OHUB Hosts 2nd Annual Juneteenth 4.0 Celebration in New Orleans, Announces OHUB x NOLA Innovation & Equity District with 1532...
June 19 2021 - 12:43AM
Business Wire
Today, on the heels of President Joe Biden signing the bill that
designates Juneteenth a federal holiday, OHUB, First Boulevard Bank
and 1532 Tulane Partners are joining forces in New Orleans, LA to
convene the 2nd annual Juneteenth 4.0 Celebration, 1P -
6P CDT. Produced live from the future home of OHUB’s Equity
District, the hybrid online and in-person experience includes an
all-star lineup of nationally recognized expert leaders and a
virtual casting call with ABC’s Shark Tank. The event will conclude
with a ribbon cutting ceremony and private reception for OHUB x
NOLA Innovation & Equity District. The experience is a salute
to Black America’s triumph over chattel slavery, deconstruction and
legalized segregation; and a critical call to action for our nation
to get serious about advancing scable racial equity in the fourth
industrial revolution and beyond.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210618005601/en/
Future home of OHUB x NOLA Innovation
& Equity District. (Photo: Business Wire)
Featured speakers include Congresswoman Barbara Lee
[California’s 13th Congressional District], Congressman
Ro Khanna [California’s 17th Congressional District],
Congressman Troy Carter [Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District],
Donald Hawkins [Cofounder & CEO, First Boulevard],
Dr. Debra B. Morton [Senior Pastor, Greater St. Stephen Full
Gospel Baptist Church], Sevetri Wilson [Cofounder, Resilia;
Author, Resilient], Brandon Andrews [Minority Casting
Director, ABC’s Shark Tank; Cofounder, Gauge App], Natalie
Madeira Cofield [Assistant Administrator, Small Business
Administration], Sherry Gamble Smith [CEO, Black Wall Street
Chamber of Commerce] Akeem Shannon [Founder & CEO,
FlipStik]; Brad Feld [Co-founder, Foundry Group; Cofounder;
Techstars], Seth Levine [Cofounder, Foundry Group; Author,
The New Builders], Elizabeth MacBridge [Founder, Times of
Entrepreneurship; Author, The New Builders] Davyeon Ross
[CEO, ShotTracker; Co-creator, Coalition Venture Studio]; Dane
Simmons [CEO, Simmons Surgical; General Partner, 100 Black Angels
& Allies Fund]; Bridget Chisholm [Cofounder, BWC Capital
& Economic Development Co-Chair, The Links]; Marcia
Bowden [Physician; Economic Development Co-Chair, The Links]
Vickie Gibbs [Director, UNC Chapel Hill Entrepreneurship
Center]; John McElligott [Founder, York Exponential; Vice
Chairman, OHUB Futures], David Weild IV [Former Vice
Chairman of NASDAQ & Godfather of The JOBS Act], Sherrell
Dorsey [Founder, ThePlug], Kieran Blanks [Chief Growth
& Development Officer, OHUB Futures] Joseph Stebbins
[Cofounder, 1532 Tulane Partners], Joe St. Martin [Project
Manager, 1532 Tulane Partners] & Rodney Sampson
[Executive Chairman & CEO, OHUB; General Partner, 100 Black
Angels & Allies Fund].
During the public live event, OHUB will announce a series of key
initiatives across its early exposure, education and skills
development, talent placement, innovation, entrepreneurship, market
and capital formation framework as codified in Building Inclusive
Entrepreneurship Ecosystems In Communities of Color with The
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Key initiatives and announcements include:
- Opportunity Hub and 1532 Tulane Partners, the
redevelopers of the former Charity Hospital are joining forces to
create the OHUB x NOLA Innovation and Equity District. The
boundaries of the new innovation and equity district are Esplanade
Avenue to the North; Pontchartrain Expressway to the South; North
Broad Avenue to the West; and the Mississippi River to the East.
Phase 1 includes the redevelopment of the Historic Butterworth and
Hutchinson buildings immediately across from the hospital. The
initial 55,000 sf is envisioned to have a private rooftop club,
member lounge, startup co-working, innovation labs, curated event,
and space dedicated to OHUB Futures & Fortress Academy’s
software sales, software engineering, cybersecurity specialist and
robotic technician bootcamps. The district will contain a mixed-use
of commercial, residential and retail communities designed
specifically to create, build and position all the citizens of the
New Orleans region for equitable inclusion in the global
technology, startup & venture ecosystem as a path to shared
prosperity, meaningful reciprocity and multi-generational wealth
creation in the future of work, fourth industrial revolution and
beyond. Anchored by a membership model, the OHUB x NOLA Innovation
& Equity District will bring together like minded people,
startups, small businesses, investors, corporations,
philanthropists, college students, youth, the overlooked,
under-estimated and more for fourth industrial revolution exposure,
rapid up-skilling, new career pathways, high growth company
building, capital access, investment opportunities and more inside
of a state of the art campus constructed at the intersection of
culture, code and conscience. Founding advisory board members
include Sevetri Wilson [Founder & CEO, Resilia],
Aaron Walker [Founder, Camelback Ventures, Attorney James
Carter [Managing Partner, The Cochran Firm], Dr. Debra B.
Morton [Senior Pastor, Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist
Church], Bambi Hall [Founder & CEO, Overflow Media],
Wayne Encalarde [Principal, Encalarde Consulting], Arrid
Hansell [Founder, Bio Mechanics]; Leroy Brown, and
Alexa Authorlee [Founding President, Alliance of Black
Solutions, Tulane University]. Prospective founding members can
request information here.
“The Phase 1 launch will support the vision of creating an
inclusive and equitable innovation hub in New Orleans that only
adds to the energies supporting the hundreds of millions of dollars
being invested within the immediate 10 block radius”, says
Joseph St. Martin, Partner, 1532 Tulane Partners.
- OHUB Futures, the learning company of Opportunity Hub,
is partnering with Victory Lap to launch a technical
software sales bootcamp to re-skill and up-skill New Orleans
residents that may be unemployed or underemployed due to the
pandemic. The first cohort will start as early as the fall with
tuition financing options powered by Leif and Grit, a future
crowdfunding platform for rapid re-skillers and founders.
Interested learners can apply here.
- Leif, the nation’s leading funder of income sharing
agreements is partnering with OHUB and Grit, to launch a
racial equity pledge for the bootcamp industry designed to increase
operationalize diversity, equity & inclusion solutions at the
more than 500 bootcamps and growing in the county.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with OHUB Futures to provide a
career pathway for New Orleans residents into software sales
leading to new opportunities and economic mobility that very few
jobs can match. Our bootcamp has helped over 1,000 individuals
realize their potential by providing training, career coaching, and
job placement in over 300 companies. Our formula works and we’re
all in on ensuring it leads to racial equity within the tech
ecosystem in New Orleans and beyond,” says Brian Bar,
Founder & CEO, Victory Lap.
- Equity District, the new straightforward,
non-performative podcast for the startup ecosystem with Rodney
Sampson & Brad Feld launches on Apple and Spotify today. The
podcast is produced by New Jersey based ABF Creative founded
by Anthony Frazier; and hosted on the Sounder
platform.
- Brad Feld, Seth Levine, Sevetri Wilson and Minda
Harts are also investing in 100 Black Angels and Allies Fund,
joining Arlan Hamilton, Keisha Knight Pulliam, Dr. Keith Hodge and
others as Limited Partners.
“Seth & I are excited to invest in 100 Black Angels &
Allies Fund; and encourage other serious co-conspirators in this
work to create a more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem to do the
same. Rodney’s investment thesis for diversity, equity, and
inclusion solutions based ecosystem infrastructure development will
be key to normalizing Black fund managers, founders, accelerators
and innovation districts. We’re all in”, says Foundry Group &
Techstars co-founder, Brad Feld.
- The Links, Incorporated will follow on their initial
investment in 100 Black Angels & Allies Fund with the creation
of an investment syndicate designed to open up the investment
opportunity to their accredited members throughout America.
Additionally, every chapter of The Links will be encouraged to
sponsor two members to complete the Black Technology Ecosystem
Investment Certificate offered in collaboration with UNC Chapel
Hill Kenan Flagler, Duke University and Stanford Technology
Ventures Program. The goal is to create a new emerging class of
Black investors to ensure that Black owned innovation & equity
districts, venture funds & founders have the capital they
require to launch, grow & scale.
- The Links will also work with OHUB to create technology,
startup and venture campus chapters and ecosystems by and for Black
college students and alum from Historical Black colleges and
universities, minority serving institutions, community colleges and
predominantly white institutions committed to racial equity.
- First Boulevard Bank, co-founded by Donald Hawkins
and Asya Bradley, is rolling out the beta launch of its mobile
banking app, which includes financial education modules, spending
recommendations and real-time insights based on a user's purchases,
and the ability to passively save for personal goals. First
Boulevard also has a "Cash Back for Buying Black" program and will
be the first to pilot Visa's new suite of crypto APIs, which allows
customers to buy and trade digital assets, such as cryptocurrency,
to build wealth. First Boulevard members also can earn points for
making positive financial decisions and redeem them for things such
as cash back, covering transactions, or in the near future, for
acquiring fractional investments or cryptocurrency. First
Boulevard, which built its app in less than a year, originally
planned to launch the app in the third or fourth quarter but worked
to move up the deadline to Juneteenth, an annual holiday
commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. The neobanks CEO,
Donald will join OHUB for an in-person panel in New Orleans to
officially announce the launch.
Immediately following the summit, OHUB and 1532 Tulane Partners
will host a small gathering of New Orleans’ movers and shakers for
a ribbon cutting ceremony and celebration.
“In 1991, I traveled to New Orleans to attend Tulane University.
30 years later, I am returning to the Big Easy with my entire
family, fraternity brothers, respected experts and key members of
our team to launch the OHUB x NOLA Innovation and Equity District
in a joint venture with 1532 Tulane Partners. Together, we will
celebrate the new federal holiday - Juneteenth - while reflecting,
ideating and working on what is required to ensure that every
American, especially Black, Latinx and Indigenous Americans are
equitably included in the fourth industrial revolution and beyond.
The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes yet a second
later”, says Rodney Sampson, Executive Chairman, CEO, OHUB; General
Partner, 100 Black Angels & Allies Fund.
Take action
- Register for Juneteenth 4.0 Celebration
- Request OHUB x NOLA Innovation & Equity District
membership
- Donate to OHUB Foundation
- Register for Black Technology Investment Certificate
- Sign up for First Boulevard Bank
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210618005601/en/
Lyndon Breckenridge lyndon@ohub.at 404-664-9091