A key pillar of our Black Progress Matters mission is our Black-Owned Business Incubator Program. The BPM Founding Partners have pledged BPM’s entire profits to this ambitious incubator program. Our BPM Black-Owned Business Incubator, in conjunction with the significant support of Advantage Global Resources, now has five Black-owned startups in various stages of development, including Walker Sports Audit, M&L Devine Resources, UnBiasIt, Katini Skin, and Cocoa by CeCe.
Most importantly, the profit from BPM’s share of these partnerships goes entirely to fund even more BPM incubated businesses. The potential of our BPM programs and Black-owned start-ups is limitless.
Success for Blacks has traditionally come in sports and entertainment, while success in business has often taken a back seat - until now. Today, we are fortunate to have some inspirational Black role models in business, and while most of them like Michael Jordan, Jay Z, Oprah, Shaq, Serena, etc. have come from sports and entertainment, they are showing every person of color that success in business is even more fulfilling than success in sports and entertainment.
I believe we are on the threshold of an explosion of Black talent and entrepreneurship in business, and BPM is committed to leading the way.
– Dean Haynesworth, BPM CEO
While each opportunity will encourage additional investment, we are confident that the pledged profits of BPM will continue to provide substantial start-up funding. Ultimately, the real success of every BPM incubated business will come from the full engagement and business savvy provided by the executive Black ownership.
UnBiasIt
The first solution to provide enterprises with an immediate deterrent to inherent bias in their organization.
UnBiasIt has developed various data management and compliance solutions in order to fully enable organizations to recognize and eliminate inherent bias and misconduct throughout their enterprise - as well as transforming their data as a resource which can easily and accurately be drawn upon when needed for the critical information governance that is increasingly demanded of every enterprise.
The remarkable offering that has emerged from this initiative is our UnBiasIt Data Stack. The UnBiasIt Data Stack is the first solution to provide enterprises with an immediate deterrent to inherent bias in their organization, as well as delivering the most advanced data management solution available in the marketplace today.
Walker Sports Audit
Independent audit and rating of your trusted advisors.
Walker Sports Audit ensures you are receiving representation from trusted advisors that (have your financial well being at the forefront of all we do) you can trust. In short, we watch the people watching your money. We offer our clients a very valuable and necessary audit and evaluation with a degree of separation that ensures no compromising agenda or misplaced loyalties.
M&L Devine Resources
Your partner in executive search and placement.
M&L Devine Resources is an executive search and placement firm that helps you find the best leaders for your organization. We work with entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to leading Fortune 100 companies. We have the expertise to help you find the perfect candidate for your company’s culture and needs. We understand what it takes to be a great leader, and we’re here to help you find the right person for the job.
M&L Devine Resources is committed to finding the next great leader who will take your organization and transform it into a powerhouse.
Katini Skin
Inspired by the natural connection between plants, people, and places.
Katini Skin has developed products with consciously sourced ingredients from Australia, Africa, Japan and beyond. The simple yet elegant, and deeply considered formulations have been created to satisfy our skin and elevate our beauty.
Booker T
Washington
BUSINESS LEADER
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was born into slavery and rose to become a leading African American intellectual of the 19 century, founding Tuskegee University in 1881 and the National Negro Business League two decades later. Booker believed that solutions to the problem of racial discrimination were primarily economic and that African American entrepreneurship was vital. Thus, he founded the league to further the economic development of African American businesses in order to achieve social equality in American society.
Washington advised Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. His infamous conflicts with black leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois over segregation caused a stir, but today, he is remembered as the most influential African American speaker of his time.
"The wisest of my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing."