It Started With $1

Fashion has always been a passion for Brandice Daniel, the CEO and founder of Harlem’s Fashion Row. That said, as a woman of color, she hasn’t always felt like she’s belonged. Which is why she’s dedicated herself to championing multicultural fashion designers. Daniel’s story isn’t one of overnight success, but rather that of years of self-funding and hard work that has resulted in her becoming a definitive force in the fashion industry. Sponsored by Ally Financial.

A gay, Black man with a childhood defined by poverty and bouts of homelessness, Christopher Gray admits he’s not a typical tech entrepreneur. But then again, his company, Scholly, isn’t a traditional tech startup. Gray used his own experience as the first in his family to go to college, after he won $1.3 million in college scholarships, to shape his model for what Scholly could be. Now he’s helping millions of others achieve their college dreams with a tool that matches them with scholarship money. Sponsored by Ally Financial.

Neil Blumenthal had a vision when he started Warby Parker with three of his business school friends: to give people the gift of sight and disrupt the $100 billion optical industry. With his Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program, Blumenthal makes designer eyeglass frames affordable to millions of people around the world, while donating the same amount of glasses to those in need in the developing world. Sponsored by Ally Financial.

Matt Pohlson had an eye-opening experience after he and his business school buddy, Ryan Cummins, attended a charity auction where they hoped to bid on their dream experience: the chance to play basketball with Magic Johnson. As broke grad students, they were quickly outbid. That’s when they realized there might be a better way to raise money for charity, and a way to make amazing experiences accessible to anyone with $10 and a dream. They barely had more than that when they turned their passion into the online charity platform Omaze. Sponsored by Ally Financial.