Blavity CEO Morgan DeBaun leads one of the largest Black tech conferences and creates a space for startup founders
Good morning! e.l.f. Beauty is accused of inflating revenue, Trump has a new pick for attorney general, and Fortune’s Sheryl Estrada writes about Blavity and its annual AfroTech conference.
— Entrepreneurial motivation. After graduating from Washington University, Morgan DeBaun moved from St. Louis to the Bay area to work for the software company Intuit. But over time, she felt that Silicon Valley didn’t have a connection to Black consumers. “I was surprised to find that no one was prioritizing us as a target demographic,” DeBaun, now 34, told Fortune.
She eventually left her full-time job and in 2014 launched Blavity, a media and tech company, for Black millennials to have a platform to tell their own stories. “Blavity really started with: how do we create product and solution services that put the Black community at its core?” said DeBaun, founder, CEO, and chair of the company.
It started out as a curated video newsletter, then eventually a website. It’s now the largest network of platforms and lifestyle brands serving Black millennials and Gen Z through original content, video series, and experiences. “Taking the platform and then building around it is one of the reasons why Blavity has been able to sustain in these last 10 years,” DeBaun said.
Through organic growth and acquisitions, Blavity’s brand portfolio has grown to reach over 100 million individuals per month. Its major investors are GV, Plexo, Macro, Kapor Capital, and Comcast Ventures. Blavity has over 150 employees, with Jeff Nelson, a cofounder, serving as COO. The Los Angeles-based company’s widely popular conference AfroTech, first held in 2016 in San Francisco, has become an anchor event.
Courtesy of Blavity
The annual conference brought together 37,500 attendees last week at George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, focusing on AI and cybersecurity. Along with professional networking, it’s become an event that big tech companies, like Google and Nvidia, and even big banks and retailers, attend to find top tech talent. This year, multi-platinum artist and tech entrepreneur will.i.am and Colin Kaepernick, founder and CEO of Lumi and former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, were among the guest speakers.
Blavity also launched the Founders Circle at AfroTech, which connects venture capitalists (VCs), angel investors, and tech moguls with diverse startup tech founders. “We had hundreds of applicants, and picked 125 founders,” she said. “These founders went through a variety of training with myself and other executives at the company, and we hired an executive coach to work with them on their pitches for over two months.” Each day during AfroTech, different groups of the selected founders did demos of their products with the opportunity to meet VCs. They also met for informal sessions called “Coffee Brews.”
Research has pointed to a gap in venture-capital funding for Black entrepreneurs, and even lawsuits preventing funding. For example, Fearless Fund cofounder and CEO Arian Simone was sued to stop a contest for Black women business owners to win $20,000 grants, MPW Daily reported.
For the next 10 years, DeBaun mentioned a question that Blavity will continually work to solve: “How do we provide more spaces for innovation into specific industries that we believe are going to be the future and provide the most value for our community?”
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– Not looking pretty. A new report from Muddy Waters Research claimed that the e.l.f. Beauty was inflating its revenue by around $135 million to $190 million over the past three quarters. The cosmetics company, with CFO Mandy Fields and CMO Kory Marchisotto, denied the allegations and said that Muddy Waters was using “incomplete data and flawed assumptions, omitting critical context, and presenting speculation as fact.” Fortune
– Cabinet news. A lawsuit accuses Linda McMahon, Trump’s selection for Department of Education secretary, of enabling the sexual abuse of children by a WWE employee in the the 1980s; McMahon is the cofounder and former CEO of the WWE. Her attorney said the allegations were false. Matt Gaetz, meanwhile, dropped out as Trump’s attorney general pick amid a challenging road to confirmation and a second allegation of a sexual encounter with a minor, which he has denied. His replacement is Pam Bondi, former Florida attorney general. CNN
– Subcommittee news. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will chair a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee, working with DOGE leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Greene said the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency will “provide transparency and truth to the American people through hearings.” CNBC
– Funding assist. League One Volleyball raised $100 million in a funding round led by Atwater Capital, a female-founded private equity firm. The league, which has now raised more than $160 million in total funding, currently offers youth volleyball clubs and plans to launch its pro league in January. USA Today
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Terex, an industrial equipment manufacturer, named Jennifer Kong-Picarello SVP and CFO, succeeding Julie Beck. Most recently, Kong-Picarello was SVP, CFO of energy management at Schneider Electric.
The Body Shop appointed Penny Brook as CMO and Sally Dowling as CFO and COO. Previously, Brook served as chief marketing and experience officer at Canada Goose. Dowling was CFO at The Parts Alliance.
H/L Ventures, a venture capital firm, named Galina Ozgur general partner. Previously, she was the firm’s VP of platform.
Omaha National, a workers’ compensation insurance provider, named Joan Klucarich chief actuary. Most recently, she was actuarial manager at Risk & Regulatory Consulting.
StackAdapt, a programmatic advertising platform, appointed Anne DelSanto to its board of directors. Previously, she was EVP at Salesforce.
ON MY RADAR
Inside the lobbying career of Trump’s new chief of staff New York Times
Christina Tosi wants you to join her club Grub Street
Selena Gomez is still tricking her way into auditions Hollywood Reporter
PARTING WORDS
“Who serves in those institutions is more important now than ever.”
—Center for American Women and Politics director Debbie Walsh on the importance of women in state governments
