Twende: Empowering Black and Brown Entrepreneurs to Thrive

Angie Li, a Product Design Manager at Asurion, shares critical and cost-effective ways to simplify your website for a better user experience. Listen in as Li breaks down usability testing activities that will set you and your audience up for success!

After 20-years of writing his story, Donald Miller, CEO of StoryBrand and Business Made Simple, is thriving during what he calls his second act! Join us as we celebrate the release of Donald's most recent book, How to Grow Your Small Business, and learn about the six components of professionalizing your business and why Donald is betting big on founders of color!

The Nashville Entrepreneur Center is proud to have Bank of America as our sponsor of Season 2 of the Twende podcast! Bank of America is advancing racial equity and economic opportunities through investments, grants, and partnerships. On this episode, you’ll get to hear from Tyson Moore - President of Bank of American Nashville and Market Executive for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Middle Tennessee. Tyson shares his story, the work he's leading at Bank of America to improve the financial lives of entrepreneurs and their 30-year commitment to supplier diversity working with businesses like those in our Twende program.

Many entrepreneurs believe they have to wait until they grow to get legal advice. On today's episode with P. Danielle Nellis, you will learn why it's important to legally protect your business from day one. Get expert insights from this experienced attorney on how to safeguard your dreams and keep yourself safe from legal trouble. Don't let the law trip up your success - tune in today!

A publishing corporation, one of the first Black-owned banks in the US, and one of four HBCUs in Nashville, TN all draw their roots from one lineage – The Boyd family. R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation has a legacy that expands across five generations. Current CEO, Dr. LaDonna Boyd, discusses innovation, transformational leadership, and strategic decision making skills to scale the business.

Renowned entrepreneur and founder of the Cupcake Collection, Mignon Francois, shares her inspiring story of starting her business with $5 and growing it to over $5million at the Nashville Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship Day.

You are your best investment. As entreprenuers it can be easy to put your health and wellness on the backburner. Learn from celebrity trainer and entreprenuer, Gerell Webb, on how why health is wealth when building your business.

Joshua Mundy and Quawn Clark are growing a 7-figure business in tech, creating community impact in Nashville and beyond. Learn the small pivots they made to go from less than $20,000 in revenue per year to over $1,000,000.

Holly & Rachel are leading the Nashville chapter of Blacks in Tech to create a community of advocacy and inlusion in Nashville’s tech community.

As founders, you are the author of your story and the story of your company. In this episode, learn from Associate Editor of The Business Journals, Marq Burnett, on ways to develop your writing skills and storytelling to attract press and customers for your business.

A veteran expert in federal and local government policies for entrepreneurship, LaTanya Channel, joins us to discuss ways that you can grow your business by doing business with government clients. LaTanya is the Director, Economic Growth and Small Business Development for Metro Nashville shares the playbook of growing from RFPs to gaining the coveted 8A certification to land 6-7-figure deals with the federal government.

Check out what you can expect on Season 2 of Twende: Empowering Black and Brown Entrepreneurs to Thrive, powered by Bank of America.

There are more than 105,000 firms owned by Black & Brown founders across Tennessee. However, these businesses tend to start smaller and stay smaller (averaging only $19,800 annually) than their peer non-minority-owned firms. In this episode hear from Black entrepreneurs in the Nashville area on ways to thrive as a founder and leader while growing a thriving business.

Corporations have pledged billions of dollars in annual spend to diverse, small businesses with initiatives to only increase this spending year over year. The largest single purchaser in the world, the U.S. Federal Government, leads the charge in supplier diversity spend. In 2022, the federal government spent an unprecedented $17 billion dollars on products and services provided by black and brown-owned businesses. Thus, herein lies a critical question you must ask yourself...Is your B2B startup well positioned to secure its fair share of these massive revenue opportunities? In this episode, learn insights on how to prepare to grow your business by doing business with BIG business.

On this special episode, join Brynn Plummer as she passes the torch, and quite literally the microphone, to her guest Brittany Cole, who will take over as host of the show going forward. As the Entrepreneur Center’s new Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer, Cole will also be responsible for further enhancing the ECs Twende program, working to amplify the voices of entrepreneurs of color and make it easier to connect them to resources in the state. Join us in welcoming Brittany and saying a fond farewell to Brynn, our show's founding host.

Over the past two years, disparities in healthcare and race in the American system have amplified. Not only are people of color not receiving adequate healthcare services, but founders of color who operate in the healthcare sector struggle to receive necessary funds for their ventures. In today’s episode, Kathryne Cooper, Partner at Jumpstart Nova, and Marcus Whitney, Founder and Managing Partner of Jumpstart Nova joins Brynn Plummer to discuss why they started a fund that invests exclusively in black healthcare founders. They’ll also share how their company Jumpstart Nova emerged and why they’re passionate about investing in healthcare solutions for today and for the future.

Jason Scott, head of startup developer ecosystems at Google and partner of the ANIM Fund, sits down with Brynn Plummer to discuss his winding path into the world of venture capital, and how he aims to play the role of a superhero sidekick in the careers of founders of color by providing them with the capital, resources, and mentorship they need to be successful no matter their geographical location.

Behind every great entrepreneur is a compelling story, a passion to change the current narrative and turn roadblocks into opportunities. In today’s episode, CEO & Founder of Podpal, currently the first black-owned podcasting startup, Aaron P. Woods joins Brynn Plummer to share how his mission to provide for his family led him to develop a startup that seeks to remove the overwhelming steps that come from producing your own podcast. They’ll also discuss how he balances family life and his full-time job with building a startup, and why he’s passionate about pioneering a path for other founders of color.

“The data exists” to show that investing in BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) founders pays off, says Monique Villa, co-founder of Build In SE and early-stage investor at Mucker Capital. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Villa organically found her way to Nashville and into the VC world. Today, she's paying it forward by starting a project called Unprocess that focuses on how paving a path for a career is more organic and less linear. She joins Brynn Plummer in this episode to help explain how venture capital works and how it’s changing for the better to support BIPOC.

Henry Beecher Hicks, president and CEO of the National Museum of African American Music, sits down with Brynn Plummer to share about his early professional career and how a decision to buy Gray Line, a premium sight-seeing tour bus and public transportation company, led him to Nashville. He also shares the many lessons he has learned as an African American man navigating the world of entrepreneurship.