• 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

•  Travis Holoway, Co-founder CEO
• solofunds.com ,
  @solofunds
• Founded 2015
• Lumos Accelerator, Richelieu Dennis

Profile 23 : Solo Funds

About

SoLo brings the power of financial collaboration through a mobile lending exchange that connects lenders and borrowers to provide affordable access to loans under $1,000. They offer free financial literacy courses on topics like budgeting and planning for retirement. The company has helped more than 100,000 people through hard times, connecting them to lenders to cover the cash emergencies life throws at all of us. Based in Los Angeles, the team is working to rid the world of expensive and predatory payday loans.

“Why they ask me for $50, or $150, or $200…what can that really do for them? I didn’t realize that was the difference between putting gas in the car and making it to work and not getting fired. That was the difference between lights on, lights off.” 

“When I looked at the numbers, I quickly realized that, at that time, 76% of the country is paycheck to paycheck…And then the bigger stat to me was that 47% of the country doesn’t have $400.”

~GHOSH with Jamarlin Martin, Episode 11 April 2018

•  Helen Adeosun + Madhuri Reddy 
• careacademy.com, @careacademyco
• Founded 2013
• Backstage Capital, TechStars, Right Side Capital Management, Rethink Education, LuminaFoundation, Pipeline Angels

Profile 17 : CareAcademy

About

CareAcademy develops evidence-based online classes to help both professional and family caregivers provide excellent care at home so older adults can live independently.

CareAcademy provides home care agencies with a best-in-class online education platform that delivers engaging video-based classes and real-world scenarios that walk through aspects of the caregiver experience. 

Approved classes are based on state mandates, client needs, and your caregiver’s learning path.

“When Madhuri and I created CareAcademy, we saw that there was a lot missing in caregiver education. At CareAcademy, we sought to fill the void with fresh, relevant classes to engage learners, a dynamic platform that personalizes learning, and the extra set of hands home care agencies need to increase productivity.

So, we started CareAcademy in 2016 with a simple idea: to empower caregivers to learn how to deliver the best care to older adults with the support, guidance, and compassion needed to improve their quality of life.

We would then make it easy for caregivers to “upskill” and continue their education over time so they could better serve clients as needs changed and advance their careers.

The result is a better caregiver, a better home care agency and a better way to care.”

~CareAcademy website