Seventeen Black and brown founders of nine tech startups, the inaugural cohort of ACT Tulsa, recently showcased their businesses and progress made during six months in the program. (Courtesy photo/ACT Tulsa)
The entrepreneurial spirit that founded Greenwood’s Black Wall Street a century ago is today fueling a project to spur minority-owned technology startups in Tulsa.
ACT Tulsa, an accelerator cultivating minority-led startups, recently showcased its inaugural cohort, 17 Black and brown founders of nine tech startups. The startup founders received coaching, programming and a $70,000 non-dilutive investment. They turned that into $4 million in investment raised and an array of blossoming tech companies.
“All of us at Build in Tulsa are so proud of these founders,” said Ashli Sims, managing director of Build in Tulsa. “They had the raw materials, talent, grit and drive, already. ACT House really poured into them and honed their skills, boosted their confidence, and elevated their aspirations. This is how we honor the legacy of Black Wall Street, by lifting up Black entrepreneurs and providing them with the skills, networks and the capital they need to do great things.”
ACT Tulsa is a joint venture between i2E, a private not-for-profit corporation that receives state support from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, and Tulsa-based ACT House, which helps innovators build their dreams by “leveraging innovation with cross-cultural collaboration.”
The program is part of Build in Tulsa, a network of programs that includes two accelerators, ACT Tulsa and another called Lightship. The program’s goal is to catalyze multi-generational Black wealth in Tulsa.
The companies represent the use of technology for a wide variety of industries and services:
• Bite Way is a meal prepping company that provides healthy and affordable meals, paired with nutrition advice. The startup has grown its customer waiting list from 12 to 530 during the program.
• Boddle Learning is an education platform that uses 3D games and adaptive learning technology to offer personalized math experiences for K-6 students. Boddle Learning has grown from servicing about 350,000 students to 1.1 million students.
• Bodify uses artificial intelligence to help online shoppers find the best brands and fit for their bodies, which now has a customer waiting list of 800 people.
• BootUp is a platform to help tech companies fill their talent and diversity gaps through a database of over 20,000 boot camp and vocational school graduates. BootUp helped 254 candidates land their first tech job.
• Bounceless is an e-commerce site offering patented sports bras for fuller-figured women to have the support they need during physical activity. Participation in the accelerator helped Bounceless rebrand and increase conversions by 128%.
• Cadenzo is a marketplace that allows entertainers and venues to communicate with one another to book live events. Cadenza booked 20 shows in the first three months and tripled its waitlist to 250 artists and 50 venues.
• Comme Homme is a brand for American men who are bald or dealing with hair loss. Comme Homme tripled their capital, launched a digital video series with more than 50 episodes, and secured more than 300 pre-orders over the course of the program.
• Fansub supports creators with information about their fans and ways to monetize and engage supporters. Fansub doubled its users and was downloaded more than 2,000 times over the course of the accelerator program.
• Fresh Fabrics is a mobile laundry service that uses a digital scheduling system. The startup tripled its clientele and expanded to two cities during its participation in the program.
Build in Tulsa will provide office space for five of the startups, so they can continue to grow in Tulsa.
A new cohort of eight companies is starting the ACT Tulsa program this month, chosen from more than 180 applicants.
“Watching the evolution of these nine companies grow in the past six months has been nothing short of amazing,” said Dominick Ard’is, CEO of ACT House. “From raising north of $4 million to founders growing their emotional intelligence and teams as business leaders, these companies are showing the world that Latinx and Black founders can return capital! Being a part of the Tulsa community and the Build in Tulsa network has enabled us to recruit startups we wanted in our accelerator and we couldn’t be more thankful.”
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