Technology is everywhere. There are enough apps, widgets, gadgets for 5 lifetimes and thousands more created everyday. African-American’s are starting to realize that if they want to stay relevant for the future they most embrace this innovative culture. Ethno Mulitimedia Group shines the spotlight on some of the countries rising black tech start-ups
1. Ethno Brands Inc, Founder Troy Jones created Chattaboom, January 2012. Chattaboom is a social media application that allows users on facebook and twitter to communicate their mood with the hooks of major and emerging artists songs. Chattaboom has over 6 million artists songs for user to communicate with. They released a beta in April and is poised to offer consumers and artists a revolution in music sharing with the launch of its new users interface in October 2012. chattaboom.com
2. CEO Tiffani Bell created Pencil You In in 2009. – Pencil You In allows hairstylists, makeup artists, nail techs and barbers to accept client appointments online.
2. Crisson Jno-Charles, chief technology officer, and Alisa Boguslavskaya, CEO, co-founded Fetchmob in 2010. – Fetchmob is an online service that allows users to ask
members of their community to buy everyday items for them, like detergent and cold medicine. Shoppers can post requests for specific items and members of their community
can purchase it for them during one of their shopping runs.
3. CEO Hank Williams founded Kloud.co in 2008. Kloud.co puts users personal data in the cloud and lets them search it. It’s like a Google search engine for the information
universe. It also allows users to create shared spaces online.
4. Co-founders Pius Uzamere and Becky Cruze started BeCouply in 2011. – BeCouply is a mobile app and network for couples. It allows couples to discover new date spots and
date ideas, post and share their special moments, and connect with their couple friends.
5. Anthony Frasier and co-founder Alex Galkin created Playd in 2011. – Playd is a social network application for mobile devices that connects video game players across
multiple platforms. Gamers can share their experiences playing games available on all gaming systems, and post their recommendations and feedback for other gamers to see.
6. Hajj Flemings is CEO and co-founder of Gokit, which was founded in 2011. – Gokit is an online identity platform that allows users to create visually compelling personal
homepages that tell their stories and share their social network connections in a central location.
7. Angela Benton is CEO of Cued, founded in March 2011. – Cued is an app that gives recommendations based on where users are, what they like and their past experiences. For
example, if a user tells Cued he or she liked a specific bar, karaoke and draft beer, the system will make recommendations for other places to enjoy.
8. Wayne Sutton co-founded Vouch in July 2011. – Vouch is a unified platform that allows people to share recommendations of others in their networks.
9. Clarence Wooton founder and CEO of Arrived. Arrived is automatic and personal. Instead of manually checking-in every time you arrive someplace to share your whereabouts
with all of your friends, Arrived automatically notifies the friends that matter, whenever you arrive at a place that matters to them. Arrived helps you manufacturer
serendipity so that you meetup with friends, when time and place are right.
10. Will Lucas founder and creator of Thankyouaga.in. Thankyouaga.in is a social experiment designed to collect the good. On this micro-blogging platform, you have 140
characters to share what’s good in your world. Rave about a great meal you just ate or thank all the people who supported your moms ?ght against cancer. This is the app
that lets you share your good with the world, and see the good happening to people all over the globe. Share the good in your life. See the good from all over the
globe.
11. Chris Bennett is the co-founder and CEO of Central.ly. The site is a web based product for small businesses to reach more customers through an easy to create, beautiful
website and their social media tools.
12. Eric Hamilton is the founder of AdSmoke.com. AdSmoke allows website owners with video content the ability to earn revenue by showing commercials in front of their video
content.
13. Amos Winbush III is the founder of CyberSynchs. CyberSynchs, a New York-based technology company that specializes in universal data synchronization and transfer.
14. Hermann Mazard’s HomeShopr, a mobile service that offers an organized approach to planning meals and shopping for groceries.
15. Curtiss Pope’s AisleFinder.com. A Supermarket API, an open source API for the grocery industry. The new API contains product details on over 150,000 grocery items as
well as aisle info for over 2,400 supermarkets in the U.S.
16. Leon Fangnigbe is the CEO & Chief Software Architect at MLFSolutions. Their technology powers TaxMamba.com, the Expert Location platform for the Tax & Accounting
community.
16. Chuck Baker’s Fileblaze – a professional cloud based storage and streaming system.(featured on last October cover of Black Enterprise)
17. Sulaiman Sanni is the cofounder and CEO of WeDidIt, an online crowdfunding platform for non-profit fundraising. We help non-profits launch viral fundraising campaigns,
through social media.
18. Tanisha Gouté is a Managing Partner and Project Director for JamHouseLive.com, an online media company providing video live streaming, pay-per-view, and online
promotions support.
19. John Andrews is the CEO of Rethink Impact, which helps simplify the grant-writing process by streamlining the procedure for applying to funding grants.
Bolstr, Inc. Help’s main street small businesses access capital, and who’s founders where featured speakers at the New York State MWBE Forum
(http://www.nysmwbeforum.org/), and also featured inin Diversity Agenda Magazine: http://www.diversityagenda.com/content/news/small-business-capital-made-simple-secure-
and-social/
20. Tre Barker and Lawrence Watkins are the founders of Ujamaa Deals, which plans to offer Daily deals from Black-Owned businesses across the country starting in December
2011.
21. Kimberly Bryant is the founder of Black Girls Code, a Bay area organization whose mission is to increase the young women of color in the field of digital and computer technology.
22. Kalimah Priforce and the team at Qeyno Labs want to turn career discovery into a game for 13-17 year olds.
23. Citiology is a social network for New Yorkers who love to experience the best restaurants and nightlife. Our diverse network of foodies and nightlife mavens are the
people to turn to when planning a night out.
24. GenJuice – GenJuice makes discovering trendsetting blogs and staying updated with their content easy. Currently in private beta.
25. Sian Morson is the CEO and founder of Kollective Mobile, a mobile development agency in Oakland, CA. Kollective Mobile also powers products by ArtKollect which offers mobile and web solutions for the art industry.
26. Kimberly is the CEO of the House of Mikko and the ILoveYourHairApp. Their goal is to provide personalized hair & beauty recommendations for women based on their “beauty
twin” and then scour the web for the best places to buy online. Think of it as Pandora for beauty.
27. David Saintloth, Founder and Chief Software Architect of Apriority LLC an invention think tank I founded in 2002. His startup WorkNetz (currently in stealth) allows any
business to find the best workers and allows people who are able to perform a given action to be considered for it no matter where they are. This allows people to
maximize their inherent value of talents by being able to easily deploy them to any business that may need their services. Thus connecting those willing to work
(whatever vertical) with those looking for workers more efficiently than ever before possible.
28. Garren Givens (http://garrengivens.com) is the founder and CEO of Dibsie.com (http://dibsie.com). Dibsie is an online shopping catalog curated by your social network
in real-time. Dibsie is facilitates product discovery and makes eCommerce a socially interactive experience.
29. Mike Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv. Justin.tv is the easiest way to create live video and show anyone in the world what’s happening right now. Using only a laptop, you can
share your event, class, party or thoughts, live, to anyone in over 250 countries while they chat in real-time with you and with other viewers. Justin.tv makes it fun,
easy and fast to gather and engage with a live audience.
30. CEO/Founder Aishia Strickland created The GlamSpot in 2008. It allows hairstylists, makeup artists, nail techs, massage therapists, estheticians and wardrobe/fashion
stylists to create a searchable online profile that can be used by potential clients to locate beauty professionals offering a specific service.
31. Jamil Ellis is co-founder and CTO of Splice a Social Media tool that identifies new business relationships. Splice provides actionable recommendations to enhance
interpersonal connections, from face-to-face to virtual interactions.
32. NoBadGift .com; the cure for the bad gift was created to make sure people never again would have to deal with the struggles of not knowing what to get someone for their
big day, and the awkward moments of receiving a gift you really don’t like. Co-founders: Michael Washington, McKeever Conwell, and Sam Henry
33. CEO/Founder of Trafalgar Solutions,Sharon Simmons-Hodge “The Black Tech Grandma” create an Emergency Response App launched (launched Sept. 2011, available NOW).
Entrepreneur with no tech experience, believes you can do whatever your mind dreams.
34. “IGot’em will empower citizens and reduce crime and allow users to combat crime within their communities by uploading a recorded incident to the nearest law enforcement
office. The application will notify law enforcement of the date, time, and location of the crime in progress. The combination of this information along with the general
images taken by users will allow accurate reporting while protecting the identity of the user.
35. Diverse Mobile, LLC was formed in January of 2011 because of the marked absence of culture in the mobile world by a team of African American males headed by Brian A.
Roberson. Having had several years of IT experience as well as a strong business acumen, the team at Diverse Mobile set out to fill this void with rich, engaging
content that can be useful, as well as entertaining. We at Diverse Mobile feel that given this approach, it will help to bridge the Digital Divide. Diverse Mobile is
more an just another app development company, it is a movement. In our short time developing mobile apps we have been pioneers in new media. Their newest mobile app,
Kommercity, is now accepting testers for a private alpha. Sign up here www.kommercity.com
