The Black Entrepreneur Initiative serves to cultivate Black entrepreneurs at UNC, while providing a space for Black entrepreneurs to profit and promote their businesses. The organization has three main goals — to promote, inform and connect.
“I think all three of the goals themselves have one central mission — and it’s just to uplift the Black community at hand,” Eliam Mussie, co-president of the BEI, said.
The organization was co-founded by students Kene Uwajeh and Sherrod Crum, and began as a community for Black business owners, students with ventures and those interested in the entrepreneurship field.
“Historically, Black people have been excluded from some of those spaces. Black businesses don’t get as much promotion marking as some other types of businesses,” Richard Okoro, co-president of the BEI, said. “I feel like that also has a greater effect on the Black community as a whole and not seeing other business owners that look like you.”
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