If there’s one thing 2020 has taught us, it’s that if we bet on Black entrepreneurs and their ideas — we can shift the cultural landscape and prosper even more. As a way to promote the upward growth and demand for Black businesses, Founder Gym partnered with Shopify, a leading commerce platform helping over 1,000,000 merchants around the world build and scale their business, to host Build Black: The Future Is Now event. Shopify is home to many Black-owned businesses, and the trailblazing entrepreneurs featured in the event were:

• Gwen Jimmere, Founder & CEO of Naturalicious

• William Adoasi, Founder of Vitae London

• Kiyanna Stewart and Jannah C. Handy, Co-Founders of BLK MKT Vintage 

Founder and CEO of Founder Gym, Mandela SH Dixon did an amazing job moderating the event by asking the right questions to equip emerging founders with knowledge to grow their businesses. Her startup offers training to underrepresented entrepreneurs to help them raise capital to fund their business ventures. Continuing efforts in supporting all things Black, Founder Gym and Shopify will award 10 founders with a Money Magnet scholarship to build the strong, thriving business of their dreams. 

The Money Magnet program exists to solve the problem of funding that plagues the Black entrepreneurship community. Whether it’s a lack of capital or financial literacy, the training program teaches founders how to grow, solidify their passions, and most importantly turn it into a check.

“Black entrepreneurship is important because it creates optionality in the Black community,” Dixon said. “Just like all of the community should have the option to create the lives of their dreams and to build the communities that resonate with their culture.”

The Build Black series itself was created to have an ongoing conversation and bring Black business owners together as a collective to discuss how to start and stay in business. The event was definitely food for the soul and had over 16,000 registrations. The panel of entrepreneurs dropped gems about what start-up founders should do to level up in business and build a loyal client base, and what platforms like Shopify can do to support Black-owned businesses. See what helpful advice each founder had to give about the entrepreneurial experience and how to apply it to your business. 

Gwen Jimmere, Naturalicious

As the founder and CEO of Naturalicious, Jimmere is the first Black woman to hold a patent for a natural hair care product. She faced personal and professional wins and losses on the journey to create Naturalicious, and if there’s one piece of advice that she can give emerging entrepreneurs, it is that “waiting is not a wealth strategy.” If in doubt, Jimmere emphasizes to always bet on yourself. Although we may want all the answers before we take that big step, “sometimes you have to jump off the cliff and fly,” according to Jimmere. 

When it comes to Black entrepreneurship, the Naturalicious founder also emphasizes how important it is for Black owners to scale their businesses so that they can set a foundation for future generations to follow their lead. 

“It’s really hard to be what you can’t see,” Jimmere said. “It’s really important for us to make sure that we are successful and Shopify helps us do that by allowing us to level the playing field so that we can compete on those levels.”

When it comes to support, Black businesses also need allies to help get their inventions, ideas, and services in front of new audiences. Jimmere mentioned ways non-Black allies can help Black businesses. 

“Don’t assume that if a product is [made] by a Black person or founder that it’s only for Black people,” said Jimmere. “Naturalicious makes hair care products, but we don’t make hair care products for just Black people — we have a whole line for curly, wavy and loose curls.” 

William Adoasi, Vitae London

London-based entrepreneur, William Adoasi also shared great tips from a global perspective based on his experience of starting his watch company, Vitae London. He spoke about how technology has revolutionized the support of Black businesses by making them more accessible to customers. Adoasi was the first to mention how platforms like Shopify level out the playing field and how technology helps Black entrepreneurs grow their brand in a more efficient and instantaneous way.

“If I were to start a watch brand 50, 60 years ago it’d be a lot more difficult,” Adoasi said. “It would [have been] a lot tricker. Shopify for instance is [a] plug-in and play solution, which has definitely assisted and enabled us to grow at scale.” 

Adoasi talked about the benefits of non-Black allies pouring into Black businesses and how they can partner with businesses to elevate the stories we want to tell. 

“I think black entrepreneurship is important for the world because it’s a route for us to have true equality,” Adoasi said. “It’s a route for us to have a true level playing field. It’s a route for us to truly make a difference in our communities and broader. It allows us to express and have that voice that we haven’t necessarily been fortunate enough to have throughout the whole of history.”

Jannah C. Handy & Kiyanna Stewart, BLK MKT Vintage

Co-founders, Jannah C. Handy and Kiyanna Stewart found their niche as Black entrepreneurs through creating an antique market selling Black collectibles such as clothing, vintage literature, vinyl records, and art that celebrate the richness of Black history.

Both entrepreneurs have a passion for bringing Black artifacts to the forefront through their company. During the chat, they both emphasized how emerging entrepreneurs should be unapologetic about investing and staying engaged with their target audience. Handy brought up a good point about how allies can still support Black-owned businesses through shared interests, though they may come from a different background. Allies shouldn’t be forcing support if there is no common interest in the business. 

“We’re not asking allies to do something that’s disingenuous or that does not fit their character,” Handy said. “If you don’t wear natural hair [and] If you’re not interested in that, we’re not asking you to feign interest. Find something [common] that [exists] outside of the narrative of a founder who may look different than you, or have a different lived experience. There is a thread that connects us all.”

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The world needs more Black-owned businesses. Now and in the future.That’s why Shopify has recently announced its participation in the HOPE One Million New Black Business & New Black Entrepreneurship Initiative (1MBB) with the intention to provide up to approximately $130 million of resources over the course of this initiative and to help create one million new Black-owned businesses in the U.S. by 2030.

Also, to create a one-stop-shop to discover and shop from Black businesses, Shopify created a Black Business Directory. The directory was created to showcase the excellence of Black businesses that call Shopify home. Now, there is an opportunity for shoppers around the world to stay plugged in and shop Black every day. 

Do you have a business that you want to submit to Shopify’s Black Business Directory? Click here to sign up to build and learn from fellow Shopify Black merchants. 

This editorial was brought to you in partnership with Shopify.