• Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins,
  Co-Founder + CEO
• joinpromise.com , @phaedrael
• Founded 2017
• Roc Nation, Y Combinator,
  Kapor Capital, First Round

Profile 27 : PROMISE

About

Promise was founded to make a meaningful impact on America’s criminal justice system. They believe alternatives to incarceration can create safer and stronger communities. Their solution emphasizes the concept of “decarceration” for the twelve million people who cycle through local jails in the US every year, most of whom are pretrial and can’t afford bail. Their platform provides technology and tools for released individuals, administrative agencies, and government leaders.

“I came out of a community that didn’t have many resources. There were violent households. Families doomed by drugs. My life was fortunate. I did labor organizing for South Bay Labor Council. I advised Prince on digital-rights management. I ran revenue at Honor, a home health care startup.

Then a friend called and said there were bounty hunters at her door. Someone she loved had missed a hearing, and there was a warrant out for his arrest. He was so scared. He just wanted to keep working, to support his family. He had no money for a lawyer or bail.

We called the public defender and had it fixed in five minutes. But many people don’t have the resources to work the system. The reality is that it’s broken. People of color are being arrested for sleeping. For walking. For shopping.

Seventy percent of people held in county jails have not been convicted of a crime. They can’t afford bail and are just waiting for a trial. It leads to prison overcrowding. The longer you’re in, the likelier you are to lose your job, be separated from your family, and end up back in jail. My co-founder and I realized we needed a technology that gets people to court, so they won’t be jailed for missing a date. We also want the private bail industry to die.”

~Excerpts from Inc Magazine article, by Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, August 2018

• Mary Spio, Founder + CEO
• ceek.com , @CEEK
• Founded 2015
• Black Angel Tech Fund

Profile 26 : CEEK

About

Based in Sacramento, CEEK Global Innovations is helping lead the way for mobile VR entertainment. CEEK VR simulates the communal experience of attending a live concert, being in a classroom, attending a sporting event and other ‘money can’t buy’ exclusive experiences with friends from anywhere at any time. Their mission is to make virtual reality experiences universally accessible and enjoyable. The award-winning enterprise has delivered VR experiences for the likes of Katy Perry, Quavo, and Lady Gaga. Most recently the company has developed blockchain-based ticketing for artists to sell access to virtual entertainment events they host or perform.

“…as an entrepreneur raising capital, I ran into challenges. When I launched Gen2Media, we were doing a million before beta. We had an investor come in to help us raise capital and he said he was having a hard time because no one was writing checks to black women and he needed a white male at the helm. Then he got my other partners (they were all equal partners) on his side and I was forced out of my own company.

This was a company I built with every dime I had. We had 26 employees. That was the toughest thing I have gone through, and it happened not because of something I did but because of who I am.

…I decided I really wanted to build my own company again. I participated in a Google for Entrepreneurs program and we visited Facebook and I saw the Oculus [the virtual reality headset maker that Facebook later purchased]. I always loved 3D movies. I tried it on and I said oh my god this is exactly what I want to do forever and ever. Everything was leading up to this point. It was religious for me. I said I would love to watch a movie this way, I would love to deliver education this way, healthcare this way. I said I gotta build something that I can enjoy this thing with.”

~Excerpts from Miami Herald article, by Nancy Dahlberg, March 2015

•  James Norman, Founder +CEO
• business.pilot.ly, @pilotlyinsights
• Founded 2015
• 500 Startups, Stout Street Capital, LaunchCapital

Profile 24 : Pilotly

About

Pilotly is building the big data pipeline behind media entertainment. 

Pilotly is working to solve the problem that today’s content creators waste nearly a billion dollars a year on videos that either never find an audience or never find proper distribution. Their technology platform enables media publishers to run digital focus groups at scale with precise audience segmentation, to collect and aggregate data that displays instantly to an online dashboard. 

Pilotly’s technology creates meaningful engagements between content creators and global audiences so that creators can gather detailed feedback at scale that can ultimately better their business outcomes.

James Norman is a serial entrepreneur who built his first company at the age of 16, an aftermarket automotive e-commerce site called MJH Sound.com. While he previously may have been known as a visionary in automotive product planning, over the past 8 years he has become a thought leader in the media and entertainment industry, particularly in over-the-top media and consumer video consumption behaviors. In 2008, James founded Ubi Video, one of the first aggregators of all things streaming video. After Ubi was acquired by an MVPD, he moved on to develop GroupFlix, an a-la-carte streaming service. His latest venture is Pilotly, a consumer insights platform that enables content creators to get feedback from audiences at scale. ~Up Next Podcast

“My beginnings are far from Hollywood. I was born in Lansing, Michigan and around Detroit. I’m a Gearhead. Back in the mid-nineties, I actually had built my first website where we sold car audio online, and I did that all the way through college where I was doing Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan. At that point, we transitioned to L.A because at that point we were building entire cars for manufacturers…things you could call tricked out cars.” ~from the Pilotly website