MY BFF: Black Female Founders Podcast

Carmen started her company Elevate as a protest to the lack of diversity and inclusion in Birmingham, Alabama. Gifted with a powerful instinct to discern systemic gaps that too often hinder communities, Carmen has vision. She actively seeks out opportunities to expand equity within underinvested legacy neighborhoods and forges ahead with solutions. Carmen has developed blueprints that have been successfully leveraged by community leaders and partners to bridge equitability gaps and promote economic empowerment and transportation access.

She brings this intuitive approach and ardency for action to all of her work, including her first foray into entrepreneurship as the founder of Elevators.

From 2007 - 2018 the number of women-owned businesses increased by 58% percent, while all businesses increased by just 12%. A combination of necessity entrepreneurship and opportunity entrepreneurship is driving the high 2017- 2018 net new number. A necessity entrepreneur is an individual who cannot find quality employment or is unemployed and whose only viable employment option is to start a business. These businesses tend to be smaller than those started by opportunity entrepreneurs, 2 which target a market opportunity.

In this episode we discuss how women start businesses to meet a need including tuition, make a large purchase or some other need. We meet the Furlough Cheesecake Sisters who started their business during the government shutdown. Kristin Lewis who started the Poundcake Project to may her daughter's private school tuition. And we close the show interviewing Carolyn Pendleton owner of the Pendleton Candle Company where proceeds go toward creating obituaries for children lost to gun violence.

Listen to these compelling stories and how mompreneurs are impacting their communities and changing lives.

By now most have heard or read about Greenbook and how it served as a way for Black people to travel safely. Meet Tracey Hobbs creator of Vanter. Vanter is Greenbook meets Trip Advisor. Vanter is a digital travel assistant to ensure diverse communities can travel safely. Listen to her story and contact vanter.co to learn more.

Fallon has an incredible story of seeing a need and creating a solution. When her mother suffered a back injury and was prescribed opioid for pain management. Concerned about the side effects including addiction, Fallon went to work searching for an alternative. Listen to her founders journey.

Day Party Episode II w/Online Business Strategist Shalena Diva. Shalena shares her story of turning obstacles into opportunities.