by agboolaa

June 26, 2018

Jay-Z Launches Marcy Venture Capital Partners With Silicon Valley Veteran Larry Marcus

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In a move that could see more investments for startup founders of color, rapper and business mogul Jay-Z is launching Marcy Venture Capital Partners in partnership with Roc Nation President Jay Brown and Silicon Valley veteran Larry Marcus, whose investments focus on digital media and consumer services.

Early last year, Axios reported that the Carters were looking to launch their own venture capital fund in partnership with San Francisco-based Sherpa Capital, which had invested in Uber and Airbnb, but the move was put on hold between Roc Nation launching its own startup platform and “troubles at Sherpa.”

It is unclear what the focus or size of the fund will be but Jay-Z and Brown’s previous startup investments may offer some ideas. The business partners participated in Uber’s Series B, at a $300 million pre-money valuation early in 2017. They have also invested in brokerage platform Robinhood, luggage company Away, private jet company JetSmarter, and life insurance startup Ethos. Their Marcy Venture Capital Partners may now anchor some of their larger investments. The fund’s name, according to the Business Insider, may be a reference to Jay-Z’s upbringing in the Marcy Housing Projects in Brooklyn, New York, which is in line with what Nas did when naming his QueensBridge Venture Partners.

Over the years, as artists looked to diversify their investments, they have increasingly looked toward Silicon Valley, showing interests in startups with investments in delivery services to messaging apps. Nas’ investment in Ring, through QueensBridge, earned him a $40 million payday after the startup’s acquisition by Amazon. His firm has also invested in successful startups like Dropbox, Lyft, and Casper.

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In 2015, Snoop Dogg launched Casa Verde Capital, a firm focused on early-stage marijuana startups, along with a slew of investments in Reddit, Robinhood and Philz Coffee. Nicki Minaj invested in Music Messenger. Will Smith joined Andreessen Horowitz and Madrona Venture Partners as an investor in Julep, a Seattle-based e-commerce beauty brand. He has also invested in Fancy and Chromatik. Chamillionaire left the rap game for Silicon Valley to become an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Upfront Capital. Def Jam founder,Russell Simmons invested in Flyp, a service that allows mobile phone users to set up multiple lines on one device. Even Ludacris participated in a $10 million Series A round in Roadie, an on-demand package delivery service. Diddy invested in Tiny App, which was acquired by Paltalk. In 2013, T.I. invested in Yopima, an app that lets users find trending spots based on recommendation from peers. M.C. Hammer has investments in Bump Technologies, Square and Flipboard. Drake invested in Omni, an on-demand storage app based in San Francisco. In 2011, Queen Latifah invested in Indaba, an online music network that lets users share songs and collaborate on new projects.

It is still unclear their return on investments over the years since many of those investments are in the early stages of the company. Tech website Techcrunch analyzed funding data of 15,600 U.S.-based technology companies founded between 2003 and 2013. Of the 1,000 startups that closed a seed or angel round, 400 of them made it to Series A. “In other words, our data suggests that around 60% of companies that raise Pre-Series A funding fail to make it to Series A or beyond.” 

In a 2012 Forbes article featuring Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman (two of Silicon Valley’s most revered investors) Theil, who is an early investor in Facebook, said, “If you go into politics, you should go to D.C. If you go into finance, New York. Movies, probably still L.A. And tech is Silicon Valley.” By Theil’s indication, artists need to invest themselves in Silicon Valley and develop relationships with the right people who would, in turn, invite them in on deals. Based on that alone, Chamillionaire is doing it right.

by agboolaa

June 25, 2018

At Citigroup, Black Diversity Drops For The Eighth Consecutive Year

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For the eighth consecutive year, black diversity inside of Citigroup Inc., America’s fourth-largest bank, is down to just 1 in 10 employees, according to the company’s own internal diversity report.

At the executive or senior manager level, black workers make up just 10.4% of Citigroup’s workforce, compared to 77.9% of whites. Among mid-level managers and professionals, black employees comprise 5.4% and 7.1%, respectively. At the administrative support level, which requires less experience or education, black people still make up only 16.4% of the financial services company’s workforce.

“While our commitment to diversity is strong, we realize that Citi’s representation numbers for female and black talent lag behind where we want to be as a firm,” said Jennifer Lowney, a Citigroup spokeswoman. “This year we are setting additional representation goals for females globally and for black employees in the U.S. to help drive faster progress.”

But Citigroup isn’t alone. In a lengthy article published in 2017, Bloomberg examined black diversity on Wall Street. The publication found that as the U.S. workforce gets increasingly diverse, there has been regression among some of the largest companies on Wall Street since 2012.

Black workers only make up 5.4% of U.S. employees and 2.9% of executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. At Morgan Stanley, black executives are even rarer at 2.2%, according to Bloomberg. At Wells Fargo, black employees make up 13% of the workforce, while executives fell to 5% from 8% a year earlier. Black workers at Bank of America remain at 13%, while black executives rose to 3.8%.

“Look, we can call it not caring, we can call it not having the will, we can call it not having incentives, not having accountability,” Professor Martin Davidson at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business told Bloomberg in 2017. “Whatever you want to call it, the bottom line is there’s not enough energy and resources being put into figuring out how to catalyze this black talent.”

At Wells Fargo and Citigroup, Bloomberg found that women are underrepresented among senior ranks although its staff is majority female. Women make up 29% of executives at Wells Fargo, down from 37% in 2016 and 32% at Citigroup, up from 24%. The figure remains at 22% at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

by agboolaa

June 25, 2018

Exec Who Oversaw BP’s Oil Spill In The Gulf Joins INROADS Board of Directors

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Darryl Willis, a senior executive at Google has been appointed to a three-year term on INROADS Inc.’s national board of directors. He will be working with other fellow board members to pioneer strategies for INROADS to continually support and develop talented youth nationally and globally.

Willis, the current vice president of the Oil, Gas and Energy sector at Google Cloud, who is also an INROADS alumnus, takes his many years of expertise back to the organization that helped him jump-start his career years ago.

“We’re simply honored to have Darryl on our national board. When our alum come back to partner with INROADS, we see the mission and vision of INROADS truly come to life,” said Forest Harper Jr., INROADS’ president and CEO. “At INROADS, we grow young students to become future business and community leaders in corporate America and around the world, and Darryl is a testament to this mission.”

At Google, Willis drives the Cloud business in the energy sector focused on developing new products and solutions for oil, gas, and energy. He provides business expertise to the sales teams in their to-go-market efforts and building trusted relationships with key leaders and companies across the energy sector.

Prior to his current role at Google, he served as president and general manager for British Petroleum (BP) Angola, and was responsible for one of the largest businesses within BP, with $5 billion in annual revenues. He led the organization of 1,200 people and a leadership team of 15 across Angola and the United Kingdom. During his three year stint in Angola, Willis restructured the oil company’s Angolan business, making it one of the most profitable businesses in the company in 2016. In 2010, as BP’s vice president of Resources, Willis volunteered to oversee the company’s claims process in the Gulf of Mexico, after 210 million gallons were spilled into the Mississippi River Delta.

He started his career at BP in the summer of 1993, as an exploration geophysicist on a multi-disciplinary team responsible for the assessment of the sub-surface potential in the Con Son and Gulf of Tonkin basins. He spent 14 years rising through the ranks to become a senior executive at the company. As an accomplished global senior executive with expertise leading businesses across the oil and gas industry, he has a proven track record of delivering growth and improving profitability for enterprises in the United States, Russia, Asia, and Africa.

He earned a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University with concentrations in Managing Global Businesses and Social Responsibility, a Master of Science in Geology and Geophysics from the University of New Orleans, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Literature from Northwestern State University.

• Lifestyle

by agboolaa

June 25, 2018

RLJ Entertainment’s Urban Movie Channel Launches on Xfinity TV

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Urban Movie Channel (UMC), the first subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD) created specifically for African American and urban audiences, will now be available to Comcast’s Xfinity TV customers across the country.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly traded RLJ Entertainment, UMC’s launch on Xfinity TV marks the first time the SVOD service has been made available on a multichannel-video-programmer-distributor (MVPD) set-top box. Featuring programming in film and television, from its special Black History Month programming to its unique comedy series, the network will now be available through Xfinity On Demand and on the go via the Xfinity Stream app and portal. Customers with X1 can also use their voice remote to pull up the offering or search the Black Film and TV section of Xfinity On Demand.

“We are thrilled to be able to bring Urban Movie Channel to Xfinity on Demand,” said Traci Otey Blunt, president of UMC. “UMC offers an array of feature films, original series, drama, comedy, documentaries, and more. We’re excited to offer even more customers the ability to watch UMC’s quality urban content at their leisure.”

Earlier in the year, AMC Networks said it was purchasing a majority stake in RLJ Entertainment, valuing the company at $60 million, in a move that will see the company take over the Urban Movie Channel, as well as Acorn TV, which streams British television and film content. Just last fall, AMC invested $65 million in RLJ Entertainment for a 26% stake in the form of a loan to the company. Variety is reporting that the loans increased to an aggregate of $78 million.

The agreement also included an option for AMC to later purchase a majority stake in the company and on Monday, the cable company is offering $4.25 per share in cash.

Johnson is expected to still hold a minority stake in the company pending approval from RLJ’s board. He currently owns approximately 47% of the outstanding shares of RLJ Entertainment stock. AMC said it intends to operate RLJ as a privately-owned subsidiary without selling off its stake or influencing its day-to-day operations. Acorn TV and the Urban Movie Channel have a combined 700,000 subscribers as of last year, up 55% from a year earlier.

Johnson made business history when he took BET public in 1991, the first time a black-owned company was traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2000, he sold the cable network to Viacom for $3.2 billion, making him the first African American billionaire. He acquired the Charlotte Bobcats in 2003, creating the first black-owned NBA franchise and launched four other BE 100s companies.

Activists, community leaders, and restaurant owners on Thursday gathered at the front of SJP Collections in New York as a voice of opposition against Sarah Jessica Parker’s support for ending the tipped wage credit, which they say threatens employees and restaurant owners.

In New York State, tipped workers are paid a lower minimum wage, but they must earn at least the full minimum wage when tips are included. The difference between the tipped wage and the full minimum wage is called the tip credit, which Minister Kirsten John Foy said allows restaurant owners to keep labor costs down while keeping it affordable for people to dine out.

Critics Link Tip Credit to Abuse 

Early in March, Parker, along with 15 other actresses invoking the #MeTooMovement, wrote a letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in support of the One Fair Wage effort, noting that 70% of restaurant servers are women and that research has shown “how relying on tips creates a more permissive work environment where customers feel entitled to abuse women in exchange for ‘service.’” The actresses, including Jane Fonda, Natalie Portman, Lily Tomlin, Amy Poehler, Reese Witherspoon, Brie Larson, Debra Messing, Ashley Judd, and Sarah Silverman, urged the governor to do away with the state’s tip credit for restaurant workers.

A countereffort of 500 restaurant workers organized by Maggie Raczynski, a bartender at the Clifton Outback Steakhouse, produced a letter of their own.

“You’ve been misled that we earn less than minimum wage and that we’re somehow helpless victims of sexual harassment. “Thank you for your concern. But we don’t need your help and we’re not asking to be saved,” they wrote.

In April, the New York Post reported that a small-screen actor wavered on her decision to sign the letter to the governor. In her email sent to the Restaurant Workers of America—which opposes any compensation changes—the actress, who is unidentified, apologized, through an agent representing her. “She sends her deepest apologies and never intended to insult the restaurant professionals. She would like to rescind her signature from the letter that was sent to Governor Cuomo. Should we do that through you or where it originated from?” But she later decided to keep her name on the letter.

“Not Fully Informed” 

“Sarah Jessica Parker has weighed into a debate where she’s not fully informed. She has weighed into a debate where there is a whole swath and section of the industry, mostly people of color who are not being heard,” Foy said at a press conference in New York on Thursday.

According to the United States Department of Labor:

“Tip credit permits an employer to take a tip credit towards its minimum wage obligation for tipped employees equal to the difference between the required cash wage (which must be at least $2.13) and the federal minimum wage. Thus, the maximum tip credit that an employer can currently claim under the FLSA section 3(m) is $5.12 per hour (the minimum wage of $7.25 minus the minimum required cash wage of $2.13). Under certain circumstances, an employer may be able to claim an additional overtime tip credit against its overtime obligations.”

After seven different hearings and a recommendation by a wage board in 2015, Cuomo and the state’s labor commissioner, Roberta Reardon, will decide whether to eliminate the tip credit, which Cisse Elhadji, the executive chef and co-owner of Renaisance and two Ponty Bistro locations in Harlem, could potentially shut down his business.

“Minimum right now, I have 30 to 40 people working for me, imagine I shut down my place, all these people will (have to) go look for another job,” Elhadji said. “We need help, but this is not going to help us.”

What About Fast Food Workers? 

Supporters of the argument for a consistent minimum wage plan say it would reduce wage theft by employers in industries with tipped workers, who are often women, minorities, and immigrants. While Foy agrees with his progressive counterparts that it is indeed time to raise wages for American fast food workers, “but to compare McDonald’s to Melba’s is a folly.”

“It is not appropriate and [it’s] unwise; neither is it economically viable to raise wages at the expense of the existence of the business,” he said.

Late in May, Parker hosted a fundraiser for the One Fair Wage campaign, an organization fighting for increased minimum wage nationally. The purchased tickets went for as much as $50,000 according to the release by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce and the event had to move venues when the location was publicly revealed, to avoid protesters.

Thousands of servers have attended the tip credit elimination hearings, submitted testimonies. Two more hearings are scheduled for Tuesday, June 19 at Hostos Community College and Wednesday, June 27 at Hunter College.

• Leadership

by agboolaa

June 13, 2018

Chavon Sutton To Lead NYC Bureau of Asset Management’s Diversity and Inclusion Efforts

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Chavon Sutton will step into a newly created role as the director of Diversity and Inclusion within New York City’s Bureau of Asset Management (BAM) where she will support all of the agency’s efforts to expand engagement with and utilization of Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) and emerging manager firms for the New York City pension funds. She will also work to further workplace diversity initiatives with investment managers, MWBE groups, and service groups and service providers.

With over 10 years of experience in banking and investment management, Sutton brings a wealth of financial services experience to BAM’s diversity efforts, as well as a journalistic background, which she credits for her honed communications skill, having written articles about personal finance, the global markets, and economics for Forbes.com, Reuters News, and CNNMoney.com.

“I laugh when people talk about certain skill set,” Sutton told Black Enterprise. “My journalism background is my secret weapon, and it is what has helped me communicate with people in plain English, especially when you work in the financial services industry.”

Sutton began her finance career as a credit analyst covering financial institutions at Bank of America, before moving on to RBC Capital where she worked as a corporate banker. Prior to joining New York City Comptroller as director, she was vice president at JPMorgan’s Asset and Wealth Management division, where she provided clients customized investment advice and solutions across a variety of asset classes and strategies. While at JPMorgan, she managed client relationships consisting of high- and ultra-high net worth individuals, endowments and foundations, totaling approximately $150 million in investable assets. She most recently served as an independent adviser at a small emerging manager, Momentum Advisors L.L.C.

“The Director of Diversity and Inclusion is a critical new position within our Bureau of Asset Management and Chavon Sutton is the person for the job,” said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. “With years of rich and relevant experience across the financial sector, Chavon brings expertise, energy and perspective to our team. I am confident she will hit the ground running and that her work will have a positive impact on the fund’s portfolios.”

A native of Newark, New Jersey, Sutton holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Masters of Arts in Journalism as well as a Masters of Business Administration from New York University.

From projects that increase access to capital to resources that increase disaster preparedness and relief, the Minority Business Development Agency is in search of innovative ideas that will benefit minority-owned businesses and will award up to $11.65 million in grants to fund and implement the projects across the country.

This year, the MBDA is including categories for formerly incarcerated persons and research projects to quantify and address the needs and challenges of minority businesses. “Recognizing the critical role of entrepreneurship in reducing recidivism and unemployment for released prisoners, the Agency saw an opportunity to support the Department of Commerce’s efforts to reduce crime, enhance public safety and improve the lives of all Americans through educational entrepreneurship programs,” MBDA said in a news release.

“We are excited to begin this year’s application process and look forward to receiving the proposals,” said Acting National Director Edith McCloud. “Minority-owned businesses contribute greatly to our economy, and through the BAA, we can work to meet the needs of this community with the ultimate goals of continued expansion, growth and job creation.”

Through its Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), which is designed to solicit proposals, the search is open to for-profit entities including sole-proprietorship, partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations), non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, commercial organizations, individuals, state and local government entities, or Indian Tribal governments.

The focal points of the BAAs are aligned with the Agency’s key priorities in support of minority-owned businesses. Priorities include:

• Access to Capital American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian Entities and/or Initiatives
• Aquaculture
• Disaster Readiness
• Disaster Recovery
• Entrepreneurship Education Program for Formerly Incarcerated Persons
• Global Minority Women Economic Empowerment Initiative
• Historically Black Colleges & Universities Initiative
• Inclusive Infrastructure Initiative
• Research
• Space Commerce
• Sustainable Business Model
• Technology Transfer and Commercialization
• Virtual Business Centers

Two pre-application teleconferences to educate potential applicants about the federal funding opportunity announcement are scheduled for June 18 and 21 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. eastern time. Applicants are encouraged to attend at least one of the pre-application teleconferences.

Deadline to submit completed applications for the broad agency announcement ends July 11 at 11:59 p.m. For more information and to register for a pre-application teleconference visit www.mbda.gov/page/2018-mbda-broad-agency-announcement or www.mbda.gov.