A New $50M Fund in Baltimore Launches into a National Political Storm A leading Black venture capitalist, Luke Cooper of Baltimore-based Latimer Ventures, is busy raising a $50 million venture fund focused on investing in Black- and Hispanic-owned software-as-a-service startups. A few years ago, this would have been seen as an important venture, one of […]
Lori Ioannou
Posted inTrailblazers
As Math Scores Plummet, A Tulsa Startup Launches A Digital Math Arcade With $5M In Funding
Edna Martinson and her husband Clarence Tan are tackling a big issue school systems across the U.S. face: improving math education for students in grades K-6. Their Tulsa, Oklahoma-based edtech startup, Boddle Learning, has developed an adaptive digital 3-D gaming platform that uses machine learning. It helps kids learn concepts ranging from fractions to multiplication […]
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Trailblazer: How Cotopaxi’s Founder Built a Cult Following and a $160M Salt Lake City-Based Company
Davis Smith, CEO of Cotopaxi, a sustainably sourced outdoor gear and clothing company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, exemplifies how entrepreneurship can make a difference in people’s lives. Nine years ago, he founded Cotopaxi as a certified benefit corporation with the goal of helping underserved communities worldwide. Since its launch, Cotopaxi—known for its colorful […]
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A Jobs Platform That Helps Moms Reenter the Workforce on Their Own Terms
Ashley Connell, CEO and founder of Prowess Project, is on a mission to help women have more equitable careers as they balance work and family. Her four-year-old company trains women looking to re-enter the workforce after a career hiatus, and then uses a proprietary algorithm to match them with employers in need of part-time or […]
Posted inInnovation
A Crop Intelligence Startup Backed by Salesforce’s Benioff Aims to Help Farmers Feed the World
Times of E’s series: Deep Dives into Secondary Cities was sponsored by Armory Square Ventures (ASV). ASV is a returns-oriented, mission-focused technology venture capital firm based primarily in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. It is an optimism engine for secondary cities and a community catalyst for regions outside Silicon Valley. You can read other articles […]
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How One Woman Reinvented a Hot Niche in the Beauty Business—and Built a Franchising Empire
Noemi Grupenmager has made her mark in a lucrative and fast-growing niche in the U.S. beauty industry – unisex body waxing. It is a $7.8 billion market expected to grow to an estimated $10.8 billion by 2028, according to Marketwatch.com’s marketing analysis. Over the last three decades she’s built her company, UKW Franchising Co., into […]
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Trailblazer: An Audacious Denver Entrepreneur Recruited An Xbox Creator To Develop Her Gaming Vision
Shail Mehta was a regular on the circuit of board game conventions, where hundreds and sometimes thousands of people gather to play everything from Dungeons & Dragons to Monopoly. A few years ago, she had an idea to reinvent the centuries-old past-time. The epiphany came when she began to wonder why she couldn’t use a […]
Posted inInnovation
Real Estate Entrepreneur Offers an Alternative to the American Dream of Homeownership
Unlike many entrepreneurs who’ve made their fortunes in the digital economy, Mark Wolf has made his through bricks-and-mortar. Over the past decade he’s built a $1.6 billion real estate development and management company that has redefined the American dream of home ownership. His company AHV Communities, launched in 2013, pioneered the build-to-rent single-family home community […]
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The Passion of The Christian Hip Hop Entrepreneur: James Rosseau
Since its beginnings in the 1980s, Christian rap, also known as Christian hip hop, has slowly gained in popularity. Now artists such as John Legend are partnering with Christian rappers like Lecrae to bring this music to the masses. The song “Drown,” a collaboration between the two artists, has been streamed 25.5 million times on […]
Posted inInnovation
Big Social Media Doesn’t Work So Well For Small Businesses. But the Market Is Shifting.
For many small businesses, trying to make effective use of social media is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle, as costs rise and the algorithms shift too fast to keep up. But the marketplace is beginning to shift, with more small businesses turning away from digital agencies and big platforms, to influencers and […]
