It wasn’t much time, but Emmanuel Akindele made the most of his three minutes in the spotlight.
Along with six other tech entrepreneurs, Akindele recently stood in front of a crowd of 200 people and a panel of judges to pitch his business while the clock ticked down.
“It’s difficult, but it’s reflective of what it’s like as an entrepreneur,” said Akindele, who co-founded a mental health app called Blue Guardian. “You often have a very short period of time to tell the story of why people should care about what you are building.”
At stake was $20,000 in funding in the contest held on April 20 by the DMZ, a tech company incubator at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).
The contest was part of the DMZ’s Black Innovation Summit, an event to promote the organization’s Back Innovation Programs (BIP).
With venture capital funding plunging and Black founders historically facing greater challenges than other groups in raising money, several incubator programs in Canada are trying to help Black tech entrepreneurs survive the start-up phase.
The objective of BIP is to nurture and grow Black-owned tech companies, helping them hone their ideas, find mentors, and connect with investors.
According to recent surveys by the government and the Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce, poor access to capital and the lack of advisors or a business network are key factors holding back Black business owners in all sectors.
Contest for Black-owned startups aims to level the playing field
A Toronto university is hosting a pitch contest for Black-owner tech startups to level the playing field and connect underrepresented entrepreneurs with mentors and potentially critical funding.
Incubators essential to support Black owned tech
The BIP was created in 2019 by DMZ, which says the program was Canada’s first such effort focused on Black tech entrepreneurs.
“There’s a huge need for programs like this,” said Tina Mbachu, a senior program leader with DMZ.
On top of the structured help with business development, Mbachu says bringing Black entrepreneurs together can lead to a powerful feeling of community for founders who may have previously felt isolated.
“I can relate to their life stories, I can relate to the challenges and we can pull solutions from each other.”
Tina Mbachu, a senior program leader with DMZ’s Black Innovation Programs, says there’s a huge need for incubators to help nurture tech entrepreneurs from the Black community. (Heather Waldron/CBC)
Since the DMZ began its program for Black tech founders, similar efforts have followed.
Investment an issue for many Black-owned businesses
The problems faced by Black tech founders also being faced by other business owners in the Black community.
Support for Black businesses surged as the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
Marc Lafleur, who sold TruLocal, his online subscription service for meat products, for nearly $17 million, was recently at the Black Innovation Summit to share the story of his success and take questions from the audience. (Heather Waldron/CBC)
Sharing success stories
Marc Lafleur, the former CEO of TruLocal, was at the Black Innovation Summit to share the story of his success and take questions from the audience.
Lafleur co-founded the online subscription service for meat products in 2016, and sold it in December of 2022 for almost $17 million.
He agrees that entrepreneurs who are Black have a difficult time raising money for their businesses, in part because there aren’t a lot of Black investors.
“At the end of the day, the VC industry has been known to be, you know, pale, stale and male. And you know, traditionally people are going to invest in people that they can relate to,” said Lafleur.
While he believes that hearing “no” can help strengthen the resolve of Black business owners, Lafleur also says he wishes there was something like the Black Innovation Programs when he was starting TruLocal.
Lafleur, who had two businesses fail before his third succeeded, also says it’s essential to celebrate role models with events like the summit.
“If we can show and highlight more success stories from black founders that have done it, then it’s going to inspire more youth today that are Black to get into business.”
The Canadian behind the ‘15% pledge’ to support Black businesses
Canadian designer and fashion icon Aurora James made headlines this spring when she started the ’15 per cent pledge,’ a campaign to get retailers in the U.S. to source 15 per cent of their products from Black creators. She talks to The National’s Andrew Chang about starting the pledge and her drive to force change.
Getting small companies to think big
At the Black Innovation Summit, Akindele, the 22-year-old entrepreneur with the mental health app Blue Guardian, ended up taking 1st place in the pitch contest.
This week, he launched the app aimed at helping teenagers, for now available only on iPhones.
Using artificial intelligence, Blue Guardian analyzes a phone user’s text messages and chats inside social media apps, monitoring language patterns for signs of depression. If needed, it provides users with resources to help learn more about their symptoms and seek help.
Emmanuel Akindele poses with the cheque he received for placing first in the pitch contest at the Black Innovation Summit in April. The 22-year-old launched his mental health app aimed at helping teenagers this week. (Heather Waldron/CBC)
Akindele and a partner have been working on the app for three years, cobbling together funding from their alma mater, Western University, and a grant program to hire students for short term work.
He says the prize money from DMZ is a “game changer” that will help make the launch a success.
Another game changer? The support that came with entering DMZ’s six-month incubator program in 2021.
Akindele says successful entrepreneurs he met through DMZ inspired him to think bigger than just making a difference for mental health in Canada.
“Now, my vision is we can just go ahead and change the world.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”
Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.
Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.
Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.
In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.
The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.
The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
