14 The Hampton Roads Messenger


Volume 15 Number 4 Career & Business Opportunity


Veteran-led startup makes life easier for military families, wins $20,000 in pitch competition


BY ANGELICA WILLIS --Historically


GREENSBORO, Black


College


NC and


University (HBCU) student and alumni founders from across the country convened, virtually, recently to compete for $20,000 in cash. More than 75 startup ideas, in various stages of development, were submitted to Pitch:HBCU. These ideas included everything


from AI companies to


high-tech fashion brands. The winning startup, At Ease


Rental Corp, helps military families and other government workers with their temporary housing needs. These travelers are not able to use short-term or vacation rental booking sites like Airbnb, HomeAway, or Booking.com because there is no way for the U.S. government to independently vet each property listed on those sites for safety, security, and efficacy. When the U.S. military ordered Marine Corps Major Anthony J. Gantt Jr. to move time and time again, he experienced the struggles of limited housing options: having to choose between cramped hotels and non-reimbursable rentals homes. Major Gantt knew there had to be a better solution for millions of military families and federal workers, and thus founded At Ease Rental Corp.


Gantt and four other finalists were given four minutes to pitch their company to esteemed Silicon Valley titans: Nick Caldwell, entrepreneur, investor and VP of Engineering


at Twitter; Morehouse College alum and Partner at Slauson


& Co, Austin Clements; and Merline Saintil, a director on the boards of Lightspeed HQ and GitLab, who held executive positions at several companies including Intuit, Yahoo, PayPal, and Adobe, and attended Florida A&M University. This year’s finalists included CommunityX, founded by Howard University alumna Chloë Cheyenne, and Make Music Count, founded by Morehouse College graduate Marcus Blackwell. CommunityX is a platform to unite activists and changemakers, allowing them to mobilize around the causes they care about. Make Music Count is a music app that doubles as a math curriculum


taught through learning popular songs on the piano.


African-American founders and other founders of color have faced disproportionate


access to capital


and resources. According to a recent Crunchbase study, of all venture capital investments made over the past 7 years, only 2.4% of those companies were led by Black or Latinx founders. Competitions like Pitch:HBCU can be small steps to help level the playing field, but organizers of the competition note that these events aren’t just good for the founders, they are also good for society. “As our nation continues to reckon with the injustices of the past and present, one of the most important ways we can create sustained change is by helping to build a more inclusive and equitable


economy. HBCUs have been doing this for generations


January 2020


Anthony J. Gantt Jr., Founder and CEO of At Ease Rental Corporation


through education. It’s time to increase


the that represents focus on another key


pathway to economic empowerment, entrepreneurship,” says Angela Jones, founder of The HBCU Advocate, a multimedia platform


a consortium of HBCU communities and supporting organizations.


The HBCU Advocate launched Pitch:HBCU as part of the HBCU


Futures Conference, a 2-day virtual summit that brought HBCU administration,


faculty, students,


and alumni from across the country together to imagine what the next 150 years could look like for HBCUs. “The HBCU startup community has never been more vibrant,” Jones stated.


“With this competition, we were able to celebrate


support


the accomplishments of so many founders, and ultimately


Davidson Fellows Scholarship


The Davidson Fellows Scholarship awards $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 scholarships to gifted and high-achieving students, 18 years old or under, who have completed a significant piece of work. Application categories are Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Literature, Music, Philosophy and Outside the Box.


Recognized by Forbes as "one of the nation’s most prestigious undergraduate scholarships," the Davidson Fellows Scholarship is one of "The 10 Biggest Scholarships in the World" by TheBestColleges.org and one of "7 Prestigious Undergrad Scholarships" in U.S. News & World Report.


"The Davidson Fellows are success stories - they're students who have resourcefully found ways to nurture their genius by seeking out mentors, relying on strong family support and working diligently to achieve their goals."


-Bob Davidson, Co-founder of the Davidson Institute Deadline & Eligibility


● The 2021 deadline is March 10, 2021. ● Applicants must be 18 or younger as of the application deadline to be eligible.


Apply today at www.davidsongifted.org/fellows-scholarship


some truly awesome ‘HBCU-bred’ startups.” Jones has been involved with pitch competitions in the past, including judging a competition for women-led startups that was sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration. “As an HBCU graduate myself, I wanted Pitch:HBCU to highlight all of the amazing


talent


is being fostered historically


that at


black


colleges and universities across the country.” The HBCU Advocate also invited the Pitch:HBCU finalists to join their virtual business incubator.


Pitch:HBCU and


the HBCU Futures Conference was sponsored in part by Silicon Valley venture firms Base10 Partners and


Plexo communities.


Both firms have been advocates


for HBCU Plexo


Capital is run by Lo Toney, a Hampton University


alumnus.


IBM, Dominion Energy, Cigna and Verizon were also sponsors of the HBCU Futures Conference.


Capital.


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