Podcasts about enrichher

Why it was selected for "CBNation Architects": In this episode,  the guest is Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER. Key points discussed in the podcast includes: EnrichHER: Roshawnna outlines her FinTech platform, EnrichHER, which aims to disrupt traditional and harmful lending terms through its innovative credit model and lending environment. The platform connects revenue-generating women-led companies seeking up to $250,000 with accredited, non-accredited, and institutional lenders. Dr. Roshawnna Novellus: The podcast features in-depth discussion about Dr. Roshawnna's commendable service on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta, her honor as one of Atlanta Business Chronicle's "Women Who Means Business", and her recognition as "Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech" among other accomplishments. CEO Hack: Dr. Roshawnna shares her practice of listening to affirmations in the morning and at night. CEO Nugget: She highlights the importance of asking for help and approaching experts for advice or solutions to problems. CEO Defined: Dr. Roshawnna defines a CEO as a leader and an individual who has the ability to inspire people.   Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter--our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE.  I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!   Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/2019/09/26/iam409-founder-and-ceo-disrupting-traditional-and-predatory-lending-terms/

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a Techstars backed FinTech lending platform that streamlines capital deployment process for individual and institutional investors who want to support businesses led by women and people of color. EnrichHER has been in-market since 2019, deploying $14M in capital to traditional businesses from 47 states.In our conversation with Dr. Roshawnna we talk about many obstacles facing small business owners, women of color in particular, when trying to raise capital for their companies. We also discuss Roshawnna's backstory and how she got into entrepreneurship.Dr. Roshawnna shares her insights regarding lending landscape for small businesses and speaks on systemic bias and discrimination against black women in the financial ecosystem. We also cover different types of financing available through Roshawnna's company, and talk about the early days of building the product. Roshawnna gives her thoughts on what are the most important traits to look for when hiring employees and shares lessons learned from her experience of going through Techstars accelerator.

On this episode of Money Moves we have special guest Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a FinTech lending platform that's making it easy for retail and institutional funders to deploy capital to  businesses led by women and people of color. A nationally recognized financial inclusion advocate and champion of mindfulness, Dr. Novellus is dedicated to deploying working capital to women and people of color to help them grow their businesses. She's also one of the few Black women ever to have raised over $1M in venture capital. EnrichHER has Deployed $14M in capital to diverse-owned businesses from 47 states. EnrichHER fuels the fastest-growing demographics of business owners -- Black women and diverse-led companies -- by providing capital, coaching, and connections. Today we're talking about all things fundraising—from overcoming the gender funding gap to securing the bag and finding the right funds for your business.   Sponsors: • Mastercard | When women-owned small businesses thrive, we all thrive. Learn more about the tools and resources Mastercard is offering, from moving your biz online to best practices on digital security, at mastercard.com/smallbiz. Together, let's Start Something Priceless.   Resources:• To join the WorkParty click HERE • To connect with Dr. Roshawnna Novellus click HERE • To connect with Jaclyn Johnson click HERE • To follow along with Create & Cultivate click HERE • To follow along with EnrichHER click HERE • To submit your questions call the WorkParty Hotline: 1-(833)-57-PARTY (577-2789) Produced by Dear Media

Other Funding Sources https://go.thesmbx.com/invest/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=SMBX-branded-keywords-september-2021&utm_content=branded-keywords-ad-1&utm_term=branded-keywords&utm_term=smbx&utm_campaign=SMBX-branded-keywords-september-2021&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=6811423545&hsa_cam=14660093993&hsa_grp=130008721129&hsa_ad=546062566057&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-14081102171&hsa_kw=smbx&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjw0a-SBhBkEiwApljU0g7EjSFQAc_hahL2B7IP05OCwQ9e2rfd-KSp9hjQC3dBYmLjWPIHyBoCA94QAvD_BwE (SMBX) https://www.embercompany.co/ (Ember Co) https://www.kickfurther.com/ (Kickfurther) https://www.settle.com/ (Settle) https://assembledbrands.com/ (Assembled Brands) https://circleup.com/ (Circle Up) https://enrichher.com/ (EnrichHer) https://www.wayflyer.com/ (WayFlyer) https://7figuresfunding.com/ (7Figures) Connect with Nopalera https://my.captivate.fm/www.nopalera.co (Website) https://www.instagram.com/nopalera.co (Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/nopalera.co/ (Facebook) https://www.sandraliliavelasquez.com/ (Follow Sandra) https://www.sandraliliavelasquez.com/ (Submit a business question)

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a financial platform that connects female entrepreneurs with lenders who want to earn a return on their investment while fueling the growth of women-led businesses. Dr. Novellus is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Dr. Novellus holds a PhD in systems engineering with a minor in finance, a Masters of Science in information technology emphasizing information system engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in business management economics, and a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering — achieving Summa Cum Laude in each. Dr. Novellus served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend, a Halcyon Fellow for Social Impact, one of the Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech, one of the 27 Black Founders and Investors to watch in 2019 by PitchBook, and LinkedIn Top Voice in Technology. Get in touch with Dr. Roshawnna Novellus: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshawnna/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iEnrichHER/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ienrichher/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ienrichher Website: https://enrichher.com/ Book your free Strategy Flow call today! https://www.outfieldleadership.com/#call Purchase Dave's book The Self-Evolved Leader here- https://www.amazon.com/Self-evolved-Leader-Elevate-Develop-Refuses/dp/1626346801 Get in touch with Dave: Website: https://www.davemckeown.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/davemckeown Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davemckeown1/?hl=en

Kathija "Kat" Mohammed is the COO of EnrichHER, a certified B Corporation and financial technology platform that matches revenue-generating companies led by women and founders of color to individual and institutional sources of funding. Since 2017, EnrichHER has deployed upwards of $4 million through its platform and matched business owners to $13 million in working capital through its Accelerator. By providing capital, coaching, and connections, they are fueling the fastest-growing demographic of business owners. Their network has engaged with over 23,000 advocates through its digital community and in-person activations. As a leader, Kat is a growth specialist focusing on building relationships and optimizing operational efficiency. She has over 10 years of operations experience previously working for a non-profit as a Director of Education where she developed educational and professional development programming for hotel owners across the US. She also has experience in data analytics, operations, commercial lending, and retail. Kat is motivated by her desire to positively impact as many people as she can in her life along with her family. Kat is a lover of life and when not honing her professional skills, she can be found enjoying the outdoors or doing creative projects. What you’ll learn Why EnrichHER exists, their overall mission, Kat’s role as COO, and why they certified as a B Corporation. EnrichHER’s experience with going through the extensive B Corp certification process. What issues and barriers still exist for female founders and founders of color within the funding ecosystem. What Kat sees as the biggest area of opportunity for funders, investment firms, and companies like EnrichHER to continue this focused work on diversity, inclusion, and access to capital over the next 5+ years. How to make sure your mission and vision stay locked in and that you’re responding to the needs of your stakeholders as you continue to grow rapidly. What is giving Kat the greatest hope for a sustainable future through businesses as a force for good. Follow / Learn More Follow EnrichHER on LinkedIn Follow Kat on LinkedIn Sign up for the EnrichHER Newsletter Email kat@enrichher.com Follow EnrichHER on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube We Love Our Community PartnersB Local G Georgia: a collection of for-profit companies each dedicated to creating a future where businesses operate as a positive influence on societyInspiredu: Nonprofit Leaders Bridging The Digital DivideAppBarry: Custom Web And Mobile Application DevelopmentClassic City Consulting: WordPress Website DevelopmentStratfield Consulting: Consulting, Staffing, Recruiting Produced by Chat With Leaders Media. Visit https://chatwithleaders.com to learn more about starting your own business podcast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kathija "Kat" Mohammed is the COO of EnrichHER, a certified B Corporation and financial technology platform that matches revenue-generating companies led by women and founders of color to individual and institutional sources of funding. Since 2017, EnrichHER has deployed upwards of $4 million through its platform and matched business owners to $13 million in working capital through its Accelerator. By providing capital, coaching, and connections, they are fueling the fastest-growing demographic of business owners. Their network has engaged with over 23,000 advocates through its digital community and in-person activations. As a leader, Kat is a growth specialist focusing on building relationships and optimizing operational efficiency. She has over 10 years of operations experience previously working for a non-profit as a Director of Education where she developed educational and professional development programming for hotel owners across the US. She also has experience in data analytics, operations, commercial lending, and retail. Kat is motivated by her desire to positively impact as many people as she can in her life along with her family. Kat is a lover of life and when not honing her professional skills, she can be found enjoying the outdoors or doing creative projects. What you'll learn Why EnrichHER exists, their overall mission, Kat's role as COO, and why they certified as a B Corporation. EnrichHER's experience with going through the extensive B Corp certification process. What issues and barriers still exist for female founders and founders of color within the funding ecosystem. What Kat sees as the biggest area of opportunity for funders, investment firms, and companies like EnrichHER to continue this focused work on diversity, inclusion, and access to capital over the next 5+ years. How to make sure your mission and vision stay locked in and that you're responding to the needs of your stakeholders as you continue to grow rapidly. What is giving Kat the greatest hope for a sustainable future through businesses as a force for good. Follow / Learn More Follow EnrichHER on LinkedIn Follow Kat on LinkedIn Sign up for the EnrichHER Newsletter Email kat@enrichher.com Follow EnrichHER on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube We Love Our Community Partners B Local G Georgia: a collection of for-profit companies each dedicated to creating a future where businesses operate as a positive influence on society Inspiredu: Nonprofit Leaders Bridging The Digital Divide AppBarry: Custom Web And Mobile Application Development Classic City Consulting: WordPress Website Development Stratfield Consulting: Consulting, Staffing, Recruiting See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's episode of the Between Two Divs podcast I chopped it up with Dr. Roshawnna Novellus to chat about the fact that the bigger the corporation you have, the easier it is to raise money and why this is the reason she started her company, EnrichHER.  EnrichHER, a fintech company that aims to provide financial backing to black-owned and women-led businesses.Follow Dr. Roshawnna on Twitter @DrRoshawnna. For more information on EnrichHER go to https://enrichher.com/

Yola sits down with Arian Simone, acclaimed author, philanthropist and co-founder of Fearless Fund - the first VC fund built by Women of Color, for Women of Color. They discuss her entrepreneurial journey and how Fearless Fund is addressing the wide gap that exists in venture capital funding for female/minority-led businesses. Arian’s went from homelessness to running one of the top VCs in the industry, the entrepreneur and advocate is the embodiment of fearlessness. Backed by a $20M raise, Fearless Fund’s trailblazing portfolio expands across the tech, CPG, fashion and beauty industries. Companies include Amp Beauty LA, an online retailer that uses AI, machine learning, and data science to service beauty needs for women of color, EnrichHER, an Atlanta-based fintech platform for women entrepreneurs, 100 Black Angels Fund, a fellow investor in minority-founded startups and Hairbrella, a “rain-chic” fashion brand.  Join The ISAL Newsletter Join ISAL Insiders here. Connect with Yola: @yolarobert Connect with the pod: @isuckatlifepodcast

5.4.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Wrong man executed in Ark.?; stupid Santorum on CNN; Chauvin trial juror drama + A group of Arizona students re-enacted the murder of George Floyd...and laughed; NJ teacher is suspended for yelling at students and calling Floyd a criminal; White New York cops accused of misconduct far more often than Black officers; Black Kentucky police officer wants his job back after being fired for giving BLM info; NYC mayoral candidate Ray McGuire speaks; Meet the founder of EnrichHER, a business that connects pre-qualified companies led by women and founders of color to capital and more Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder of EnrichHER. EnrichHER connects pre-qualified companies led by women and founders of color to capital, coaching, and community so they can take their businesses to new heights.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, an Atlanta-based fintech expert and the founder of EnrichHER, joins “Closer Look” to discuss how her company is working to ensure that more women-led and minority-led businesses have access to capital. Plus, Alan Anderson, from Emory University, shares details about the focus of the university's new community engagement strategy. Dan Whisenhunt, the founder of Decaturish.com, talks about the terms and conditions of City Schools of Decatur Superintendent David Dude's employment contract.

As part of the Female Founder First programme, we have recorded a series of short minisodes with our female founders. In this minisode, our host Daisy Hopkins chats to Dr. Roshawna Novellus, COO and founder of EnrichHER, a financial technology platform helping women secure funding. Find out about Dr. Roshawna's experiences as a female founder, disruption in her industry, and her goals for the future.  If you enjoy this podcast, subscribe to the Rise FinTech Podcast channel via your favourite podcast app, and be the first to hear new episodes.

Hello Everyone, The guest we have today, Dr. Roshwanna, she is a CEO & Founder @EnrichHer and Techstar, @LinkedIn #5 Top Voice in Technology, Author, Mentor and Wealth Advocate. She is part of many good initiative including , @SXSW, @Bootstrap Capital, @Pipeline Angels, @Startup Funding and many more. We started with her very unique story of how she raised funding for her college education, and further we explored some of her work as well as initiatives. Also, while addressing the specific topic about, women who have a career gap due to family/kids responsibilities, household chores, start loosing their confidence and struggle a lot when it comes to do a career come back, as most of the times these household responsibilities have lesser importance when it comes to women who makes money from a career, she mentioned that, "its important to remember that, if you are managing both you are amazing, also whichever situation you are in you are not alone, so may be build a community, where you can share resources, get help and many more" So watch complete episode here - https://youtu.be/3EH36esQtuc Listen to complete episode here - https://anchor.fm/vaishali-lambe/episodes/SoLeadSaturday---Episode-40---Dr-Roshawnna-Novellus-EnrichHer-technology-author-startup-fund-ej4m8u If you still have any more questions, definitely reach out to her on @LinkedIn as she is definitely doing a great work and leading a way by helping others. Until we meet, happy leading and let's lead together. Stay safe. Bye for now. Find me on - Twitter - https://twitter.com/vaishalilambe LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaishali-lambe/ Website - https://www.vaishalilambe.com/soleadsaturday Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Data-analytics-fanatics-by-Vaishali-456634621464863 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soleadsaturday/id1496626534?uo=4 Google Podcasts - https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xMzFiYTA0MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0bFOIm9EGFalhPG8YPBhVp --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/vaishali-lambe/support

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a financial platform that connects female entrepreneurs with lenders who want to earn a return on their investment while fueling the growth of women-led businesses. Dr. Novellus is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Dr. Novellus holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, with a Minor in Finance, a Masters of Science in Information Technology emphasizing Information System Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering – achieving Summa Cum Laude in each. Roshawnna served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend, one of the Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech, one of the 27 Black Founders and Investors to watch by PitchBook, and LinkedIn Top Voice #5 in Technology. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN FROM TODAY’S EPISODE PPP Funding has run out, what’s next for Small Business funding?   Starting a business during COVID, Is it a good idea? Steps to re-strategize during this pandemic How Small Businesses can stay connected to their customers How she secured 600K in funding for her college education How EnrichHer was created and who it supports #1 trick to help you overcome self-doubt CONNECT WITH ROSHAWNNA Connect with Roshawnna on LinkedIn|https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshawnna Learn more about EnrichHer | https://www.enrichher.com/

It's this "Startup Spotlight" episode with Dr. Roshawnna Novellus to talk about EnrichHer.Who are they? What do they do?EnrichHER, a financial technology platform with regulatory approval to help women secure funding to grow their ventures. EnrichHER is disrupting traditional and predatory lending terms through its credit model and lending environment. EnrichHER’s investment platform is fueling the growth of women business by enabling female founders to secure capital in an affordable and non-dilutive way.Why Listen?For any female entrepreneur looking for funding or assistance taking their business to the next level, EnrichHer is a program focused on helping you. Dr. Novellus has helped several business land major deals including investments from famous celebrities/investors like Mark Cuban. This episode, she highlights why you should consider EnrichHer over other incubators/business accelerators. EnrichHer.comFollow Us: Where listeners can find you online:Our WebsiteConnect with me on Linkedin!FacebookTwitterInstagramTikTokPinterestSupport Us on PatreonJoin our Facebook GroupSupport the show (https://patreon.com/People_In_Tech)

Investor Relations Strategist Stefanie Diaz sits down with EnrichHER founder Dr. Roshawnna Novellus to talk capital, money mindset, and self-care. We cover so much ground in this episode and particularly focus on some powerful lessons for raising capital and how to structure deals. #SheConquersCapital #EnrichHER If you enjoyed this video, subscribe to the channel and get weekly inspiration and guidance from female CEO's and investors on how YOU can conquer capital. Are you getting ready to raise capital or in the midst of a funding round? Schedule a time to talk to Stefanie Diaz about your investor readiness at https://poweredbyverve.com/schedule-a-call/   FOLLOW ME AT: Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thestefaniediaz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thestefaniediaz/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestefaniediaz/

Never tell Roshawnna Novellus, Ph.D. she can’t do something.   At age 15, she raised $600,000 in scholarships to fund her education. And after being told by an educator she “couldn’t do math,” Novellus earned a doctorate in engineering with a minor in finance.    So it’s no surprise that Novellus keeps breaking barriers today.   Though she got her start in corporate America, Novellus realized her skills could be better utilized with underserved communities in Atlanta — and later in counterterrorism.    Today she is helping to solve “the 2 percent problem” with EnrichHER, an SEC- and FINRA-approved lending and support platform for women in business. Novellus hopes to improve the paltry 2 percent of what women-owned businesses receive in angel and venture capital — women of color receive even less.    So how did a shy girl learn to become a total boss? Novellus, who wins 50 percent of the pitch competitions she enters, provides tips on how to improve your pitching skills. Discover how an accelerator can help your startup — and how EnrichHer provides a community for women to learn and support one another on this episode of SheVentures.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a platform that allows investors to lend directly to any woman-led business across the country. EnrichHER’s thriving ecosystem is built from Roshawnna’s desire to equip women with the financing, confidence, and community support they need as business-owners. Hear how Roshawnna fights the biases that surround women, whether they’re the challenges she faced as a female engineering student or the idea that women should “keep studying” to get ahead instead of seeking investment.  LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Mogul Watch: How Dr. Roshawnna Novellus Is Changing The Stats On Funding For Black Women Founders At EnrichHER How More Women Can Break the $1 Million Mark article from Forbes In 2018, 1,821 net new women-owned businesses were launched every day. More stats from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council article: Behind the Numbers: The State of Women-Owned Businesses in 2018 MUSICAL INSPIRATION FOR THIS EPISODE ON SPOTIFY: “Run the World (Girls)” by Beyonce  ABOUT THIS PODCAST Stayin' Alive in Tech is an oral history of Silicon Valley and technology. Melinda Byerley, the host, is a 20-year veteran of Silicon Valley and the founder of Timeshare CMO, a digital marketing intelligence firm, based in San Francisco. We really appreciate your reviews, shares on social media, and your recommendations for future guests. And check out our Spotify playlist for all the songs we refer to on our show. 

Women get less than 2% of all financing, whether it be from the VC community or whether it be traditional financing. Dr.Roshawnna Novellus, Co-founder and CEO of EnrichHer, decided she must do something about this especially because women build new companies in the US at a rate of over 1,800 per day. Now with EnrichHer, the FINRA approved debt-based crowdfunding platform, she's making a difference in female founders' lives everywhere.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a FinTech platform that is disrupting traditional and predatory lending terms through its credit model and lending environment. EnrichHER connects revenue-generating women-led companies seeking up to $250,000 with accredited, non-accredited and institutional lenders who want to earn cash flow while fueling the growth of women-led businesses. Roshawnna served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend, a Halcyon Fellow for Social Impact, one of the Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech, and one of the 27 Black Founders and Investors to watch in 2019 by PItchBook. Website: https://ienrichher.com/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/iEnrichHER LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/enrichher/

Listen to Shannon McVey, and Tim Ray talk about relationship expectations, romance, news, finance and much more... Today's Awaken Star is Relationship Maven, Abby Medcalf. Abby Medcalf is a psychologist, author and speaker who has helped thousands of people create happy, connected relationships. With her unique background in both business and counseling, she brings a fresh, effective perspective to relationships.With over 30 years of experience, Abby is a recognized authority and sought-after speaker at organizations such as Google, AT&T, American Airlines, Kaiser, PG&E, Apple and Chevron. She’s been a featured expert on CBS and ABC news, and has been a contributor to Huff Post, Women’s Health, Your Tango and Mt. Diablo Magazine.She is the author of the #1 Amazon best-selling book, “Be Happily Married, Even if Your Partner Won’t Do a Thing,” and the host of the top-rated “Relationships Made Easy” Podcast. She'll be letting you know "The Real Reason Relationships Fail" at her Tedx Talk in September of 2019. https://abbymedcalf.com   Today's Goodwill Partner is Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, Founder and CEO of EnrichHER.  Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a lending platform that connects female entrepreneurs with lenders who want to earn a return on their investment while fueling the growth of women-led businesses. Dr. Novellus is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Dr. Novellus holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, with a Minor in Finance, a Masters of Science in Information Technology emphasizing Information System Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering – achieving Summa Cum Laude in each. Roshawnna served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business

EnrichHer is a company I’ve been hearing about for awhile. I reached out to the founder and she connected me with her cofounder, Tiara. She’s an entrepreneur, athlete, and artist with an incredible story. In the interview she talks about: Being an effective salesperson,Working with entrepreneurs to receive fundingHow good vibes always lead her in the right direction.Links mentioned in interview:---------------------------https://ienrichher.com/Follow Us:----------Podcast Website: https://penji.co/category/shades-of-success/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadesofsekinahSponsors:---------Penji is an effective on-demand design service that provides unlimited selections of custom designs at a flat monthly cost. Clients are given [unlimited graphic design][1] hours and revisions that undergo each project.Follow Penji Here:------------------Website: https://penji.coInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dotpenji

In this episode of the Startup of the Year podcast, hosts Frank Gruber, Jen Consalvo, Rich Maloy and Lori Thiel — fueled by turmeric ginger and mushroom teas — discuss their experience at INNOConf in New Orleans. Specifically, the event they held there that showcased 36 startups from around the globe and which hosted an exhilarating live pitch competition that saw the five Startup Night NOLA finalists vie for one of two fast-track spots to the Startup of the Year Summit taking place in Memphis this fall. And while only two of those five were able to win the coveted fast-track spots, the team takes the time to specifically highlight all five of the Startup Night NOLA finalists, as they are all more than deserving of some SotY podcast love: Enlivity — a medical nutrition company whose goal is to help make cancer treatment side effects better by providing patients with affordable, easy-to-use, over-the-counter products MyStrongHome — a benefit corporation that strengthens communities in coastal areas by providing home upgrades that are independently certified and secure financing for those improvements based on future insurance savings EnrichHER — a debt investment platform that connects female entrepreneurs with up to $250k from lenders who want to earn 15% return on their investment while fueling the growth of women-led businesses Hacware — a startup that identifies a company’s employees who are most likely to be hacked (based on their habits) and trains those vulnerable employees to combat email hacking TrayAway — a startup founded by a hospitality industry veteran that saves hotels time and money by automating the room service tray retrieval process Artunity — a mobile app that lets individuals both donate to up-and-coming artists and possibly win a highly-valuable work of an already established artist.

Last year, there were a total of 12.3 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., with an average of 1,821 launching every single day. This means that now, women own 4 out of every 10 businesses in the country. So why is it still difficult for female CEOs to secure funding? To find out, we recently caught up with Dr. Roshawnna Novellus and Tiara Zolnierz, co-founders of EnrichHER, a FinTech platform designed to help women secure funding to grow their ventures.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Dr. Novellus holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, with a Minor in Finance, a Masters of Science in Information Technology. Roshawnna was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the […] The post TECH TALK: Dr. Roshawnna Novellus and Tiara Zolnierz with EnrichHER, John Adcox with Gramarye Media and Noelle London with Invest Atlanta appeared first on Business RadioX ®.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, is a debt investment platform that connects female entrepreneurs with lenders who want to earn 15% return on their investment while fueling the growth of women-led businesses. Dr. Novellus is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Roshawnna served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend, a Halcyon Fellow for Social Impact and one of the Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER which is a financial technology platform fueling the growth of women-owned businesses. EnrichHER enables female founders to secure $30k-$70k of capital in an affordable way.  Show Notes Women are the fastest group of entrepreneurs. The type and magnitude of funding doesn't usually correspond to this growth.   Survey shows that less than 10% of ventured-back companies have women-owed companies. ErichHER, led by Dr. Roshwanna Novellus, was established to address this problem of securing funding for women led businesses. By supporting entrepreneurs as part of the entrepreneurial eco-system for women, this initiative provides everything that is needed for success.   Opportunity to Win And success is what all startups want to have. Every startup must be given an equal opportunity to win from the get go. In our conversation on The Entrepreneurial You podcast, we spoke about securing funding for women led businesses. Here are just some of the questions posed:   Is securing funding for startups any different for women and men? What are some of the factors to consider? Where to secure funding for women owned startups Things to do when trying to secure funding for women owned businesses What not to do when seeking funding   Listen to the episode to learn more about where you can go source funding as a woman-led startup.   TOP TIP: Consider whether you have the right plan in place when seeking funding. Get money on your own terms. ---- Connect with Dr. Roshwanna Novellus   Website   Instagram   Facebook   LinkedIn   Book your spot for Leadercast Kingston 2019 - 20% OFF   Visit our Sponsor: Jamaica Stock Exchange Email: Heneka Watkis-Porter

Episode 52 of The Career Tipper podcast features Dr. Roshawnna Novellus. Roshawnna is the Founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a financial technology platform with regulatory approval to help women secure funding to grow their ventures. EnrichHER is disrupting traditional and predatory lending terms through its credit model and lending environment. During this episode, Dr. Novellus shares insight on building ecosystems that help women get funding to grow incredible ventures through capital and connections.

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus of EnrichHer discusses development of her funding platform for women entrepreneurs.  How does she meet the needs of her two interest groups – entrepreneurs and funders?  Are their interests competing?  If so, how to manage?

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is our guest this week as she educates us about her entrepreneur women heaven EnrichHER. She then further goes into detail about her academic career in pursuit of not just one but three engineering degrees. Dr. Novellus lets us in on her secret as she raised $600,000 to put herself through school. Lastly, she tells us about her life credo and how you can connect with her. Been awhile so I have to mention we got a DOCTOR again Y'all tune in!

Our #wcwoftheweek is Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, creator of EnrichHER, is passionate about helping business owners ready to attract funding. Dr. Novellus has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Inc., WSJ, and Rolling Out. She has also completed the Pipeline Angels Fellowship, a Kauffman program in angel investing. Roshawnna serves on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta, and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Dr. Novellus used crowdfunding to raise of $600,000 in donations and scholarships to pay for her college education. Roshawnna holds a Doctor of Science in Systems Engineering and Finance from the George Washington University, a MS in Information technology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a BA in Business Management Economics, and a BS in Computer Engineering from the University of California. She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and is a member of various professional organizations including the Forbes Young Entrepreneur Council(YEC). This past April she held her first inaugural EnrichHER Business Conference at Atlanta Tech Village in Buckhead, GA. In partnership with the City of Atlanta, EnrichHer supported women entrepreneurs during a two-day conference that engaged over 250 participants. The conference focused on the development of successful women business leaders. Six women led businesses participated in EnrichHER's business pitch competition. The winner, Lalanya Abner of Imagination Beyond Boundaries, was awarded $5,000 in funding.

Bootstrap Capital, a non-profit organization, partners with the City of Atlanta to host EnrichHER, on April 27, 2017 at 6:00 PM at Atlanta Tech Village. EnrichHER is a citywide event featuring Atlanta’s most successful women executives; and local women-led companies will be given the opportunity to pitch their businesses for the chance to win a $5,000 grant. EnrichHer is an initiative developed by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus , with the support of Atlanta City Council President Ceasar C. Mitchell’s, “Back to Business” program. According to the 2016 State of Women-Owned Business Report , Georgia was listed as a top ten state for spurring economic growth among female business owners. “My Back to Business program is partnering with EnrichHER so that more women-led businesses may flourish within the City of Atlanta,” says Mitchell. EnrichHER will be an evening of sharing, learning and leading. The program includes networking, panel discussions, keynote presentations, and a business pitch competition. Dr. Novellus will share the stage with Lisa Nicole Cloud , founder, Women’s Empowerment Network and serial-entrepreneur; Kimberly Blackwell , advisor, PMM & NBWC ; Susan Oh , managing partner, Telemundo ; Veronica Maldonado-Torres , program director, Georgia Protege Project ; Genevieve Bos , managing partner, Thought Capital ; and Rashan Ali , multi-media personality. Judges for the business pitch competition will include: Grace Fricks , president, Access to Capital For Entrepreneurs ; Theia Washington , executive director, Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative ; and Dina Marto , founder of Twelve Studios . EnrichHer is the first city-wide effort aimed at connecting women in business with local resource organizations providing funding, childcare, mentorship, educational trainings, grant opportunities, and other business resources that increase long-term sustainability. “My vision for EnrichHER is to be a resource for networking and educating entrepreneurs on everything that is available to support and help them become successful.” states Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, “That's what makes us different. Many of these organizations do well, but operate in silos, sometimes their messages only go so far, limiting their reach, but if we unified all of these diverse businesses, they could truly benefit from each other." Tickets, speaker and panelist bios, and vendor opportunity information are available online at, EnrichHER.co . To join the conversation follow the hashtag #EnrichHER on Twitter , Instagram , and Facebook . ### About Dr. Roshawnna Novellus Dr. Roshawnna Novellus , known as the Wealthy Yogi, is the co-founder of Bootstrap Capital and Host of Startup Funding. She is passionate about helping business owners ready to attract funding. She provides financial investments to local businesses and educates them on financial management . Dr. Novellus has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, WSJ, and Rolling Out. She has also completed the Pipeline Angels Fellowship, a Kauffman program in angel investing. Roshawnna serves on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta, and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. About Bootstrap Capital Bootstrap Capital is laser-focused on helping early stage companies achieve what others believe is impossible. Bootstrap Capital is a non-profit organization that connects entrepreneurs with the resources, networks, and funding needed to be successful. Through their hybrid approach, they partner with passionate founders who are looking to transform large markets. Their tagline is: “We are entrepreneurs investing in entrepreneurs.”

Today on our EnrichHer edition of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have Shade Smith who tells us more about why she decided to become an entrepreneur and what gave her the idea behind her clothing company She Unites. While trying to feel comfortable with her clothing styles as a lover of active gear, Shade Smith wanted to be able to seamlessly transition between her day to day activities and decided to create a platform which extends from fashion into a means of helping women achieve their goals and balance their lives. Shade Smith shares with us things she has been working on that has her excited including trying to get funding for her business and getting the name and brand to the mainstream so it gets easily recognizable. On the question of what success looks like for She Unites, Shade Smith sees success as a united front of women pushing the idea of feminism in a positive light and getting women to step outside their comfort zone and make a big mark on the society. When creating She Unites, Shade Smith had some challenges which she shares with us and also how she overcame them. One of which is having a busy schedule and having to balance various activities at once without being stressed out. Shade Smith also share with us what we can all do to make sure that She Unites is successful.   Roshawnna and Shade Smith discuss: [01:40] Shade Smith tells us more about why she decided to become an entrepreneur and what gave her the idea behind her clothing company. [02:50] We get to learn what is going on with She Unites right now that has Shade Smith excited. [03:21] Shade Smith gets to answer the question “What does success look like for you?” [04:40] Shade Smith shares with us obstacles she has overcome and what she learnt from that experience. [05:48] Here we see what impact She Unites has on the city of Atlanta. [06:40] Shade Smith tells us how we can help make her vision for She Unites a reality.

On our EnrichHer edition of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have Martice Sutton the founder of Girls Going Global explains the reason behind her business, how she came up with the idea and what made her venture into entrepreneurship. A former international studies major, Martice always knew she wanted to make an impact in the community. After graduating from Spelman College she worked abroad on social enterprise in India where she worked with several girls organizations and decided that she wanted to do something to expose girls form her home town to the different cultures and experiences all over the world and created the startup company: Girls Going Global. Martice describes her initiative as a no-vacation experience, exposing girls to global cultures, global issues and ensuring they know that there is more to the world than their immediate community. Martice shares with us happenings in her business that has got her excited with over 40 girls coming from all over the country with plans of visiting new places and encountering their very first world wonder. She also shares the grand vision for Girls Going Global where she would love to see various chapters all over the country and being able to expose more girls to global experiences. Every entrepreneur is a problem solver and Martice is no exception, during our interview she shares with us several challenges she has had to overcome and how she learnt from them. Girls Going Global also has a huge impact in Atlanta with plans of engaging more Atlanta girls through education and opportunity creation. Martice also shares with us the ways we can help support her initiative and ensure it becomes a success.   Roshawnna and Martice Sutton discuss: [01:50] Martice tells us more about what Girls Going Global is, how she came up with the idea and what led her into entrepreneurship. [03:00] We get to know more on why it’s important to expose girls to cultures of different countries. [03:40] Martice shares with us happenings in her business that has her excited at the moment. [04:56] We get to learn about challenges which Martice has faced with starting up Girls Going Global. [05:41] Martice answers the question “How is your business impacting Atlanta?” [06:18] Martice shows us how we can help support her vision for Girls Going Global.

Today on our EnrichHer edition of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have the crew of Dare Dream Dance who speak to us about how they came up with the idea for a dance academy and why they decided to become entrepreneurs: Cicely Kelly & Rae Coleman. Being Atlanta natives they saw the opportunity to develop a curriculum for dancers of this generation and have a noticeable impact in the community. Dare Dream Dance started in 2013 in a studio in Atlanta and today it has grown to become a wonderful program with so many different success stories and many different studios all over the country. Dare Dream Dance has an ambitious long term goal of being a recognizable name when it comes to quality dance and being the go-to school for anyone who is trying to become a booking working dancer and provide them with the tools they need to be successful for a long time. Creating a dance studio isn’t the easiest thing to do and Cicely of Dare Dream Dance shares with obstacles she has had to overcome and what she learnt from that. Dance isn’t all that’s on their minds though, being Atlanta natives Dare Dream Dance crew have various impacts on the city of Atlanta asides dancing with each member contributing in her own way to make the community better. We can all contribute to the success story of Dare Dream Dance and the crew shares with us how we can go about making their dance studio a success.   Roshawnna and Dare Dream Dance discuss: [01:50] The crew share with us how they came up with the idea and they decided to become entrepreneurs. [02:38] We get to see the long term vision for Dare Dream Dance. [03:38] Cicely shares with us some things she has had to overcome being a studio owner and how she learnt form that. [04:55] The Dare Dream Dance crew tell us how they have been impacting the city of Atlanta asides from their dance school. [08:00] The crew show us what we can to help ensure that Dare Dream Dance is a success.

On our EnrichHer edition of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus today we have a new entrepreneur who has curated an awesome series of stories representing people of color: Lalanya Abner. She shares with us more about herself and what led her to become an entrepreneur. She says: “I think entrepreneurship honestly was in my blood”, being something that has always been in her family from before she was born, she’s is a natural at it. Being raised in a family of entrepreneurs doesn’t deter her as she plans to carve a name for herself. She tells that the inspiration behind her stories has always been children, she noticed that children of color were mostly underrepresented in the choice of available play material for children. Being an artist/creator/writer herself and with the help of friends they decided to solve a need. With an awesome educative series, they aim to teach children of color how to be entrepreneurs themselves. Presently parents can find this book on Amazon and on their website. It hasn’t been all easy though and she had some obstacles which she shares with us along with how she was able to overcome and learn from them. She sees success as having created a culture for young children they can be proud of, bridging the gap for children of color. Her stories are having an impact in Atlanta and hopes to leave a legacy for children of color through legacy planning and succession planning. “Spread the word” is what she has to say on how we can help to make her books a success.   Lalanya Abner and Roshawnna Novellus discuss: [01:42] Lalanya talks more about herself and what led her into entrepreneurship. [02:46] We get to know the inspirations behind her beautiful stories. [05:45] Lalanya and Roshawnna talk about obstacles and difficulties she faced in this business. [06:44] Lalanya answers the question “what does success look like for your business.” [09:19] We get to know what we can do to support this initiative.

Carver’s Produce is a Georgia Grown natural food distributor transforming how growers and buyers strengthen food deserts.

On our EnrichHer edition of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, today we have Jing Kālu who has created an innovative air filtration company. During our interview, Jing talks about why she decided to venture into entrepreneurship. In her own words: “Going green has always been on my mind…..doing something to make people healthier and happier”, creating a system to help people live healthier and happier is the inspiration behind her being an entrepreneur. Jing shares with us happening in her company that has her excited, from creating a more efficient air filtration system to pitching for investors for startup funding as she is actively trying to get capital to expand her company recently. By investing her own money she has been able to get a patent and finished the production process of the air filtration system and now is looking for a new way to expand. Every entrepreneur has had to overcome some form of obstacle or the other and Jing is no different as she has had to invest her retirement funds to start up the company and keep it going and attend meetings to market her product to prospective clients. Today her company is able to create any number of products of each model upon request. Jing also tells us how we can help make her multi-million dollar project a success. Roshawnna and Jing Carter-Lu discuss: [01:43] Jing talks to us about why she decided to become an entrepreneur. [02:38] Jing tells us what is going on in her company that has her excited at the moment. [03:12] We talk about investments and expanding her business. [04:00] Jing shares with us obstacles she has had to overcome as an entrepreneur. [05:07] We learn how we can all pitch in to help support the business right now.

On our EnrichHer edition of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have Tracey Pickett the founder of Hairbrella today. She tells us more about why she decided to become an entrepreneur and what led her down the part of Hairbrella. Coming from a family mostly comprised of entrepreneurs, Tracey admits she has always wanted to be an entrepreneur herself, even after attending Law school and practicing for 5 years she still remained true to her dream. Tracey shares with us what is happening with Hairbrella that has her excited from creating a kick starter campaign where she was able to exceed her initial goal, to receiving all the product feedback that they can from their backers and implementing that into their production process and vetting several factories for larger scale production. Tracey sees the Sarah Blakeley’s story as an inspiration and admits that success for Hairbrella would be very similar to her story, being able to build an international brand that women all benefit from. Hairbrella has impacted the city of Atlanta by creating opportunities for beauty shop owners inspiring women to come up with innovative ideas and helping them with keep their looks despite the weather. We also talk about obstacles which Tracey had to overcome in the course of making her vision for Hairbrella a reality including the fear of selling and learning new things. We end the interview with Tracey showing us how we can help support Hairbrella and ensure it becomes a success. Roshawnna Novellus and Tracey Pickett discuss: [01:54] Tracey tells us more about why she decided to become an entrepreneur and what led her down the path of Hairbrella. [02:28] We get to learn about happening at Hairbrella that has Tracey excited. [03:02] Tracey tells us what success looks to her for Hairbrella. [03:56] Tracey shares with us the obstacles she has faced while starting up her company and what she’s learned from overcoming those obstacles. [04:57] Tracey shows us how Hairbrella has impacted the city of Atlanta. [05:55] We get to know how we can support Hairbrella and make the vision a success.

Today on our EnrichHer edition of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have Nicole, a co-founder of Diversity Photos based in Atlanta. Nicole talks to us about her experiences as an entrepreneur describing how she found a need and was able to solve it by being innovative and thinking outside the box. Nicole starts by telling us why Diversity Photos are important and why she decided to become an entrepreneur. Nicole who is an Atlanta native started out in economic development and thereafter made her way to Atlanta where she decided to step out on her own and create a digital marketing firm. During the course of her business she discovered that there was a significant need for images containing more diversity content which could not be easily gotten from traditional stock photo websites. This gave birth to Diversity Photos and along with three other co-founders they have been able to create a platform to solve the need that she and her clients were experiencing. When asked what has got her excited about Diversity Photos right now, Nicole admits that their idea has successfully taken off a lot faster than they expected, presently they have over 20,000 images on their website and are processing about another 100,000 more. According to Nicole, success for Diversity Photos would mean creating a community of tens of thousands of photographers and becoming a household name for professional diversity images. Diversity Photos is also having an impact in Atlanta according to Nicole mostly in the photography community as well as the model community. By giving unknown photographers and models the opportunity to showcase their craft. Nicole also share with us some obstacles she has overcome during the course of her entrepreneurial career and business.   Roshawnna Novellus and Nicole discuss: [01:48] Nicole tells us more about why Diversity Photos are important and why she decided to be an entrepreneur. [03:07] Nicole gives us a sneak peak on happening at Diversity Photos that has her excited. [03:50] Roshawnna asks Nicole what success looks like for Diversity Photos. [04:38] Nicole tells us what impact Diversity Photos has had in Atlanta. [05:58] Nicole shares with us an obstacle she has overcome and how that helped her leverage her business. [07:23] Nicole tells us what listeners and readers can do right now to help make Diversity Photos a success.

Today on our EnrichHer edition of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have Mary who has an amazing startup company focused on helping people get employment. During our interview Mary tells us more about how her company works and the driving force behind her success as an entrepreneur. When asked what led her to become an entrepreneur Mary replies: “I’ve always been an entrepreneur….I have always had a heart for helping people”. By utilizing the full potential of the internet, Mary’s goal was to create employment when computers became so popular and using a model that worked. Mary is no novice when it comes to running her own business having been in business for 17 years offering the type of services she does today, but this is the first time she has ventured to offer her services to small businesses who need it. Using an efficient model when dealing with small business which involves cold-calling Mary is able to convince small business that she can help them with the skills, knowledge, and people that can create value for them. Eventually Mary with her business want to create a standard for non-traditional employment for people who cannot get regular jobs for one reason or the other. Speaking on what has got her excited about her company, Mary says she is honing her skills in marketing herself and her company as it is a new process for her but one that she look forward to. Success means a lot to Mary in her own words: “Success for me has always been if I was responsible for employing a million people” and with an impressive repertoire of skills and strategies she is determined to make that happen. The company also has some positive impact on the city of Atlanta, by creating jobs and employment opportunities. Mary finally tells us how we can help her company successfully create employment for a million people.   Roshawnna and Mary discuss: [01:40] Mary tells us more about her company and what led her to become an entrepreneur. [02:48] Mary shares with us her effective model to work with startups. [04:08] Mary talks about marketing and happenings in her company that has her excited. [05:10] Mary answers the question “What does success look like for your company.” [06:40] Mary explains how her company’s works positively Impacts the city of Atlanta. [07:07] She shares ways we can help make her company a success.

On this EnrichHer edition episode of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have Donna Burke who tells us how she became an entrepreneur and how she came up with the idea of creating a Barre Studio. Getting most of her entrepreneurial spirit from her parents, Donna decided to follow in their steps. Donna shares with us the story of how she got the idea for her very own Barre studio in Atlanta. Her story stems from when she started taking Barre, where she noticed her discomfort in boutique fitness settings, being overweight at the time and she began having confidence issues because of that. After identifying the problem, she decided to create a place where women could walk in no matter their fitness levels or looks or background and be able to make friends, learn about healthy living and nutrition. Donna created a Barre studio with emphasis on fun workouts and great music that everyone wants to come back to. When asked how she is able to keep her Barre studio open to people of all fitness levels, Donna says she started from the fundamentals, addressing issues we all try to work on and talking about them. Her Barre studio also has an open space where you are immediately in the midst of the workout group when you walk in, according to her, this helps create a laid back atmosphere which helps everyone open up a little bit more. Donna views success in her business as helping people in her Barre class achieve their desired weight goal or gain more confidence and generally be better than when they first came in. She also says she would like to make her success story impact more people. Donna also has an impact on Atlanta with various sporting events and charity programs with a focus on the younger generation. Being an entrepreneur comes with its obstacles and Donna shares with us an obstacle she has faced as an entrepreneur and how she was able to overcome it. She also shares information on what all viewers and listeners can do to help make sure that the business is successful.   Roshawnna and Donna Burke discuss:   [01:44] Donna tells us more on how she became an entrepreneur and how she came up with the idea of creating a Barre studio. [02:59] Donna shows us how she is able to keep her studio open to all kinds of people in all fitness levels. [04:00] Donna shares what success looks like for her in her business. [04:30] Donna shows us how she is having an impact on Atlanta. [06:32] Donna shares information on what all viewers and listeners can do to help make sure that the business is successful. rt.

On this EnrichHer edition episode of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have Jeannell Darden who shares her experiences on starting her own beauty hair product Moisture Love. Jeannell has always been surrounded by entrepreneurs from her childhood and this influenced her decision to become one, she first created her product by trying to solve a need and now is in the process of building her own brand. Jeannell Darden is an Atlanta native and a Georgia Tech graduate who began making hair as a chore from when she was little, she grew to love it and decided to have a career in beauty. The idea for her beauty product came when she had a bad experience with the color and chemical treatment for her hair and decided to cut it off and go natural. However, it was really difficult to find good products for an all-natural hair and she decided to make her own hair products. Now things are looking up, Jeannell recently landed her first international distribution deal and is currently working on expanding her lab space. When asked what success means to her in her business, Jeannell says she feels enriched when she hears success stories from people who have used her products successfully and seeing herself actually create a company but ultimately her goal is to see Moisture Love become a household name when it comes to Moisture. Jeannell also gives us the lowdown on how she came up with the name “Moisture Love”. Jeannell also talks about the future of her business and gives listeners and viewers information on how they can help expand her brand.   Roshawnna and Jeannell Darden discuss: [01:50] Jeannell tells us about herself and why she decided to become an entrepreneur. [02:51] Jeannell shares information on what’s going on with her nosiness that has her excited. [03:30] Jeannell explains what success in her business means to her. [04:21] Jeannell tells us how the name “Moisture Love” came about. [05:03] Jeannell talks about the future of her business.

On this EnrichHer edition episode of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have co-founders of Mini-Cities, Anita and India who share with us how they met each other and why they decided to be entrepreneurs. They both met each other while working at CDC and decided to go into business together. Anita and India who are Atlanta natives have been working with the homeless for some time before they decided to start their own business. They both explain to us how a person may become homeless, why homeless identification is important and give surprising examples of what may cause a person to be homeless. They also share information about recent happening with Mini-Cities that is making them excited. Anita and India also share what success with Mini-Cities means to them in terms of the amount of people they are able to help and the global reach of their brand. They explain how their work with Mini-Cities has been impacting Atlanta in terms of creating economic opportunities for people in need. Anita and India explain what readers and viewers can do to help ensure that their humanitarian business of eradicating homelessness becomes a success and information on joining or sponsoring their group.   Roshawnna Novellus, Anita and India discuss: [01:50] Anita and India share how they met each other and why they decided to become entrepreneurs. [02:41] Anita and India tell us why homeless identification is important. [04:08] Anita and India share with us what is going on at Mini-Cities that has got them excited. [05:00] Anita and India tell us what success in Mini-Cities looks like to them. [05:50] Anita and India explain how Mini-Cities has been impacting Atlanta. [06:51] Anita and India explain what viewers and listeners can do to help ensure their humanitarian business is a success.

Today on our Enrich Her edition of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we have the founder of Patientory. During our enlightening interview she talks about what inspired her to become and entrepreneur and how she came up with the idea for Patientory. Born in Jamaica her parents immigrated to Atlanta when she was 3 years old where her parents started a restaurant business. According to her, “I knew I always wanted to help people and I excelled in the sciences and mathematics so I knew I always wanted to be a doctor.” She recounts an experience she had after filling in and babysitting for David Rockefeller in New York City which opened up to her the immense potential of entrepreneurship. She decided to learn more on what entrepreneurship was and how to utilize her passion for helping people, which led her to start Patientory. With firm purpose she attended business school and ended up consulting for medical technology companies where she gained the experience needed to start her own business to help patients be more involved in their own healthcare on a platform with far reaching ramifications. She went on to tell us about exciting happenings at Patientory which include new partnerships and growth potential. Being an entrepreneur comes with several challenges and she tells us about an obstacle she was faced with and how she was able to overcome and learn from it. According to her choosing the right people for her team for the best value when building the platform was a great challenge and eventually a learning experience. She also explains what our listeners and readers can do right now to make sure Patientory is a success. Finally on the golden question of what success in Patientory looks like for her on a global scale she says: “being able to see patients engaged on the platform and use it to improve their quality of life”. With such drive and determination, we know that she is going places. Roshawnna Novellus and the Chrissa of Patientory discuss: [01:47]Chrissa tells us more about what brought her to entrepreneurship and how she came up with the idea for Patientory. [03:30]Chrissa tells us about happenings at Patientory that has her excited. [04:09] Being an entrepreneur means facing obstacles and she gives us examples of obstacles she has been able to overcome. [04:50]vChrissa gives us tips on how we can make Patientory a success. [05:18] Success is a relative term and she tells us what success means to her.

On this EnrichHer edition episode of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus we are continuing our quest to highlight the best women led enterprises in the city of Atlanta. Today we have Linda Chatmon the creator of AppDiva and the founder and CEO of Contracts and Grants. She shares with us her entrepreneurial journey and how she came up with her awesome ideas, she has always wanted to train women to transition from welfare to work. Within 6 months she was able to leave her previous job and create her own company and has never looked back. She also talks about the AppDiva which is a suite of apps designed specifically for business professionals and entrepreneurs. The purpose of AppDiva is to give startups the opportunity to get referrals from their customers. Linda has successfully helped small businesses with proposal support, business development and she has been able to assist startups, corporations, and organizations, win over $356M in government contracts and grants since 2011. We get to learn on this interview what Linda is most excited about in her business right now including her e-learning system, the Fast Track series and the Q&A where she works with fellow entrepreneurs, showing them how to get government contracts. We get to learn about the biggest challenge that Linda Chatmon has had to face and surprisingly educating companies to let them know what they need before they need it tops her list. In a city full of entrepreneurs, Linda has been able to make an impact in Atlanta by changing the entrepreneurial ecosystem and help entrepreneurs get to the next level. She has been able to create and develop a system where contracts can be awarded to small businesses based on previous performance or performance on the Fast Track series. Knowing that we may be interested in getting on her platform Linda shares how we can become a part of her company's story and create our very own entrepreneurial success stories.   Roshawnna Novellus and Linda Chatmon discuss: [00:51] Linda talks to us about her whole entrepreneurial journey and how she came up with her awesome ideas. [01:52] She tells us what the AppDiva and her favorite features. [02:38] Linda tells us how she is able to help small business get over their self-imposed limitations. [03:55] We get to learn about the spectrum of services and products that are offered by her companies. [05:01] Having multiple businesses, Linda tells us what is happening right now that has her excited. [06:29] Linda shared and insight to her learning experience and experiences teaching companies what they need to know. [08:41] Linda share the process involved for anyone who wants to be a part of what she is up to.

Quyionah Wingfield is the CEO of Cool Moms Dance Too LLC, the innovative mommy and me dance fitness program for cool moms and their children. She is a mother, creative entrepreneur, intellectual property educator, writer, and a family health and wellness advocate who studies psychology at Georgia State University. Her love for and background in dance started very early on and grew at the age of 12 when she entered Star Quest National Dance Competition in Albany NY. With no formal training and one night of rehearsal, she placed 3rd in her category. Quyionah began training in dance while attending the Whitney Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts after moving back to NJ with her family. During this time, she was invited to perform at special events for the City of Newark and other private organizations. Quyionah’s professional experience includes working as the Assistant to the Communication Information Officer for DeKalb County Police Department; a promotions administrator contracting work with recording companies such as Interscope, Geffen, A&M, 1720 Entertainment, Universal and more. She became involved with civic issues using her platform as an on-air radio personality on the DCP Media Network in 2008 where her focus was self-development and business. In 2013, while conducting research for a concert app she created a successful concert meetup named “Atlanta Music Lovers and Concert-Goers” to innovate the concert experience for attendees and fans. Quyionah co-founded Cool Moms Dance Too (CMDToo) with her two daughters Jaira Jazzelle and Serenity Marie, created after the loss of their father. The loss devastated the family and dancing together became a form of therapy to cope with the difficulty and grief of losing a parent and partner. Cools Mom’s Dance Too is a mommy and me dance fitness program which encourages health and well-being physically and emotionally. CMDToo’s corporate responsibility promotes family fiscal health through kidprenuership and family business building. Currently, Quyionah is a standing member of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta and the Center for Innovation which enables her to develop creative ideas and produce change for families worldwide. Through her intellectual property courses and workshops Quyionah has created a family-based book publishing and entrepreneurship workshop name Read, Write and Live Your Life created to encourage literacy, entrepreneurship and publishing for the whole family. Although she has accomplished much, when asked she believes there is so much more to be done.

On this EnrichHer edition episode of StartUp Funding hosted by Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, we are continuing our quest to highlight the most amazing women-led enterprises within the city of Atlanta. Today we have Mia Martin the founder and CEO of Events for Less Marketing who in this insightful interview tells us more about her business and how she became an entrepreneur. Starting out in corporate sales and marketing about 14 years ago, Mia always knew she had that entrepreneurial spirit. Her opportunity came when she went back to school for digital marketing at General Assembly where she became passionate about digital marketing. By blending her digital marketing knowledge and corporate sales experience, Mia has been able to create opportunities not only for herself but also for small business owners. No surprise that she’s excited about helping small businesses grow, by developing the strategy they need with a mix of marketing to make their businesses a success. We get to see how Mia has been able to differentiate her services and grow in her niche. In her words: “I make sure that I do it right.” Her trick she says is by performing premium level services and with a strong work history showcasing her skills. Success for Mia would be to help as many small businesses as she can, and she also tells us how we can make Events for Less marketing a success.

Barbara Jones is the Founder/CEO of Lillii RNB Inc, a Retail IT Consultancy and Freeing Returns Inc, a Merchandise Returns Disrupter Tech Startup. Barbara Jones is a Technical Founder and 20 year Java Coder/Architect in the niche field of Retail IT at the Point of Sale. Barbara holds a Computer Science degree from the University of Texas at Austin and has lived in Atlanta, GA for over 10 years now. Barbara loves Technology and trains Women and Minorities in the niche field of Retail IT. Barbara has been an entrepreneur for close to 20 years.

Compassionate, Zealous, Visionary and Inspiring are just a few of the words that describe Jasmine Crowe, an HBCU alumna and MBA graduate who is working to make the world a better place one cause at a time. Jasmine’s goal is to foster change and create awareness about the leading socioeconomic issues and challenges of today, like poverty, education, and hunger. In 2011 she founded BlackCelebrityGiving.com (BCG) . The idea for the site came from the vivid awareness of a lack of media coverage for black celebrities doing positive things to impact our communities. BCG is the frontier in providing content of celebrity philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, and causes that directly correlate with the black community. Today lead by Jasmine, BCG has hosted activations in more than 20 US cities and the UK and Haiti and has collected and donated over 2 million items to causes worldwide and fed over 40,000 people through the Sunday Soul Homeless feeding initiative. She is the creator and executive producer of ChangeMakers a half-hour docu- series profiling how celebrities use their star power for social change which premiered on Magic Johnson’s network ASPIRE! In October of 2016, she created Goodr, a real-time food rescue app with a goal to reduce food waste and eliminate hunger. Jasmine recently wrote her first children's book titled “Giving is Good” which teaches youth the importance of giving back and she plans to open Atlanta’s first stand alone soup kitchen in the fall!

Felicia has over 20 years experience in the medical field with 10 of those being in Physical Therapy. After the near death of her 2-year-old son in 2002 to a choking incident that rendered her unable to help, Felicia invented a disposable CPR template called The CPR LifeWrap.This non-technical template provides the bystander with an attached one-way mouth barrier, visual hand placements and simple CPR instructions that can be in any language. Felicia is aggressively working with various businesses on getting the LifeWraps in schools, homes, hospitals with eventual licensing with first aid kit companies and AED brands."The CPR LifeWrap Empowers you to save a life no matter how old you are".

Alysse Daniels created Adventures With Mariah based on inspiration from her great-grandmother, Mariah Cutberth. Alysse is on the path to inspire children around the world to have the courage and to follow their dreams!  The original Mariah was born in the low country of South Georgia, outside of Savannah, in 1902. She was born poor and worked on a farm. From a young age, she dreamed of something better for herself and her future family. She wanted an opportunity for an education. So, at the young age of 15, in 1917, she migrated to Manhattan, New York by herself. When she arrived she joined the “Georgia Club”.     In that age, a lot of African Americans migrated to the North from the South, in search of a better life. So, there were clubs in New York named after each southern state. Once you joined the club, you were a part of a new family, and you could eat some down-home fried chicken and drink some sweet tea! Mariah was able to go to school and become a nurse’s aide.  She married and had one daughter (Alysse's grandmother, Alice). She made sure that Alice had a good education and numerous opportunities. Alice married and had three sons; Raymond,   Gordon and Ralph. One of her sons was Alysse's dad, Raymond!  Raymond is also featured in Adventures with Mariah as Grandpa. Alysse's  dad has fond memories of his grandmother Mariah, he describes her as having “Fire in her Soul” and credits her for exposing him to wonderful events and activities in New York, including taking him to matches, events, and rallies to encourage African Americans to vote. 

Roshawnna:                  Hi, I'm Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, host of Startup Funding and producer of the EnrichHER Initiative. We have another awesome entrepreneur today, Marissa with Toss, and I can't wait to hear all about what she's doing and how she's positively impacting the City of Atlanta. Marissa, can you tell us more about Toss and how the idea came about? Marissa:                  I ended up in a class my last semester of college learning JavaScript and fell in love with the coding life and had the idea. I was going to school at Iowa State University and graduated and knew I needed to be in a bigger city. Two years ago, I moved to Atlanta, just uprooted my life and haven't looked back.                                     I started getting into the entrepreneurial scene and going to meetups and different events, talking to people about the idea. Slowly but surely, people recommended me here and there. A lot of people got excited about it. It's a personal styling application. It uses what you own, based on event type and weather. Who wouldn't love that?                                     Everyone I met was like, "You need to do this. Go do this. Go do that," recommending me for different incubators and spaces to just check out. One female I met, a developer, told me to do a hackathon. I did the Women Who Code hackathon. It was the most incredible experience. It definitely made me feel like I belonged and I fit in in the community of the tech and startup scene. I went through that whole weekend. I was on a team of seven complete strangers. We ended up winning, which was really cool, super validating in the sense of I need to do this. I haven't really looked back. Roshawnna:                  Any advice for working with strangers that could help propel you? Marissa:                  Actually, all of the women that were there, it was their first hackathon, too, that was on the team. We were all in the same boat. The idea was around the social impact issue and helping newcomers, immigrants and refugees coming to the United States. It was an issue that everyone can understand and wanted to help out. We wanted to win so we obviously all got together and didn't have an issue. It was the most seamless and collaborative process you could ever imagine for some of the women, over 48 hours, trying to develop something out of nothing. Roshawnna:                  Right. Marissa:                  It was so cool. It was like have an open mind and respect people's opinions and go from there. Roshawnna:                  Yeah. I wish we could get together and solve all kinds of issues. Marissa:                  All the world's problems. Roshawnna:                  Now your platform is based on AI, right? Marissa:                  Um-hmm (affirmative). Roshawnna:                  Tell me a little bit more about that. Marissa:                  Okay. The idea of the more you interact with the app, the more you swipe through outfits that you like or don't like, the machine learning algorithm behind the scenes learns to not recommend those things for you again. The more you use it, the better it gets and the more it's personalized to you. It lends to the personal styling aspect. Roshawnna:                  What I use is the number of compliments I receive. This outfit, in particular, I was walking around and Fox News said, "Can we interview you for the Fox Fashion?" I was like, "Really?" I'll put that outfit in more rotation. Is there any way to add external feedback into the platform? Marissa:                  I'm working on more of a social aspect, so more catered to your closest friends. If you're friends call you up and say, "What are you wearing tonight," you could post to the event and all your friends can see what you're wearing, comment, and be like, "Okay, well, you're not wearing that cute leather jacket. Can I borrow it?" Roshawnna:                  Right. Marissa:                  "I know you have it." Yeah, some sort of inoperating system and they can go from there. Roshawnna:                  What are the most exciting things that you're working on right now? Marissa:                  We just wrapped up MVP, so we have a clickable prototype, which is really fun to just show people now. I've been talking about it for a couple of years. Now it's like, "This is what I want it to look like." Right now, I'm aggressively pursuing the financial model. Roshawnna:                  Okay. Marissa:                  I'm a member of ATDC. I've been going there. One of the prizes from the Women Who Code hackathon was a year membership. I've been using that and going through customer discovery. I've been taking classes for a while so the next tract is financial literacy. They help you build out your five-year financial model and that's really over my head.                                     I'm actually having a working session with a couple of friends tonight. One is a CPA, a good friend. He's going to help and another is a strategic financial manager for a startup here in Atlanta, both numbers guys from different ends of the spectrum. I'm buying some pizza and beer and we're going to hash some stuff out. Then classes start March 1st. Roshawnna:                  Perfect. I know you just finished your MVP and you're working on your finances so what does success look like after you get all this? Marissa:                  What I want Toss to be is this lifestyle and this brand that people embrace and accept and they share the stories of how the app gave them an outfit. They went into an interview or a date or ran a 5K in this cute workout outfit and they felt awesome. I want to hear those stories. I want to hear the success behind the people that have experienced personal success through the app. That's what success will feel like to me. Roshawnna:                  Right. If people feel awesome, they're more confident and they're able to go after their goals, so it's a whole life upgrade, right? Marissa:                  Um-hmm (affirmative). Roshawnna:                  How is this positively impacting Atlanta? Marissa:                  Through a little bit of what I've been doing and people have been needing, I've seen such uprise of this startup scene in Atlanta, the Silicon Valley of the South. I want to be at the forefront of that. I want to be a contributing player and be a resource that people can come to and be like, "You did this. How did you do it? How can you help me?" That's what I want to bring to Atlanta. Roshawnna:                  Great. What is one thing, or you could say more than one, that the listeners/viewers can do right now to support your success? Marissa:                  Throughout this process, the social impact or I guess equity in terms of the people I've met, I've seen this become the most valuable. The more people I'm introduced to and get to meet and steer me in the right direction to the next right person is really what I'm looking to get out of it in the near future, people that can help me and say, "I know somebody who loves fashion and technology and could connect you with the right people." That's ultimately what I need right now. Roshawnna:                  Great, all about the connections that work and leveraging that. Marissa:                  Yes. Roshawnna:                  One other thing. You said that you've been working on this for a couple of years. Can you talk to how you've been able to persevere and stick with it? Marissa:                  Persevering just by going to different events and meeting some awesome people that are passionate, it really fuels your fire to move forward. The more I talk about it to close friends and family, the more that holds me accountable. Then I have this grander purpose to not disappoint just myself but all these other people that are cheering for me and the other women out there that are starting their own companies and breaking into the tech scene. Roshawnna:                  Right, and ADTC has such a great collaboration system and education system. I know that all of that is helping you on your path to be successful. Well, Marissa, thank you so much for being a part of this episode and I wish you the most luck and success in your business. Marissa:                  Thank you so much.

Roshawnna:                  Hi. I'm Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, host of Startup Funding and producer of the EnrichHER Initiative. I am so excited to be highlighting so many awesome entrepreneurs from Atlanta. Today we have Jen from the Atlanta Beer Boutique. Jennifer:                  Hi. Roshawnna:                  Welcome. Jennifer:                  Thank you for having me. Roshawnna:                  Of course. Can you tell us more about how you came up with this idea? Jennifer:                  Sure. I've been drinking beer for a long time. I won't divulge how long, but my father actually got me started drinking beer. I used to ... He used to let me sip a little bit of his beer when he poured it. I was like five years old, so I've been on this beer thing for 38 years. A long time. Roshawnna:                  You told us now. Jennifer:                  I know, right? Busted. Papa's busted. I really got into beer interning. I used to have internships in Boulder, Colorado in the '90s, and that was when the beer scene was really just exploding on the west coast and in the mountains. I just got into really good beer. That was my first time having great beer.                                     I've always just had a taste for it. It is an acquired taste for sure, but I do believe that I ... Having that internship and having an opportunity to drink really good high-quality beer at an early age really just put me onto what beer really could be. From there, I just kind of fell in love with it and over the last maybe five or six years have been trying to figure out a way to make beer sort of my paying job.                                     It's not what I do during my full time, but it's my passion, so I've been working on creating this company, the Atlanta Beer Boutique, to kind of help me craft my own ... Pun intended, craft my own way in the industry. Roshawnna:                  I love it. Now can you tell us more about the booming beer industry in Atlanta and how you can break into that? Have you been able to break into the industry? Jennifer:                  Absolutely. It's growing here in Georgia as a state. We still are one of the very few states that, but this law will soon change, don't allow people to drink beer at a brewery. You can't just go up and like buy a beer at a ... Like a bar at the brewery, but that's changing, and what that change will bring ... Lots of new legislation that will really open up the floodgates and allow and really be more welcoming to breweries to locate here.                                     That's the only difference with Atlanta. We have the transportation. We have the location. We have the professional crowd and sort of the demographics that would be very welcoming to this beer culture, but we just didn't have the laws. Now that that's changing, I think we can expect to see the industry just take on a new level here in Atlanta, and my shop will create sort of a space for people to do that comfortably.                                     I'm very, very interested in providing high-quality beer, but also a very high level of customer service to my customers and for my clients, especially since beer is still kind of new here and people want to know about it and are curious about it, but don't really know where to start. That's the kind of niche that my business will fill, is to create a place where a shopping experience supersedes everything and creates just opportunity for everyone to enjoy it. Roshawnna:                  I was talking to a friend recently and he told me that there's so much money to be made in craft beers that people really don't know about, especially people of color. Jennifer:                  Absolutely. Absolutely. Roshawnna:                  So you're going to have an education process in addition to a venue where people can partake? Jennifer:                  Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm glad you brought that up, because I'd like to sort of be clear about what my vision is. It's not like many things that you see here in Atlanta. I will have a retail store, you just think like fancy wine shop. Roshawnna:                  Right. Jennifer:                  It will be like that, but with beer. There will be nice bottles of beer, glassware, books, all kinds of things to sort of round out your experience when you go home, but next to that a venue where I can hold my tastings, classes, workshops. It'll have a small commercial kitchen so that we can do home brewing lessons. It will just kind of be a playground really for people to explore beer. I'm real excited about it. Roshawnna:                  A playground? Jennifer:                  Yeah. Roshawnna:                  What's the most exciting thing that's going on with the Atlanta Beer Boutique right now? Jennifer:                  Gosh, it's kind of hard to just pick one, right? Like asking a mom to pick their favorite child. They're all exciting. Everything I'm doing is super exciting, but right now I really am focusing on opening up the store, and it's taking me way outside of my comfort zone. I'm not a big asker, but that's changing. I'm learning you have not because you ask not, so I am excited about finding funders to support my dream, to back me on opening the store. Roshawnna:                  What can the listeners, the viewers do right now to make your dream a reality? Jennifer:                  Follow me. That would be fantastic. I'm always trying to grow my presence online, my social media presence, so you can follow my blog, which is atlantabeerboutique.com. On Facebook I'm atlantabeerboutique and on Twitter and Instagram I'm atlbeerboutique. I just feel like right now my biggest barrier is just exposure, and it's because of what you said. A lot of this beer culture is very much like a fraternity and it is challenging sometimes to kind of break that stigma.                                     Then beer itself I think has a negative stigma. I think if people just experience it and learn more about it, learn more about me and what I'm doing, that will be a huge help to just changing the conversation around beer and changing the understanding about it being something that's actually very complex, very sophisticated, and yeah, I think that would be very helpful, if people could just open their minds and do that by learning more about me and what I do. Roshawnna:                  I challenge you to find out more about Jen and what she's doing and support her business. I just thank you so much for being a guest on this show and I wish you the best of luck. Jennifer:                  Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Roshawnna:                  Startup Funding is partnering with the EnrichHER Initiative to showcase the best women led enterprises from the city of Atlanta. Go to startupfunding.co and click on EnrichHER to learn about every entrepreneur that we showcase and how you can take part in this amazing initiative. Speaker 1:                  Thank you for listening to Startup Funding with Dr. Roshawnna Novellus. Visit startupfunding.co for tools, resources and events. Join us next time for another edition of Startup Funding.

Roshawnna:                  Hi, I'm Dr. Roshawnna Novellus, host of Startup Funding and producer of the EnrichHer Initiative. I am so excited to be highlighting so many fabulous entrepreneurs from the city of Atlanta. Today we have Diamonde from Blossom. Diamonde:                  Hello. No I'm excited, I really am excited. I like talking. Roshawnna:                  Tell us more about Blossom and all of the awesome work you're doing here in Atlanta. Diamonde:                  So Blossom is a digital television destination for women of color by women of color and it simply came from the fact that I was working in television production myself for actual networks and I would pitch my own ideas and I was rejected so many times. Granted I have no problem with rejection but God was like, "Girl just do it yourself if this is what you really want to do." I've just always been passionate about creating an opportunity for women of color to tell their story and have equal opportunity to do the work that others get to do. Roshawnna:                  Right I know that you and I met awhile ago when you were working on some projects and you had some ebbs and flows then. Diamonde:                  Oh my god, the challenges. Roshawnna:                  Can you tell me more about the challenges of breaking in to this industry? Diamonde:                  Well so as a producer in television you know I have a cameraman that gets paid good money to do his work so the quality is already awesome but when you become an independent creator you have to have more money and the quality may not be the same so that's something that I'm learning. How to leverage my resources or where to put my money so that we can create quality content because at the end of the day we're competing with the Netflix, Hulu and all the other digital television destinations. Having money to create or really figuring out how to use our resources to create at high levels has been the challenge but we're definitely overcoming it and we're getting it done. Roshawnna:                  I know that recently you've had a lot of great accolades mentioned in the newspaper, the events, what is the most exciting thing that's going on right now with Blossom. Diamonde:                  So exciting. Honestly it's creating the content. We have so many great ideas and a few good productions that are happening over the next eight weeks so it's really just getting those done. Also we're traveling. We're going to go meet other content creators outside of Atlanta just that we can elevate the work of our content creators on our platform now. If we just remain in the one space, our content creators can't really be seen so we're going to be traveling. Roshawnna:                  Awesome. Diamonde:                  Yes I'm excited. Roshawnna:                  So what does success look like for Blossom? Diamonde:                  Honestly it's having tons of content like if I want to put a numeric value on it, 500 pieces of content that are created by women of color. I just can't even imagine what that's going to look like if we have feature films, web series, talk shows, I mean this mass amount of content that was all created by women of color, I think you really start to give them a voice at that point. Roshawnna:                  Now I heard that there are a lot of content creators that exist right now but they have no platform to distribute their work. Diamonde:                  This is true. Roshawnna:                  So is all of the work going to be original? Diamonde:                  It's going to be both. Roshawnna:                  Okay. Diamonde:                  So we at Blossom create original content but then we also have filmmakers or talk show hosts or anyone that has content themselves. They may have a web series and they can put it on our platform. Roshawnna:                  Okay. Atlanta is a big hug for entertainment so how are you connected with the whole entertainment buzz? Diamonde:                  Yes well naturally this is why I got started in television production. I have those relationships and I've kind of been in the space but now I'm getting more connected with the Indy scene, which I love and enjoy because these creators are creating at high levels frequently. They're very passionate about it. Roshawnna:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)- Diamonde:                  I'm connected in that space, I love it, it's good. Roshawnna:                  So how are you helping shape the scene in Atlanta? Diamonde:                  I mean it's different providing a platform for these Indy filmmakers. A lot of them strive right to get on ABC or to get on NBC or to have their film in a theater. Well we want to provide them with that opportunity and ultimately we have goals of creating true economic value in Atlanta, that takes money but we're going to get that. Roshawnna:                  Right. Diamonde:                  We definitely want to be and have a home here in Atlanta. Roshawnna:                  Okay so what can our viewers do right now to support Blossom and make sure you have the capital that you need to be successful? Diamonde:                  That's easy. Go to www.watchblossom.com. Get a free trial, subscribe, come in and let us know what you think. We just launched a month ago but we are in the process of onboarding lots of content. Like I said the goal is 500 pieces and hopefully within the year, that's our goal, it's gonna happen. Roshawnna:                  Well Diamonde I'm so happy that not only you're doing this but you believe in yourself so much to go out there and take this leap forward to bring this much needed content to the marketplace. I wish you the best of luck. Diamonde:                  Thank you so much. Thank you, I'm so excited. Roshawnna:                  Thank you so much for being a guest on Startup Funding. Diamonde:                  No problem. Roshawnna:                  Startup Funding partnering with the EnrichHer initiative to showcase the best women led enterprises from the city of Atlanta. Go to startupfunding.co and click on EnrichHer to learn about every entrepreneur that we showcase and how you can take part in this amazing initiative.

Jenn Graham is a social innovation designer that blends business strategy, behavior change theory, the art of storytelling and the power of design to build issue-based campaigns and community-based interventions that drive positive social change. Honored to feature Civic Dinners on #StartupFunding EnrichHER EnrichHER Edition: https://goo.gl/LACU8p   Roshawnna:    Hi. I'm Doctor Roshawnna Novellus, host of Startup Funding. Today, we are in the midst of our Enricher Initiative. We have Jenn of Aha! Strategy, who has this awesome program called Civic Dinners. Can you tell us more about Civic Dinners and what you're up to? Jenn Graham:    Absolutely. Thank you for having me, by the way. Civic Dinners is all about bringing people together around the table face-to-face to have conversations that matter. In today's day and age, when civility has hit a crisis level, we need more forums to bring people together face-to-face. What we hope to do is make significant challenges and the big issues of our time more accessible, more personable, more actionable so that we can activate a whole new generation of citizens. Roshawnna:    Right. How did you come up with this idea? Jenn Graham:    It started, honestly, as a social experiment. It was a few of my friends in my living room. We were wondering how do we find other people who care as much about Atlanta as we do. We know that they're out there, so we created a platform and a host tool kit to allow anyone anywhere to host a dinner and to bring people together to talk about what they love about Atlanta. It hit off. We learned a few things, like people wanted to make sure that they were heard by leaders. They wanted to know what was next. Where does the conversation go? How do we turn ideas into action?      That's when we partnered with the Atlanta Regional Commission to launch with the Millennial Advisory Panel and used dinners to bring 300 millennials together across the region to help plan what they dream, what they want for the next 25 years. Then that led to all sorts of other organizations coming to us, from non-profits and other governments saying, "How can we use dinners to engage younger audiences or a broad swathe of audience to bring people together to talk about issues that matter?" whether it's transportation or race or anything regarding ... Even bringing entrepreneurs together to share ideas, stories, and solutions to help make our world a better place. Roshawnna:    Yeah. I love having food as a startup place to bridge the gaps out there, because over food, people are more comfortable. Then they start talking about the things that really matter. Now, you've taken it from only food and that conversation to action. I really love that. Now, what are you most excited about that you're working on now? Jenn Graham:    I have to say, out of all of the projects, Civic Dinners is the thing that I'm focusing on most. What excites me the most is that, since the election and given our current times, a lot of people are finally woke. They've woken up to the tensions that are happening. More people are showing up. Actually town halls are finally being used. People are going to town halls. Civic engagement is a thing now, and so we want to try to capture that energy and enthusiasm and provide structure to it and some longevity, and create ... Basically become the platform for other organizations and cities to launch conversations that matter. Roshawnna:    What does success look like for Civic Dinners? Jenn Graham:    That's great. I would say three things. The long game is really about creating a culture shift, from trying to ... For example, right now, our face-to-face time has largely been replaced by Facebook feeds, and we're less likely to be friends with people who aren't like us. A, having more people reach out to the other, so to speak, and be comfortable in sharing ideas and hearing one another. A culture shift in that we don't try to separate ourselves. We seek out what's in common more than what's different.      That's the ultimate outcome, but I think another key factor to success is basically that serving dinners becomes the norm. Much like how Ted Talks helped bring structure and elevate the level of a presentation so that it's not just educational ... It's actually inspiring and delightful to be a part of ... we want to create that same experience around the dinner table, so that your average dinner party where you typically only talk to the people in front of you and aside from you, you actually create a whole table conversation. You hear from everyone, and you walk away feeling better than when you came in, not just with exchanging cards or information with just one or two people. That's the kind of the ... Making that. Finally, having Civic Dinners be the platform for cities and regions and companies to launch conversations that matter. Roshawnna:    Now, I can imagine when you started telling people you want to get different kinds of people together for a dinner, they were like, "Well, how is this the business? How is this going to grow?" Jenn Graham:    Yeah. Roshawnna:    Can you tell us more about how you overcame that obstacle and how you got so many organizations to team up with you so that you could be successful? Jenn Graham:    That's a great question. People have been coming together over the dinner table for a millennium, and other programs just like ours have been popping up all across the country, especially after the election. The big question is, "How do you make money? What is this? How is this a business?" Technically, it's not yet. We have two different versions of our platform that's available. We have free conversations that are going to be global that we end up having a dozen conversations that anyone anywhere can host for free and have those.      Then we use that as basically our calling card to say, look. We can also ... Any cities or big foundations or non-profits that really want to launch a conversation but don't want to necessarily manage it or have to organize it or even have the time and energy to dig in and figure out how to manage a program like that, we can do that for them. We have the platform. We have the tools and the host guides and the training all set up so that we can go in and target their particular constituents or their donors or anyone that they want to help stir up their existing fans and also create new fans by reaching new audiences. Roshawnna:    Now I know the people who are watching this video or listening on the podcast want to know how they can support you. What can they do right now to bring Civic Dinners to the next level? Jenn Graham:    That's great. Well, I would say if you know of an organization that is just rocking it, has energy behind it, but you feel like you can't quite engage with them. Maybe they're only sending you, "Hey, donate or volunteer this." Maybe suggest that they consider using Civic Dinners as a way to really get people to help understand what they do on a deeper level and help create more advocates in their community. That's one thing. The other easy lift is we have two conversations right now on our site. One's the beloved community, and one's the state of women. You can sign up to host or attend a dinner in your city or community and try it out. It's an amazing experience. You'll get to meet new people. You'll walk away with a whole new understanding of different perspectives and ideas and feel better for it. Roshawnna:    Will do. Thank you so much for participating in the Enricher Initiative. I know that so many people will be impacted by your ideas, and I just really appreciate you being here today with us. Jenn Graham:    Thank you. Thank you for having me. Roshawnna:    Of course.  Startup Funding is partnering with the Enrich Her Initiative to showcase the best women-led enterprises from the city of Atlanta. Go to startupfunding.co, and click on enrich her to learn about every entrepreneur that we showcase and how you can take part in this amazing initiative.