07So you guys may ask, how did we get here?
05:10Well, we grew up in the Virgin Islands.
05:12And growing up, our mom used to apply makeup on us
05:15only during two occasions.
05:18During, obviously, Christmas parties, birthdays,
05:22and during the JCPenney Christmas photo shoots.
05:25Who remember the JCPenney Christmas photo shoots?
05:28It was like an annual Super Bowl for us.
05:32And while our mom used to apply lipstick and blush,
05:36she always used to say,
05:37oh my God, you guys look so beautiful.
05:39So we didn't know at the time,
05:41but my mom attached an emotion to the product.
05:45So we grew up with that.
05:47We grew up with the knowledge
05:48that makeup brings us back
05:51to feeling that emotion with my mom.
05:53So after that, growing up in New York City,
05:56I decided to pursue my journalism career.
06:00And then I decided to pivot over to makeup school
06:03because I wanted to know more about formulation
06:06for people like us.
06:08Going down the makeup aisles,
06:10I always had to customize to make it work.
06:13I've always had to question,
06:15is this going to be ashy on me?
06:17Is this going to look bad on me?
06:19It was always a question.
06:20I could never find a product
06:22that was made specifically for me.
06:24So after makeup school,
06:26we went to Cosmoprof,
06:27the biggest beauty conference in Italy,
06:30and we noticed that all the men
06:32were the owners of these beauty brands.
06:34And we're like, wow,
06:35men are telling us what to wear?
06:37Men are telling us?
06:39No offense.
06:40We love them.
06:41But men are the ones deciding what we should wear.
06:44And then that's when I went to my sister,
06:48and I'm like, sister, we need to start something.
06:51Yes, and with my 15 years of corporate experience
06:54supporting and creating merchandising strategies
06:56at brands like Macy's, Nordstrom, and Savage X Fenty,
07:00I knew that there was an immense market opportunity
07:02to bring a beauty brand with culture, sauce, relevancy,
07:06but also that celebrates the beauty
07:08and the diversity of the black diaspora.
07:11We are, from an identity perspective, Afro-Latinas,
07:14which means that we fully embrace
07:16the blackness and the sauce
07:18and the cultural elements
07:20that come with growing up in a Dominican household.
07:23Absolutely.
07:24So then we decided to participate in Shark Tank.
07:26And, you know, we thought it was going to be
07:28a cute marketing moment,
07:29but then when the episode aired,
07:32we realized, oh my God,
07:34so many people started emailing us
07:36about how did you do it?
07:38We thought we were there just selling makeup,
07:41and then we realized, no,
07:43people want to be educated
07:45as to how did we get from Washington Heights
07:48to Shark Tank.
07:50And that boils down to our Mentor Magic initiative.
07:53So what we want you guys to walk away with today
07:55is that we're not only creating beauty
07:58in terms of amazing products,
07:59benchmarked against the best,
08:01brands that you find at Sephora and Ulta,
08:03but at an approachable price point
08:05because we personally believe
08:06that beauty shouldn't break the bank,
08:07and we want to shop for all the things,
08:10but also creating a community of women like us
08:13and remove some education, expertise,
08:15and financial barriers
08:16that comes with launching a beauty business in retail.
08:20We've learned a lot in the last three years,
08:22and we are immensely honored
08:23that you guys have followed us
08:25on this journey with us,
08:25and may the best competitor win.
08:27Thank you very much for that presentation.
08:44That was great.
08:45A couple of questions.
08:46You mentioned you were in CVS, Target, and Walmart.
08:50Can you give us a sense
08:51of the number of stores that you're in
08:54and whether or not in terms of the benchmark
08:56that I know your buyers are looking for,
08:58how are you performing with respect to those metrics?
09:01That's a great question
09:02because we love numbers over here at Luna Magic.
09:05So we are penetrated in 2,500 stores nationwide,
09:09and for a new brand,
09:10that's actually an astronomical number.
09:12When we look at the targets
09:14that we're being measured against,
09:15unit per store per week,
09:17from a strategy perspective,
09:18what we've been able to tell our retailers
09:20is we want to be the leading indie brand in mass.
09:24And what does that mean?
09:25I think that there's value
09:26from a trend perspective,
09:27from a culture perspective.
09:29We want to be great storytellers.
09:31So how do we look at our metrics
09:32to make sense of that?
09:33We're not interested in being the next Ardell,
09:35the next L'Oreal.
09:37Like we are brand founders,
09:38women that created this brand,
09:40and how do we make sure
09:41that we align metrics that make sense?
09:42So we are exceeding our targets,
09:44so that's a plus.
09:45And I will give you one specific example
09:48of how to, that mirrors that.
09:51For CVS, when we first launched,
09:52it was 250 doors.
09:54Six months later,
09:55they asked us to launch in another 400 doors.
09:58So our growth has been aggressive.
10:01But, thank you.
10:05But the long story short is that,
10:07like I said earlier in the pitch,
10:09our aspiration is to acquire 5% market share
10:12over 10 years,
10:13meaning we are being very realistic
10:15of how we're growing this business.
10:17I have a quick question.
10:18As you think about market share,
10:20you made reference to 5% of the U.S. market.
10:23Are you viewing your product
10:25as displacing the existing market,
10:27or is there a growth opportunity
10:29to reach an untapped marketplace,
10:32and how do you quantify that?
10:34Correct.
10:34So we can look at it two ways.
10:36From a market share perspective,
10:38the natural trends of beauty industries
10:40is either an exit or an acquisition,
10:42meaning your brand has been able
10:44to carve out a marketing product angle
10:48for a niche customer base
10:50or an underserved customer base,
10:51or you're replacing a category
10:53or you're making something better.
10:54We're actually doing a little bit of both.
10:56When you look at our lashes classification
10:58and we look at Nielsen data,
11:00Luna Magic is third
11:01compared to the two largest players,
11:04and that is behind,
11:05and I thank my sister,
11:06our commitment around providing
11:07Sephora all to light quality
11:09at this mass pricing.
11:11So we know we have a competitive advantage there.
11:13From a marketing perspective,
11:15I know, right?
11:16Yes, keep telling me the questions.
11:18From a marketing perspective,
11:19we are Afro-Latinas and identities.
11:20What does that mean?
11:22We look to the women
11:23that created brands
11:24like the Lip Bar and Mented
11:25as our big sisters,
11:27meaning they carved out the conversation
11:29around multicultural beauty at mass.
11:31Now we are expanding
11:33that multiculturalism conversation
11:34through the lens of Afro-Latina identity,
11:37which to me is the opportunity
11:39simply because when you look
11:40at the trends of where this country is going,
11:44multicultural customer
11:45is the growth driver for the industry.
11:49So you're here for the pitch, right?
11:56To raise some money.
11:58What will that money go to?
12:00Because what you focused on
12:02when you were pitching
12:03was a mentorship magic initiative.
12:09Does what you're pitching for go to that
12:12or does it go to Luna Magic?
12:14That's a great question.
12:16So mentor magic is an initiative
12:18within Luna Magic,
12:19meaning as we created the brand,
12:21we realized that building community,
12:23the white space that we fill
12:24for our community
12:25is this concept of mentorship
12:26and education,
12:28specifically within the beauty industry.
12:29So we've partnered with New Voices,
12:31myself delivering pitches or expertise,
12:35like this is what it means
12:36to launch at retail.
12:37These are the metrics
12:38that you need to understand.
12:39This is how you build
12:40a merchandising roadmap.
12:41So we're really passionate
12:42as we're building our business
12:44and we have a competitive advantage
12:45that I have been doing this for 15 years.
12:48How do we help other women
12:50level out the playing field
12:51and how do we do that?
12:52Like I said earlier,
12:52through community.
12:53We've launched events
12:55in which we bring 40 women
12:56into mid-space
12:57where we can be honest and authentic
12:59because sometimes these women
13:00have said to us,
13:01listen, how do I connect
13:02with my buyer?
13:03They don't even look like me, right?
13:05So as people of color,
13:07we do have some kind of things
13:09that we have to work through
13:10and our goal with Mentor Magic
13:12is just to keep it real.
13:17Thank you guys very much.
13:18Let's give a hand to Luna Magic.
13:25Testing.
13:27Thank you, Luna Magic.
13:29Next up is Felicia Jackson
13:31from CPR Rap.
13:34Give it up for Felicia
13:35coming to the stage.
13:50Hello, everyone.
13:51I am Felicia Jackson, inventor and CEO of CPRRap. In 2002, I almost lost my baby to a choking
14:02incident. I was working in the medical field and CPR certified, but instead of doing what I was
14:08trained to do, I froze. Thankfully, my husband was there and he was able to save our son,
14:14but it was then I realized if this could happen to me, then I know it's happening to people
14:19everywhere. And it does. According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital
14:29cardiac arrests occur in the U.S. every year, with 240,000 of those happening in the home.
14:37The person most likely to respond to that emergency will be you. It has been proven that CPR provided
14:46immediately after cardiac arrest could double or even triple the victim's chances of survival.
14:52But 80% of Americans are reluctant to perform CPR due to a lack of knowledge or fear of causing harm.
15:00This is why I invented CPRRap. Our patented disposable CPR template protects and guides any
15:09non-medical responder during CPR. CPRRap has an attached one-way valve and mouth barrier for rescue
15:15breathing, visual hand placements for proper compressions, and simple instructions that can
15:21be translated into any language for global usage. They come in adult, child, and infant sizes with a
15:28price point of $9.99. Our competitors are makers of battery-operated and pneumatic-driven devices,
15:37like the Zoll Pocket CPR or the AutoPulse. These devices either require certification to use,
15:44they're costly, or they can only be used on victims eight years and over.
15:49CPRRap does not require batteries and you do not need to be CPR certified to use it. A life-saving
15:55product in its most simplest form. The medical device industry is a $425 billion market that is expected
16:04to exceed $600 billion by 2025. To effectively scale within this market, we are fostering partnerships
16:13with the U.S. military, the Red Cross, and the American Heart Association, who trains over 1 million
16:20people every year. CPRRap is a B2B and a direct-to-consumer business model with over 90% profit margins on our
16:31e-commerce platform. We are positioning CPRRap to scale by partnering with thousands of CPR training
16:38facilities worldwide. I am happy to announce our first major distribution partnership with the National
16:46Safety Council in the U.S. and Aero Healthcare in Australia.
16:51Our CPRRap kits have the ability to be translated into any language, which makes us an international
17:02social impact company. With CPRRap, we also plan to decrease disparities that are seen in minority and
17:11low-income communities that don't necessarily have the tools to perform CPR effectively.
17:17Approximately three weeks ago, one of our videos went viral on social media with 10 million views and over
17:25$200,000 in revenue in less than two weeks. We were also informed that our CPRRap kit was used to save a life.
17:35That's big.
17:37We're looking for strategic partnerships with places like Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark,
17:43Unilever, to incorporate our CPRRap kits in as a value-add with new parents and cardiac rehab patients
17:52prior to leaving the hospital. A CPRRap belongs in every classroom, on every airplane, next to every 3.2
18:03million defibrillators, and inside of every 2 million first aid kits sold every year.
18:09We are on a mission to empower people everywhere to step up and do the most basic, unselfish thing
18:16a human can do. Save a life. We welcome you to visit us at CPRRap.com today to save a life tomorrow.
18:30Wow. Yeah, I wanted to see it. First of all, that was amazing. Incredible. So, when you say that you're
18:40looking to have partnerships with those strategics, how would you partner with them?
18:47Right. So, with those companies that I spoke of, they actually work with hospitals to give
18:55new parents, like the baby bags with diapers and formulas and things of that sort, before they
19:00leave the hospital. We would just incorporate CPRRap into that, because right now, parents get a piece
19:07of paper that has the CPR instructions on it. I got one when I got my baby, and I lost it by the time I got home.
19:13Wow.
19:20Just a quick question. At one point, I'm sure I was CPR certified as well, and obviously that's a long
19:27time ago for me. Just in terms of the practical use of it, how much education actually goes into being
19:36able to use it effectively and having the time to be able to exercise what you're trying to accomplish?
19:42Right. And that's the one thing, that's the one great thing about CPRRap, because of course,
19:46CPR are its guidelines. You can be certified in basic life-saving skills, which is every two years.
19:53Statistics state that after that certification, people are likely to forget their CPR training within
20:00two to four months. If you don't use it, you're going to lose it. And there's different,
20:04like depth of compression, where to breathe, how fast to push, you'll forget that. So with CPRRap,
20:13you don't need any training to use it or anything. Everything is right on that kit, on the template,
20:18that will walk you through CPR as you need it in real time.
20:21Where is your greatest need right now? I heard you make reference to distribution,
20:27but from a manufacturing standpoint, where are you in the ownership of that manufacturing process?
20:33Ownership, of course, I'm majority owner of my company, but as far as distribution,
20:40you know, I'm, I have partners, you know, I don't, I don't want to do this alone. You know,
20:44I'm a first time founder. Um, I know what I'm doing in the medical field and like this product could
20:51exist everywhere. Right. But I know as an entrepreneur, you can't grasp for certain things
20:56all at once. So you're, you're manufacturing the product, right? We're manufacturing the product.
21:01I have a third party manufacturer here in, in the States, but they also have a manufacturing plant in
21:08China. My goal is to have everything here in the States to produce jobs and to produce them here.
21:14And where's your greatest financial need as you, as we think about this award?
21:19My greatest financial need right now is product awareness, even though I, I mean,
21:25because my manufacturer plant, they can make millions at the drop of a dime. My price point is amazing,
21:31but a lot of people still don't know we exist. You know, no matter how viral we go, you know,
21:36this is a global product and it needs to be seen globally. I don't even have a question. I just want
21:42to drop a seed. Um, you don't need to bring things to the United States. Don't think that you have to
21:49do that. You have to do what's going to give you the best profit margin for your product so that you
21:54can make more so that you can get your pricing down. Right. Um, and then the other thing that I
22:00wanted to say is I think that you should consider creating your own first aid kits and selling them
22:06in retail and, and, and, and distributing them in hospitals and things like that. I just wanted to
22:11drop that C for you. Thank you. Nice job. Great job. Thank you, Felicia.
22:16All right. Coming to the stage next is our last finalist, Brooke Hill from Swella Beauty. Give a round
22:31of applause for Brooke. I'm sure every professional working in corporate America can relate to sitting
22:52at home on a Thursday night, sending those last few emails to ensure their team is well prepared for
23:00tomorrow without them because tomorrow is a paid vacation day. Two years ago, that was me, but I
23:09wasn't exactly going on vacation. I was using my paid time off to get my hair braided. Yes, I'll admit it.
23:19I was using up an entire paid vacation day to sit for braids. Last year, more than 100 million braid
23:27appointments happened in the U.S. alone. See, getting your hair done is one thing, but getting your hair
23:34braided, that's exhausting. You have to research and find a stylist, often gather your own supplies,
23:42and travel outside of the city or worse to someone's apartment to receive this service.
23:48I can't think of another beauty service where people pay $300 for an experience that's subpar to terrible.
23:57Having worked in big tech for more than five years, in 2021, I posed one question. Why is it that technology
24:06has disrupted almost every industry there is except for textured hair care? That is until now.
24:14I'm Brooke Hill, co-founder and CEO of Swella, a modern luxury braid bar that uses streamlined processes and
24:24patented technology to provide a braiding service with a better experience, same price, same quality,
24:32but in half the time. See, the experience begins on swellabeauty.com, where our customers book their
24:38appointment, select their style, and then personalize their experience. One customer might request the
24:45workstation so that she can send emails throughout her appointment, while another a Swella tablet to
24:51catch up on her favorite show. Wine, coffee, tea, even popcorn are just some of the things we offer.
24:58These aren't add-ons that you have to pay extra for. This is what we call the Swella standard. We utilize
25:06information technology, and we save user preferences, and we predict future appointments, and we lean into
25:12a limited menu to ensure our braiders can provide the same quality of braids every single time.
25:21Typically, you have to shampoo and blow dry your own hair prior to receiving braid services.
25:26At Swella, it's complimentary. We utilize an assembly line model to hair braiding to quickly move
25:32customers throughout the process, decreasing time in chair by up to 50%. Each station is a singular,
25:40repeatable task with standards to ensure quality. You know what works really well with singular,
25:47repeatable tasks? Automation. That's why Swella is constantly developing automation tools to make the
25:54process within our braid bars more efficient. For example, the first automation tool to hit the market for
26:00Swella is the Unravel device. This patent-pending technology utilized robotics to take down braids,
26:07making it two times faster and 17 times cheaper than doing it manually.
26:13Yes, that's right. Two times faster and 17 times cheaper than doing it manually.
26:20And so, we launched our first Swella braid bar flagship just last year in Atlanta, Georgia,
26:27and in three weeks, we reached maximum capacity. In eight months since we've launched, we've served
26:33more than 700 happy customers as indicated by our 92% customer satisfaction rating.
26:43So, we have a good idea. We have a profitable business model. We have scalable processes, protected IP,
26:52global demand, but so what? Let me show you our why. Here on my phone are 15 of Swella's staff members.
27:03If you can't see, we are 100% black woman owned and operated.
27:11Swella will go on to franchise its braid bars and we believe that black women will be uniquely positioned
27:18to serve as amazing Swella franchisees. See, success for us is when a Swella braider today
27:25becomes a Swella business owner tomorrow, generating a six-figure income and wealth that surpasses generations.
27:33Join me, join Swella in helping move women in making economic mobility more accessible through better
27:42hair braiding experiences. Thank you.
27:49That was excellent. So, okay. So, you're here, you're raising money today.
27:54Yes.
27:57Are you, are you, how is, how is that going to benefit your current shop where you are?
28:01Yeah.
28:02Or are you, are you raising towards a future franchise? Like, what do you, how are you thinking about this?
28:08Yeah. So, around our expansion strategy is what we're raising for. So, we have our first Swella braid
28:13bar in Atlanta, Georgia, and we're looking to build a second location. The way that we'll expand is that
28:18we will own the first 10 locations. By the time we actually franchise, our technology will be available,
28:24which is a huge moat for Swella, and that's how we will scale significantly faster. And so, the 75,000
28:31that we're pitching for today will go toward the second location.
28:34And let me, let me ask you on that point. Per location, what's the cost? What's the investment?
28:42One hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
28:44One hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
28:46So, right now, as you look at the core business, because it sounds like you're going to have some
28:49additional revenue streams in the future. Right now, the initial focus is on expanding
28:56the footprint with respect to the bars?
28:58That's right. And our current margin is 37%. But you're exactly right. We do plan on having
29:04additional streams of income, like licensing out the technology for franchisee owners.
29:11The disruptive aspect of your value chain is this technology you're talking about.
29:16Where are you in the patenting process in terms of actually owning the patent?
29:22So, we have filed the patent and we are waiting for a response. So, it's currently pending,
29:27and we do have some demonstral prototypes. Our business model, you mentioned something earlier
29:33around the technology. We also utilize an assembly line model to hair braiding, and that really helps
29:38our customers to move throughout the process. And so, I'd like to say that the reason why we've been
29:43able to have a 92% customer satisfaction rating and we've been booked is because we're still saving the
29:49customer time, which is what our customer cares most about, even through our manual process by taking
29:55a group effort to hair braiding. But the technology, of course, will help, you know, is a feature of
30:00helping to decrease the time spent in chair.
30:03So, why wouldn't you license the technology out to every braid bar and not just yours?
30:11So, right now, braid bars, the modern luxury braid bar does not exist. A really big part of Suella is
30:18standardizing hair braiding. I'm sure many of the audience members have went, paid for a medium braid,
30:23looked in the mirror, and thought it was a large. And that's because there is no standardization to
30:27hair braiding. And so, when you come into Suella, we are able to quality assure that experience through
30:32our physical braid bars, so that if you get a small braid, you're expecting a small braid. If you get a
30:37medium, you're expecting a medium. And so, that's why we believe franchising is the best avenue to ensuring
30:43quality.
30:44No, no, that's not what I mean. I'm saying, as far as your patented technology goes for taking braids
30:50down, that seems like it would be a crazy revenue driver for you. And it would be a missed opportunity,
30:58in my opinion, to only put that in your braid shops, your braid bars. You may be the first braid bar,
31:06but there are millions of braid shops in the, in the United States. So, I just, you know.
31:12The value is your technology, not just the shop.
31:15Exactly.
31:23Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Let's give, let's give Brooke a hand. Thank you.
31:27Amazing job. Amazing job. All right, everyone. So, now, the judges are going to go back and deliberate
31:38for about 10 minutes. So, please sit tight, because there will be a special announcement on who's the
31:45winner. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Alfonso David, President and CEO of the Global Black
31:55Economic Forum, for a special announcement. Hello, everyone. So, as we wait for the judges
32:02to deliberate, we have a special announcement. And I would like for you all to sort of take a step back
32:09and think about what we're doing on this stage. We're creating opportunities for entrepreneurs
32:14here in the United States. But we also know that we have entrepreneurs in other parts of the world.
32:22And so, to announce this partnership and this, and, and sort of talk about what we're looking to do,
32:28I want to welcome to the stage the CEO of Star News Mobile. And this is one of the fastest growing
32:36companies that provides digital content to creators on the continent of Africa. So, I'll turn it over to Guy
32:43Kempeng, who's going to talk about what this announcement is. Hello, hello, hello.
32:50Hello, everybody. Thank you, Alfonso. It's an honor to be here. And this week has been very inspiring
32:59to meet so many, you know, black excellence and powerful black leaders and rub shoulders with the
33:05vice president of the United States on Thursday. So, thank you very much for the opportunity.
33:12And I'm happy to be here because Alfonso and I, we always talk about global black. What does it mean?
33:19And I was excited to see that we share the same vision. There's a lot of very successful businesses
33:25around the world, black businesses, here and in Africa. And the opportunities and the challenges are
33:31very similar. So, we're going to work on and hopefully working on these challenges.
33:38And it's really probably the reason why I started Star News, a bit of a background. Star News Mobile
33:45is a streaming platform of African content directly from African creators for African consumers in the
33:53rest of the world. So, it came up the realization that if you're a creator in Africa and you want to
34:00monetize content, the traditional platforms were not built for us. If you have a million views on
34:06YouTube, there's nobody at YouTube that you can actually talk to to claim your $57. So, that was a
34:15problem we thought we should be able to figure out. So, this platform is a way for creators in Africa
34:22to directly monetize their content creation. And the truth is, in Africa, creators are small businesses.
34:30Right? They create jobs. They support families. They support communities. So, if you support
34:35communities, then you're supporting the continent. So, you know, we've realized that by helping creators,
34:41you're really helping the continent develop. In fact, the World Bank study shows that the creator
34:48economy in Africa is going to be the driver of GDP growth on the continent in the next five years.
34:54So, now, you know, talking to Alfonso, understanding what they're doing on this side of the world,
35:00and understanding that the opportunities and the challenges are similar, it was only a natural
35:06conversation to partner and to unleash the opportunities that what they're already doing
35:12with what we're doing in Africa. So, the partnership that we want to announce today, which is so exciting, is
35:19we're going to launch the first GBAF, I like to say GBAF, Global Black Economic Farm Expo in Africa
35:28together later this year. Right? And it will be in the form of a competition where we will have the
35:36most promising local businesses on the continent on the Star News platform, and they will be honored at the
35:44GBAF Expo, not only with investment opportunities, obviously, for small businesses, very similar to what
35:51you saw here. We will select the best companies, most promising companies, and they will then be become
35:56part of the GBAF network, which is a proven track record of helping small businesses, opening up opportunities,
36:05opportunities for partnerships, opportunities for mentorship, opportunities to access to more
36:11funding to expand, and the dialogue between, you know, US-based, black US-based businesses,
36:18and black business in Africa, so we can talk about the global black opportunities that we want to build
36:23together. So, this is a very exciting moment. I hope you guys are just as excited, and I want to thank you
36:29again, Alfonso. You're very welcome. So, to amplify what Guy is saying, we'll be working on the continent
36:37of Africa to make sure we're providing the resources and the support that you see on this stage to the
36:44creators, the entrepreneurs that are on the continent of Africa, because we are global black, and we need
36:51to make sure that we're supporting entrepreneurs all over the globe, working with New Voices Foundation to
36:57make sure that we're taking this model and replicating it and having impact. Thank you again, and in a few
37:03minutes, you will hear about the winners. Now we're going to get to the fun part and announce the winners
37:11of the pitch competition. All right. So, our first, I'm going to go to the podium here.
37:19Our first winner of a $25,000 grant goes to the founders of Luna Magic, Mabel and Shira.
37:49Congratulations, ladies.
38:03Give it up. Congratulations.
38:08All right. Wonderful. Our next winner of the $50,000 grant goes to
38:17Phyllisa Jackson for CPR wrap.
38:30Congratulations, Phyllisa.
38:33Fantastic.
38:35Great job.
38:36Congratulations.
38:47All right.
38:49Now the news for our grand prize winner of $75,000 goes to Brook Hill for Swell of Beauty.
38:59Good job, guys.
39:05Congratulations, Brooke.
39:10Congratulations.
39:11I'm coming to Atlanta just for your business. Seriously. Congratulations.
39:24All right. All right, everyone. This is a wrap. Let's give it up again for our finalists.
39:31They're all walking away as winners. Thank you so much for attending.
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