Entrepreneurship runs deep in Felecia Hatcher’s household historical past—from her Jamaican grandfather’s sugar and yam farm to her father’s roots in building and improvement. Following swimsuit in her private enterprise desires, she co-founded ventures in meals and tech to supply vegan-friendly desserts and academic experiences that included social impression.
As we speak, she carries her household legacy ahead as CEO of Black Ambition, the place she empowers and evokes up-and-coming Black creators and entrepreneurs to do the identical.
Lighting the trail
Hatcher’s first foray into entrepreneurship, which she engaged in whereas she was in school, started with an academic consulting firm that helped adolescents enroll in school and safe tuition funding. Then, after leaving school to pursue entrepreneurship full-time, she led product launches and social media campaigns for main manufacturers like Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Walgreens and extra.
Nevertheless, she quickly confronted a setback that nearly crushed her spirit as a budding entrepreneur. “My very first enterprise had loads of actually bumpy roads, together with an worker [who] stole my largest contract from me,” Hatcher says. “I had sworn off ever, ever, ever being an entrepreneur once more in my whole life.”
But resilience gained out. She quickly reignited her entrepreneurial spirit and was impressed to launch a connoisseur popsicle manufacturing firm along with her husband. Due to her sturdy background in model administration advertising and marketing, she knew learn how to get vegan popsicles onto the marketplace for occasions and private-label manufacturing.
After constructing a Fortune 500 shopper record that expanded her enterprise and enterprise capital backing, Hatcher and her husband opened their brick-and-mortar store and dedicated to working beneath sustainable practices. Additionally they based a youth entrepreneurship program the place they coached youngsters locally on entrepreneurship and tech.
Spearheading innovation
Later, she and her husband began their nonprofit group, Code Fever, now often known as the Heart for Black Innovation. Pushed by her ardour to advertise and create areas for Black innovation, Hatcher additionally co-founded Black Tech Week.
Her efforts to create accessible studying areas for Black communities and contribute to STEM had been acknowledged when she was named a 2014 Obama White Home Champion of Change for STEM entry and variety. Her work has additionally been acknowledged by Harvard College and varied enterprise publications, and he or she’s obtained quite a few awards for championing change.
In any case this, she caught the eye of Pharrell Williams, whose crew invited her to hitch the Black Ambition Alternative Fund as CEO. However on the time, Hatcher says, the venture was nonetheless in improvement. “It didn’t have a CEO previous to that, and it was initially only a dream that [Williams] had of wanting to shut the wealth and alternative hole for various entrepreneurs after which go construct and scale the [business],” she explains.
Nonetheless, the chance was one she couldn’t move up. “That’s the place we first began—eager to guarantee that entrepreneurs that want the help [and] assets to develop and scale considerably had precisely what they wanted, after they wanted [it] and the way they wanted it,” she says. “And that was actually Pharrell’s imaginative and prescient round that… actually having the ability to create uninterrupted pathways to entrepreneurship and thru entrepreneurship.”
Pioneering actions
As we speak, Black Ambition is a vibrant digital platform, and its attain extends past North America to international locations in Africa, South America and Europe. It additionally provides an annual competitors that draws 1000’s of functions. Out of the entries, anyplace from 150–250 semifinalists are chosen and provided a three-month mentorship program, together with capital and networking connections. This hands-on strategy permits Black Ambition to foster various, uninterrupted pathways for younger entrepreneurs.
After investing within the contestants’ firms, Hatcher says, the muse works carefully with the finalists for six to eight months, laying the groundwork for what their companies really have to thrive.
“Oftentimes, my crew asks them, ‘What’s your Christmas record of three to 5 issues that can actually drastically scale [your] firm?’” Hatcher says. “After which it’s my crew’s [job] to assist them get to these…. [We also help] them get world-class contacts that can drastically develop and scale their firm.”
Based on Hatcher, the group’s mission is to assist younger Black entrepreneurs maximize their potential. “We would like the price range to match their creativeness [so that] there may be nothing that stands in the way in which of their greatness,” she says. “As a result of not solely are they going to be superb entrepreneurs, however they’re going to work out some world-bending, world-changing solution to be radically impactful again to their communities.”
Leaving a mark
Hatcher hopes to go away her legacy by the folks and communities she’s helped develop. By dedicating her work and vitality towards spreading positivity, she goals to make a significant impression by entrepreneurship.
“I hope to dwell to 100,” she says. “If I look again and I can say, ‘Job effectively executed round that,’ which means [I’ve had] the impression that I need to have on the world.”
Picture by GaudiLab/Shutterstock.com
