Venture Black

🎉 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

I've been saying this since day 1 of this journey: I'm trynna get my people PAID💰💰💰!!! We're down to crunch time for Venture Black's Q4 Venture Conference and our pitching founders are putting the last minute touches on there presentations. Competing Startups: AJ Peper - Fluffy Pet Technologies Chad Link - Swyvvl Bridge Jackson, MBA - OUInvest David Robicheaux - Black Muse Ridwan Grimes - Kummune Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to be part of a powerful gathering of founders, investors, industry experts, and BIPOC university students who are shaping the future of the Pacific Northwest's entrepreneurial ecosystem. This is your final chance to register and secure your place in the room where connections, learning, and opportunities converge. Don't let this chance to elevate your startup journey pass you by. Get your ticket right now!! https://lu.ma/0o3a2uu3 See you tomorrow at Venture Black’s Q4 Venture Conference. Let’s build a brighter, more inclusive future for innovation together! 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 Jesse Posey Evan Poncelet David Garner Louis Newkirk

I told you already- the Venture Black event lined up is stacked!! Take a look and research our panelist before the event on Saturday! If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet hit the link below and snag one before they’re gone! https://lu.ma/0o3a2uu3 Keisha Credit, MSE: 5X Founder + UW MBA Burke Grad + Raised from Madrona Venture Labs + Was on Sharktank Tosin Dada: CEO @ GMJ Technologies + NSF Grant Reviewer + Hiring Manager who wants to hire & teach employees how to write NSF Grant proposals Teddy Johnson: Institute for Translational Health Services (ITHS) @UW - Director of Technology Development (To accelerate the translation of scientific and technological innovations into practical clinical use) Chris Groves: Ex-CIA and runs the Mission Acceleration Center driving innovation and partnerships in Defense tech Jesse Posey Evan Poncelet David Garner Louis Newkirk, Washington State Microenterprise Association ~ Official, Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), Technology Alliance, UW Consulting and Business Development Center, UW Foster School of Business

Just got some biz cards in time for this weekend’s Venture Black conference, where we talk startup ecosystem, community, fundraising, mentorship, and a bunch of other juicy stuff. Looking to make an impact? Come out, and get involved. Https://bit.ly/q4Venture Evan Poncelet Louis Newkirk Jesse Posey #justgettingstarted #community #investment #startups

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.