As the nation celebrates Black Business Month, a group of entrepreneurs has launched a 100-percent black-owned equity crowdfunding platform, The 10K Project that is setting out to fund black businesses and bridge the black wealth gap.
As part of a national movement, the 10K Project allows micro investors to join for $100 and have the opportunity to invest in black-owned small businesses. If 10,000 people to invest as little as $100, then there would be $1 million to support these businesses.
In addition to accessing opportunities to invest, members will have access to financial literacy webinars, wealth-building educational resources, community forums, and the ability to network and learn from each other.
Cheree Warrick, a co-founder and the project’s CEO, said that despite the recession, we’ve got to invest and build black businesses.
“Some of the nation’s largest businesses have been created during recessions,” Warrick said. “I also believe black entrepreneurs need a platform where they can find investors since many are not likely to get loans from banks or family members.”
Warrick, who has been writing business plans for more than a decade, said The 10K Project is responding to a growing need to support black entrepreneurs, especially during a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has created such economic uncertainty. She and her co-founders believe that the project has a chance to create a new generation of black investors.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey, Blacks owned 124,004 firms in 2017 with 32 percent (39,714) of these firms in the healthcare and social services industry.
Additionally, a Groupon and National Black Chamber of Commerce survey reports that 80 percent of black business owners say they encounter greater challenges starting their business because of their race; 76 percent say COVID-19 has negatively impacted their business and 74 percent has fewer chances to create a “successful business and less time to make it successful due to a lack of capital investment and resources.”
Over the past month, the project’s Building Black Wealth Podcast has featured interviews with A’Leilia Bundles, the great-great-granddaughter of the legendary female entrepreneurs, Madame C.J. Walker; George Fraser, the Cleveland based author, entrepreneur, speaker and founder of the 15-year-old PowerNetworking Conference; Lamar Wilson is the Founder of Sunjoined, a company that was created to provide an all-natural CBD from a network of connected growers.
For more information, go to The 10K Project website to download its free e-book and join.