Dreamward Group

Top takeaways from Africa Bitcoin Conference Day 2 in Nairobi: * Kenya’s ubiquitous M-pesa digital payment solution which operates in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan, Lesotho, DRC, Ghana, Mozambique, Egypt, and Ethiopia predates most e-cash solutions having launched commercially in 2007 (almost 2 decades ago) where the Bitcoin white paper was published in 2008 and Venmo launched in 2009. M-pesa/Safaricom branding in Nairobi is impressively more pervasive than Starbucks, McDonalds, and Coca-Cola combined in the US. * By 2050 1 in 4 people on earth will be African. AI, internet proliferation, and tech-driven reform by a youthful average population make Africa poised to develop a powerful middle class similar to the rise of China as other powers see declines in population and retirees as a higher portion of their population. Nigeria is the fastest adopter of cryptocurrency in the world. Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Africa are in the top 30 nations adopting cryptocurrency. * Where in many developed countries the adoption of crypto as a currency is speculative, investment-oriented, and futurist, in Africa the necessity that breeds breakthrough innovation is being experienced now. Government regimes are blatant in corruption and skimming in an adversarial relationship to industrial development today. Remittance payments are happening today. Banking is broken today. Rapid devaluation of local currencies and commerce-prohibitive regulations on cross-border currency distributions are slowing and halting livelihoods today. The amount of Bitcoin mining hashrate from Africa has increased from .15% to 3% within the last 12 months. Cryptocurrency adoption in Africa is authentic and booming. *Implementations of zone currencies like the West African Franc (CFA) centralize monetary policy and braintrust in European nations that have everpresent neocolonial conflicts of interest. The CFA for example required that countries keep at least 50% of their foreign reserves in the French Treasury. Bitcoin as an alternative decentralizes, abstracts, and opens the door for more authentic self-determination for citizens of young countries without enabling local governments to inflate and devalue the currency.

#BTrustDevDayNairobi Looking forward to learning how crypto is influencing the African continent. Day 1 on the ground at the Bitcoin Africa conference just as Bitcoin reaches $100k.

🎉 Venture Black Q4 Conference Wrap-Up! 🎉 A huge thank you to our incredible community for making the SOLD OUT Venture Black Q4 Conference such a memorable success! From inspiring talks and panels to fierce pitch competition, we came together to support diverse founders and foster a vibrant ecosystem of innovation. Here’s a quick recap of the day: 💡 Keynote by Evan Poncelet on "Creating a Culture of Venture" — Evan shared his vision for a collaborative, scalable startup culture to help close the racial wealth gap. 💼 Panel Discussion – "From Idea to Funding" featured amazing insights from: Keisha Credit, MSE: 5X founder and Shark Tank alum on resilience in fundraising Tosin Dada: CEO at GMJ Technologies, sharing expertise in NSF grant funding Teddy Johnson: UW ITHS Director, advancing tech from lab to clinic Chris Groves: Mission Acceleration Center, driving innovation in defense tech 🏆 Pitch Competition – Congratulations to Bridge Jackson, MBA and OUInvest, our pitch competition winners, who captivated the audience with their visionary ideas! Thanks to our valued sponsors – Washington State Microenterprise Association ~ Official, Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), Technology Alliance, UW Consulting and Business Development Center, and UW Foster School of Business – for making this possible! We can’t wait to see what’s next for our community. Tickets are available for the Venture Black Q1 Venture Conference in March, hit the link below to rsvp. Let’s continue to inspire, innovate, and impact the world together! Interested in joining or sponsoring? Connect with us! RSVP today--> https://lu.ma/tjt3w859 Evan Poncelet David Garner Louis Newkirk Jesse Posey #VentureBlack #InclusiveInnovation #DiverseFounders #Q4Conference

Looking forward to speaking on the B.E.L.L.E panel on AI, Equity, and Innovation: Shaping the Future of Technology and Venture Capital. Dreamward Group, Venture Black, and HCDE UW’s Black Community Advisory Board have been mapping out a lot of opportunities to align AI with equity while dampening the historical inertia of racism, so there’s a lot to discuss!

Just a sample of all that was our Venture Black Q4 Venture Conference. I’m over the moon at the support and turnout of the community we’ve been building throughout the year. We’ve come a long way in such a short time! Forever grateful for how the community has stuck with us through our pivots and growth into what we are today 🙌🏿🙏🏿🙌🏿 I’ll be dropping more videos and footage over the coming days but this was one of those events you didn’t want to miss! Over 100 likeminded people on the journey to grow Black venture in the PNW. Thank you so much to our panelists for a riveting panel Tosin Dada Keisha Credit, MSE Teddy Johnson Chris Groves. Thank you to our pitchers David Robicheaux Taylor Tate AJ Peper Ridwan Grimes Chad Link and congrats to Bridge Jackson, MBA for being pitch winner!!🥇 Our gracious sponsors Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), Washington State Microenterprise Association ~ Official ~, Technology Alliance and the UW Foster School of Business Special thanks to our phenomenal volunteers and ambassadors: Doris M. Ajima Olaghere Elizabeth Cross Nichol, Tierra Bonds, Wealth Building Financial Coach JASPER KINNAY Lastly to the rest of our amazing team who’ve been with it from the jump. We would be here without each of us and we’re destined for big things all next year!! David Garner Evan Poncelet Jesse Posey

Amazing panel tonight at our sold out Venture Black Q4 Venture Conference. Thanks to Keisha Credit, MSE, Teddy Johnson,Tosin Dada, and Chris Groves for giving so deeply of their time and knowledge. Shoutout to our pitching companies: Kummune , OUInvest, Black Muse, SWYVVL, and Fluffy Pet Technologies. And thanks to our sponsors Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), Washington State Microenterprise Association ~ Official, Technology Alliance, and the UW Foster School of Business where Michael Verchot and JASPER KINNAY have been such a strong advocate for our success. Special thanks to our phenomenal volunteers: Doris M. , Ajima Olaghere, Elizabeth Cross Nichol, Tierra Bonds, Wealth Building Financial Coach, and our Venture Black staff who bring the power to the people David Garner, Louis Newkirk, and Jesse Posey. The vibe was electric for 5 hours of startup ecosystem bonding and my heart is full. RSVP for the Venture Black Q1 2025 Venture Conference where we’ll be holding the finals of the Dreamward Event Fund and our angels will be writing a check between $50k and $100k into the winning finalist’s startup: https://lu.ma/tjt3w859

Venture Black is proud to present our Q4 Venture Conference: Pathways To Funding Your Startup & Careers in Venture! Join us this Saturday November 9th from 1-5pm at UW Foster School of Business for an afternoon where we will strengthen the pipelines of diversity into the Pacific Northwest startup ecosystem by demystifying pathways into high-growth venture-scale entrepreneurship and investment. There will be an informative keynote from our own Evan Poncelet, a panel discussion moderated by Jesse Posey, and 5 amazing local startups vying for cash prize with your vote determining the winner! You don't want to miss out on this stacked event! ---> Get your tickets here: https://bit.ly/q4Venture Featured Speaker: Evan Poncelet- Topic: Venture Scale Entrepreneurship A panel discussion on the "Journey from Idea to Funding" featuring esteemed panelists: Tosin Dada, Keisha Credit, MSE, Teddy Johnson, Chris Groves Competing Startups: AJ Peper - Fluffy Pet Technologies Chad Link - Swyvvl Bridge Jackson, MBA - OUInvest David Robicheaux - Black Muse Ridwan Grimes - Kummune Special shout out to our community supporters: Mark Monroe Kia Davis, Frederik Groce, Rose Kaz, Chinua Iloabachie, Zachary Jeffreys, JASPER KINNAY And a massive thank you to our sponsors for helping bring our vision to light Washington State Microenterprise Association ~ Official, Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), Technology Alliance, UW Consulting and Business Development Center, UW Foster School of Business Venture Black, Jesse Posey, Louis Newkirk, David Garner, Evan Poncelet

Black and ally scholars, founders, investors, and startup ecosystem veterans of every stripe, please RSVP at the link below to join us on Saturday November 9th from 1-5pm at UW Foster School of Business for Venture Black's Q4 Venture Conference where we will strengthen the pipelines of diversity into the Pacific Northwest startup ecosystem by demystifying pathways into high-growth venture-scale entrepreneurship and investment. (RSVP Link: https://bit.ly/q4Venture) Tosin Dada, Keisha Credit, MSE, Teddy Johnson, Mark Monroe, Kia Davis, Frederik Groce, Rose Kaz, Chinua Iloabachie, Zachary Jeffreys, JASPER KINNAY, Jesse Posey, Louis Newkirk, David Garner, Washington State Microenterprise Association ~ Official, Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), Technology Alliance, UW Consulting and Business Development Center, UW Foster School of Business

Thanks to the Black Innovation Alliance for doing the hard work of assembling and promoting policy agenda confronting project 2025 straight on with a response from the innovation economy! I’ll be lifting up some of this insight at WTIA’s Full contech conference on 9/24 to support the PNW startup ecosystem. Policy work has been heavy in my thoughts and I’ve seen great work being done this year having attended Victor W. Hwang’s Right to Start’s events in Seattle and Portland and seeing the great work being done with Tabor 100 & FMS Global Strategies in support of VertueLab’s 45Camp climate tech accelerator. Venture Black will be activating these strategies throughout the PNW startup ecosystem.

Looking forward to participating on this panel with esteemed moderator and WTIA board chair Dave Cotter along with fellow panelists Yifan Zhang Managing Director of AI2 Incubator, Jenny Rojanasthien Director of Entrepreneurship at NCW Tech Alliance, and Skye Henderson VP of Venture Investments at Cowles Ventures. This is the best kind of event, the kind with deliverables! Not only will there be a panel discussion but there will also be an opportunity for attendees to engage in collaborative solutions engineering. So if you have something about the Washington state startup ecosystem you would like to see addressed, don’t let your dreams stay dreams. Please come and bring your nuanced understanding of what our ecosystem is excelling at or dropping the ball on and let’s co-create some strategy to get to the top of the startup ecosystem ratings charts! Our present and future Washingtonian innovators are counting on us!