
Navigating Barriers
Acknowledging and addressing systemic barriers Black business owners may face in entrepreneurship.
Join Jewel Burks Solomon, Head of Google Startups in the US and Managing Partner of Collab Capital, as she explores how to anticipate and recognize barriers and bias as an entrepreneur and identifies tactics to overcome them in the funding ecosystem and in contract procurement.
Overcoming bias in the funding ecosystem.
Navigating barriers in procurement.
Building mental fortitude.
Abbey Creek Winery is a boutique vineyard in Portland, Oregon. Wine-making is known as an industry with a high barrier to entry, typically reserved for those with a family legacy in the business, and/or those with deep enough pockets to get a foot in the door. See how founder Bertony Faustin, the first Black winemaker in the state, is not just overcoming barriers, he’s smashing them down.
In order for a business to withstand challenging times, it must be grounded on a solid foundation that includes three pillars: mission statement, business rapport, and leadership. Here’s how to establish these key components and build a resilient company.
The business journey of an entrepreneur can be filled with many external challenges, but what is not often discussed is how to overcome a common internal challenge of being a business owner. Read these four tips on how to keep moving forward when faced with emotional inertia.
By most accounts, raising funding for an early-stage startup or business venture is extremely difficult – especially for women and Black founders. In this article, Jewel Burks Solomon shares three ways in which she navigated the funding ecosystem for her startup and her venture fund, Collab Capital.
Learning from a business failure can make you stronger, smarter, and more resilient. Find out how to gain the most from every experience on the road to success.
Get the facts about small business pitfalls. From what they are to how to avoid them, we can help you prepare for success.
Jewel Burks Solomon is the Head of Google for Startups in the US. In this role, Jewel works to level the playing field for underrepresented startup founders and communities by connecting them with the best of Google’s products, people, and best practices. In addition to this role, Jewel also serves as Managing Partner at Collab Capital, an alternative investment fund she launched to close the funding gap for Black entrepreneurs.
Prior to leading Google for Startups and Collab Capital, Jewel was Founder/CEO of Partpic, a startup that was acquired by Amazon in 2016, which streamlined the purchase of maintenance and repair parts using computer vision technology. After the acquisition of Partpic, Jewel became a product leader at Amazon’s Visual Search and AR team. She led the integration of Partpic’s technology and launched it as Amazon PartFinder in 2018 to the over 150M users of Amazon’s Mobile Shopping App.
These eight foundational themes cover the ins and outs of the small business journey and provide resources to help you set the pace for your success.