1000 Black Voices

A global community for a transformative journey. A collaborative effort with friends old and new joining 1000 Black Voices. 1000 Black Voices is pipeline to Techstars with our founders joining NY, LA, Milan and Chicago to name a few. Great to have Chloe Lannert Techstars join our founder pitch. She leaned into the narrative our founders shared about their use cases seeing them as super powerful. Chloe provided a focused investor review of the pitches our founders delivered. Interested in the team, numbers, growth and everything in between. Thank you Chloe for following up with further support for our founders. Great to have Arjay Ruggles Ganas Ventures advisor to Jade Buffong-Phillips Mane Hook-Up join and provide great points around focusing on the highlights, storytelling and revenue streams. Abhishek Sastri & Abhishek Sriram FLUIX AI helping data centres save 40% on their energy bill. Their insight into pitching investors started out with a focus on background and culture. Important to keep culture proud, however leave behind things holding one back as a founder, perhaps relationship with money, like not talking about it. Talk about your heritage and experience with your chest. Investors are interested... Tell me about you. What makes you unique? Where do you come from and how did this lead to what you are building now? How big can this get? Oluseun Taiwo Solideon building autonomous robots that help manufacture entire robots and rockets with no human intervention. Raised over $7M in the past year and half. Control the narrative get investors to ask the questions you want and ... Find out: -How much money has been deployed. Helps you understand whether there is potential for investment -Timeline to funding A fab session. Thanks for introducing incredible founders to 1000 Black Voices John Kinson advisor to Linda Essumai MYPOP.AI and FLUIX AI. In conversation, providing insight into the dynamic tech and VC landscape, with practical advice for our founders Sara Rona Managing Director & Sawyer Levy Snr Associate Silicon Valley Bank, and Ray Berg Partner Osborne Clarke. Access the SVB report https://lnkd.in/eRGpfRm3 Fredrick D. Scott & Kathryn Ross Venture Backed thank you for bringing the Black experience to our conversations. An invitation to dinner ensued following our founders desire to engage further. Incredible. Thanks to Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for hosting us while in San Francisco. We wanted for nothing. The time flew by and before we knew - it was a wrap on the SF trade mission! Thank you to each and every person that made the trade mission such a success for our founders and partners. #1000BlackVoicesinSF #startups #ai Mike Lincoln Siri Srinivas Basile Senesi Kelly A. Batts Rachel Proffitt Claudine Emeott James Norman Alice Vilma Marsha Wulff Adriana Embus (she/her) Renata Aráuz-DeStefano Jackson Cummings Nasir C. Qadree Cecily Mak Stephane Levy Bobby Earles 

Our world gets bigger! Particular thanks to Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Wherever we are Wilson Sonsini (WSGR) offers to look after us, and look after us they do, whether it is San Francisco, New York or London. 1000 Black Voices works with a range of companies including startups to deliver on innovation and growth. Wilson Sonsini generously provide us with access to their experience and resources whether it is advice for our startups on expansion and contract, giving perspective at the Ethical AI Initiative or hosting our events, and are continuously supportive of 1000 Black Voices. Special thanks to Adam Pilkington Gail McFall Luke Liss Taylore Williams Broderick Henry Greg Broome Randy Lewis Nancy Farestveit Daniel Glazer Raj Mahapatra Rashad Mohammed and the whole WSGR team for your generosity and engagement. Nothing is too much! We are always very well looked after. Wilson Sonsini considers inclusion as core to how they engage in their work and community. 1000 Black Voices has run a number of trade missions over the years and we will continue to do so over the coming year. Is expansion for you? You are very welcome to join a trade mission. In the meantime, learn more about US expansion, fundraising and exit from Daniel Glazer London Office Managing Partner at Wilson Sonsini. Wilson Sonsini are the leader in counseling emerging growth companies across the United States. https://lnkd.in/eRgrcwbd Wilson Sonsini provide reports on US and UK venture financing transactions. The reports include trends in activity and valuation levels for the U.S. venture capital industry. You can find their latest report - The Entrepreneurs Report Q3 2024 https://lnkd.in/e6qUdBKV Thanks again for the support given to the 1000 Black Voices global inclusive community of founders, investors, corporates and government. #1000BlackVoicesinSF #WSGR #expansion #TradeMission #Technology #startups #founders #Partnerships #Innovation #1000BlackVoices David Rose Alice Olafare, ACA Sydney MacGregor Michelle Cassidy Cyril Lutterodt Clare Mitchell George Mensah Lauren Mathurin Sir Nicholas Lyons Audrey Handem Anthony Rose Justin Cooke Zachariah George Danielle Glassner Victoria Armstrong Tom Salmon Marc Cohen Sherry Coutu CBE Adam Schink Kweku Ackom-Mensah Mark Jannetta Sam Merullo 😃 David Fogel Dominic Honmong Jill Hilton Natalie Torin

1000 Black Voices visit to Menlo park included our time with Tony Clemendor who our founders had on their wish list. You have to know that we found this to be an incredible moment of value. Tony is the perfect person to sit down with our founders. He’s been building companies since his Harvard days. Founder Optionetics, a provider of investment education services acquired by OptionsXpress Holdings. He is CEO of Founder’s Forge, providing startups with multifaceted operations guidance. Tony did his diligence. We didn’t expect any less.  He takes his role in coaching and supporting founders to growth seriously.   Tailored advice to each founder shared through a keen understanding of their business and sector. Totally attentive, drilling down into segmentation, business models, and growth prospects. Talking through the ‘before and after’ for the user with clarity around the transition. The focus on the next quarter and the plan to achieve this. His ‘have you thought about…’ brought practical suggestions on scaling and partnerships. Thank you Tony for taking the time to share advice with our founders. We didn't take any photos at the time, totally engrossed in the advice being offered though here are a few of us taking a train back! Totally happy. 1000 Black Voices is a global community of founders, investors, corporates and governments empowering inclusive perspectives at the centre of technological development and advancement. #1000BlackVoicesinSF #TradeMission #startups #founders #innovation #VC #1000BlackVoices Juliette-Marie Somerset Tom Kosnik Ron Tate Mariama Boumanjal Uche Onuma Rhiannon Davies (she/her) Roche Adrienne Rees Aimée (LaFont) Leifer Alan Peterson, II, Ph.D. Hak Salih Victor Boyajian Sanghamitra Karra Octavia Goredema Lisa-Marie Fassl Vera Elizabeth B. Maria Rotilu Dafina Toncheva Lan Jiang Matt Kozlov Neil Osborn Ben Stokes Angel Gambino William Santana Li Nitin Pachisia Brian Laung Aoaeh, CFA Logan Allin Nicole Quinn Brandon Greer Amy Errett Bob Crutchfield Alex Quie

1000 Black Voices gained much learning from our time at Plug and Play Tech Center ranked as one of the top venture investors in CB Insights 2024 Fintech 100. Congratulations Plug and Play on this achievement! Plug and Play built the largest innovation platform that brings together startups, investors, and corporations to solve the most pressing issues of our society. Plug and Play is a vibrant world-changing ecosystem at the forefront of technological advancements through innovation, talent and connections. We certainly had fun immersed in halloween celebrations, a tour of the Silicon Valley headquarters, history and growth of Plug and Play. Plug and Play has incredible success investing into PayPal Danger acquired by Microsoft Course Hero, Dropbox, Google and many unicorns. Check out the Plug and Play unicorns wall in the photos. There was highly engaged conversations with our startups, with connection, understanding and excitement for the problems our founders are solving. Our founders and advisors gained investor perspective and advice around Seed to Series A diligence, value from data flow, compelling communication, the pitchdeck and its 'resale' value and growth. 1000 Black Voices loves the engagement with Plug and Play with its support of diverse and innovative companies helping founders getting the representation, access and funding they deserve. Plug and Play works with a wide range of partners in this regard, including Visa on their Visa Inclusive Fintech Accelerator. Plug and Play have introduced a new initiative Drive (Diversity, Respect, Inclusion, Visibility and Equity) to support better access to funding and learning throughout their ecosystem on the importance of inclusion and how it drives innovation. Our values aligned it is a great pleasure to partner with Plug and Play. 1000 Black Voices empowers inclusive perspectives at the centre of technological development and advancement. Trade missions like this go a long way to supporting an inclusive tech ecosystem; with our founders access opportunities for funding and new markets and our partners, corporates, government and investors gaining access to innovation. Special thanks for our partnership are definitely due to Dominique Reese Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and your continued drive for inclusion, Shehab Heddaya Ventures & Social Impact Innovation, Saeed Amidi CEO and team. Great to be able to take our founders on this trade mission to San Francisco and have advisors joining too. Thank you! Alireza Masrour Anjney Midha Arlan Hamilton Chiagozie Nwabuebo Clara Chappaz Cyrus Shroff Dan Roesbery Daniel Grubbs Delores Terry Erin Pursell Garrison G. Jamie Lipman Jay Cary Jeff Clavier John Kinson Karen Toste Kimberly Schoates Kieran Borrett Malak Yusuf Mirochnick Mark Pickens moaz ゼ H. Natalia Burina Thomas Bigagli Renuka Kumar, CFA Rob McCargow Atul S Russ Shaw CBE Stuart Clarke MBE Thomas d'Halluin Yiannis Maos MBE

1000 Black Voices at TechCrunch Disrupt. So many titans! We had a blast. Great to meet Clayton Bryan Partner at 500 Global investing in globally ambitious founders building fast-growing technology companies. We gained practical insights and best practices for building a team to sustainably scale and stand out ahead of competitors. Clayton impresses upon every startup regardless of vertical to figure out how to stand out. There are a huge number of startups launching every year, over 5.5M last year in the US alone. Yet only a small fraction receive funding. Just a few thousand. Steep odds. So a startup needs to grow at lightspeed and invest in corporate fitness. I have been running the Ethical AI Initiative over the past year so this session with Aravind Srinivas Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity provided great insights into how we think about ethics in AI and the implications for everyone. Take note founders when we ask about your vision. Aravind shared his bold vision, for Perplexity to expand to the whole planet where everyone can ask any question and be provided with an accurate answer. Perplexity is intent on helping people change their decade old habits and bring them into the future. Perplexity will earn the change in search by building ethical AI and use cases to help everyone make sense of the world. Colin Kaepernick on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt! Much anticipated. He talked about that significant moment in history. Taking action due to inequities in society. The strong response that followed. How we have a long way to go. The beauty and momentum that came out of it to build a more equitable and just future. Colin is Founder and CEO of Lumi a groundbreaking platform empowering creators by providing tools to independently create, publish and merchandise their stories both digitally and physically. Thank you Colin for talking about taking hold and driving the narrative... shoutout Dominic-Madori Davis Senior Reporter Venture capital and Startup TechCrunch, fearless, sharing stories that need to be heard. Thanks for your partnership TechCrunch supporting 1000 Black Voices as we bring innovation to the market, connect founders with capital and bring about a more inclusive tech ecosystem. Special thanks Dominic-Madori Davis. Connie Loizos Emma Comeau Matt Rosoff Karyne Levy and the whole team. Our founders and advisors came away invigorated from the super energy and inspiration of TechCrunch Disrupt. #1000BlackVoicesinSF #TechCrunch #TradeMission #startups #founders #innovation #VC #1000BlackVoices Galym Imanbayev, MD Elizabeth Kelly Stanley Onyimba Chris James Dayna Grayson David Mogensen Lee Ott Chelcie Taylor Jyoti Bansal Nikhil Basu Trivedi Alexis Ohanian Sr. Andrew Humphries Sangeen Zeb Stephen McGovern David S. Elliott Robinson Mitch Kapor Sarah Myers West Bogomil Balkansky Medha Agarwal Kay Makishi Marina Girgis Matt Carbonara ✅ Rudina Seseri Elizabeth Yin Katelin Holloway Martin Casado Debra Emmons

👏🏾 Winner the Sterling Road 1000 Black Voices pitch competition Linda Essumai Founder MYPOP.AI the AI agent for product teams! Incredibly proud. Comes with money too! How did we get to have a pitch competition in San Francisco? What can I say. Wonderful things happen with wonderful people! Incredibly grateful for the investment of time, energy and money Sterling Road put into 1000 Black Voices while we were in SF Thank you Ash Rust Managing Partner Sterling Road, a venture fund focused on B2B companies at the earliest stages investing in the US, Canada and the UK The pitch competition provided our founders with a platform to give 'wow moments' and demonstrate that they are exciting companies positioned to make investors money Thank you for super direct feedback that really helps. The judging panel included Lailah Kara-Newton, MD. founder Aster the all-in-one women’s health patient management platform https://lnkd.in/ej2q3YeZ Ash is the kind of investor you want on your cap table. He wants to get to know you, establish a relationship with the founding team before investing and is excited to be with you every step of the way. Check out Sterling Road website for useful resources on how to build a deck through to fundraising tips and more https://lnkd.in/eNARxh5F Sterling Road hosted us at Werqwise a great space for innovation, creativity and connections. 1000 Black Voices showcases the vision and innovative work of our founders through accelerators, trade missions and our engagement in the ecosystem. It is an absolute pleasure working with our global community of founders, investors, corporates and government Linda Essumai MyPop.ai simplifies project management with AI-powered automation and real-time insights, delivering faster, cheaper, and better results. Jones Amegbor PayAngel a Techstars NY by J.P Morgan backed and Stanford Seed Transformation Program participant, offering an award-winning, innovative cross-border billing and payments service for migrants and businesses. Jade Buffong-Phillips Mane Hook-Up a beauty booking platform that helps individuals with textured hair find hair stylists they can trust in their local area. Andre Hackett School of New Africa (SONA) an educational platform that teaches African history, culture and money management in a gamified format Thank you Ash for making this happen! Incredible. #1000BlackVoicesinSF #expansion #Technology #startups #founders #Partnerships #Innovation #TradeMission #PitchCompetition #Pitch #Investors #1000BlackVoices Alan Mackay Amber Illig Angel Gambino Ashwin Ravichandran Candice Morgan David Haber David Lee Eileen Burbidge Eric Bahn Jenny Fielding Jewel Burks Solomon Monique Woodard Nitin Rakesh Richard Odior Kirsten Connell Justina Chung Richard Odior Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky Paul Drews Roxann Stafford MBA (she/her) Shaherose Charania Stefanie A. Thomas Sylvia Kuyel Emma Ohanian Shruti Challa Shruti Gandhi Stephen Ozoigbo Steven Schlenker  

Sitting in the Mayors office, San Francisco City Hall where dignitaries are hosted! What an honour to be treated with such attention in appreciation of the work we do at 1000 Black Voices. Appreciation for our founders continued throughout our engagement with Manish Goyal Director of International Business Development, the Mayors office, SF Office of Economic & Workforce Development. Much enthusiasm for the work our founders are doing in growing great companies and their consideration of San Francisco as their strategic location for expansion. Innovation is the bedrock of San Francisco as is the diversity of the city. SF is made up of approx 60 small neighbourhoods of diverse ethnicities. We gained insight into the historical development of San Francisco, it's culture, and economic growth with a sensitivity to the complexities faced in creating a thriving and resilient economy, where barriers to economic and workforce opportunities are removed, and prosperity is shared equitably by all. 1000 Black Voices works with companies across the globe to help build deep relationships and gain access to markets and financial capital they need to succeed. Through our trade missions we connect founders to high investor concentrated cities, along with potential business partners in North America and around the world. The US is one of the biggest markets for our founders. We discussed business resources at City to State and Federal level, regulations, licensing and valuable connections. Fabulous being able to immerse ourselves in the history of the Mayors office and the incredible gifts presented to the City of San Francisco and its Mayors over the years. We enjoyed taking in the great views, getting drawn in to the paintings, sculpture and spectacular architecture of City Hall particularly the view of the golden dome, Rotunda and grand staircase from the Mayor's Balcony, which is incredibly impressive. A beautiful building. Thank you for hosting 1000 Black Voices during our trade mission to San Francisco and for your continued encouragement and meaningful support. #1000BlackVoicesinSF #expansion #TradeMission #Technology #startups #founders #Partnerships #Innovation #1000BlackVoices Oona King Robert Gordon IV Scott Wiener Alex Mahon Karen Valentía Clopton Sheryl Evans Davis, EdD Clayton Bryan Tessa Flippin Saidah Leatutufu-Burch, Ed.D. Lisa Gillmor Deanna Tryon Daniel Lurie 丹尼爾·羅偉 Parisa Safarzadeh Ryan Lytle Shri Harkare, MBA Elias Mufarech JJ Yu Barry O'Brien Firas Omer Noelle Bellow Nee-Joo Teh Adeife Onwuzulike - Chartered Fellow FCIPD, MSc Alastair Davis OBE Wayee Chu Gabriela Zelaya Stephen Spinelli Anna Richardson Becca Prowda Adriana Embus (she/her) Krystle Sands Derek Hernandez Ken Coleman City and County of San Francisco Ethan Rosenzweig Simon Nokes San Francisco Chamber of Commerce

The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce welcomed 1000 Black Voices with open arms and genuine interest. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce has 2000+ members ranging from global companies like Google and Meta to small businesses serving over 5000 people with a focus on business development and the economic growth of SF. Rodney Fong President & CEO San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Anita LW Huang Chief of Staff and Maria Pechurina Executive Assistant shared the work they do to support business attraction, expansion and retention. Discussions helped our founders gain more awareness of the many possibilities of SF as a key strategic location for their growth. 1000 Black Voices is a global community bring together startups, corporates, investors, government, to drive innovation and inclusive perspectives at the centre of technology development and advancement. Great to see the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce interested in the companies 1000 Black Voices is helping grow, and their interest in understanding goals and needs of our community. Great to have their offer of support in helping our founders set up in San Francisco and be their partner on the ground as they build their team and scale their innovation. 1000 Black Voices was hosted at Yes SF, a collaboration between the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Deloitte Salesforce Citi and World Economic Forum, UpLink - World Economic Forum. Yes SF creates opportunities for founders and serves as a dynamic central space that encourages collaboration and community engagement. Thank you for being generous hosts. 1000 Black Voices was honoured to be gifted a model of the Golden Gate Bridge orange tower. What a thoughtful memento of our time in SF with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and a warm handshake to future collaborations. Fabulous that the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce would love to continue our relationship ongoing - music to our ears! #1000BlackVoicesinSF #YesSF #expansion #TradeMission #Technology #startups #founders #Partnerships #Innovation #1000BlackVoices #deloitte #salesforce #Citi #WorldEconomicForum Manish Goyal Lori Forkin (Spingola) Dounia Senawi Megan Hogan • J. David Joves Leah Pimentel Robbie Silver Jessica Leitch Kerri Folmer Emily Abraham David Schmaier Keijiro Hora Cammy Blackstone Kenley Moy, CMP Rodrigo Ibanez Maximilian Schroeck Peter Gruebele Paul Clemmons Gianluca Gygax Tammy Sandhu MBE Daniel Rosenthal Jason M. Girzadas Sherif Sakr Kwasi Mitchell Adam Evans Jim Rowan

Absolutely incredible ... I'm depicted in art ❤️ Some fun ...Where am I? Can you find me in the artwork? During the reception hosted by Consul General Tammy Sandhu MBE British Consulate-General in San Francisco for Virgin Atlantic there was live event digital painting capturing the wonderful energy of the celebrations. Exciting and also very thoughtful. The artist Jeremy Sutton had drawn a digital portrait from life of Sir Richard Branson on the inaugural Virgin Atlantic San Francisco flight in 1994. Thank you Jeremy and the whole team at the British Consulate SF. Oh and should you need a clue, check out some photos from my last post on 1000 Black Voices in San Francisco connecting our founders to transatlantic communities and opportunities https://lnkd.in/e-9bsTUh #VirginAtlantic #Art #artwork #1000BlackVoicesinSF #TradeMission #Technology #Partnerships #Innovation Deidre Moore Matthew Caron Tim Roper Eleanor Boyer Stephanie H. Paley BreAnne Buehl, CGBP Billy Nagle Colin Bannon John Ippolito Neil Osborn Jaclyn Mason Adam Wilson Tom Harrison Holly Branson Shai Weiss Scott Mackin Ira J. PerlmuterJason Scott Rachel Gilley(She/Her) Efe Izilein Sokol Erica Stevens Harrison Lance Kayla Auletto Morgane Marlow Kenneth Ebie Kenneth Kashif Thomas Michael Acton Smith Alex Tew Steven Robinson Shree Shah Rytas Stankunas Nicola Pollitt Haytham Agabani Rachid Salik, Ph.D.