Blavity is a media company and lifestyle brand with conferences like Afrotech and Empower Her, and we recently acquired a company focused on Black entertainment news.

Blavity aims to create products and experiences that celebrate black people, addressing the unique challenges faced by black individuals and people of color that the industry often ignores.

We started Blavity as an email newsletter, curating the top 10 things black people needed to see each week, which included videos and other content.

My role evolved from being hands-on in the early days to focusing on hiring and maintaining company direction as we scaled.

As a founder, my role has shifted from coding to focusing on team culture and alignment, ensuring everyone is pointed in the same direction as the company grows.

As a founder, my role is to drive clarity on what we're building and to create an organization that empowers others to contribute to that vision.

Having gone through significant personal and professional challenges, I now see my role as a coach to help the next generation of founders build impactful products.

I focus on brands I love and analyze what they do well, which helps me in my marketing role.

In our early days, we focused on building a strong team dynamic, where each co-founder had clear roles: Lee builds the product, Michelle ensures things get done, and I tell the story of what we're doing.