Pine-Sol and ESSENCE launched the Build Your Legacy Contest on March 1st and had over six hundred entrants sharing their stories.
While we set out to award $100,000 to one Black woman entrepreneur initially, to address the demand, we decided to double our commitment and give a total of $250,000.
Now, our Grand Prize winner will receive $150,000, and our two remaining semi-finalists will also receive $15,000 each. Finally, we are awarding seven additional entrants $10,000 each for their business.
Pine-Sol and ESSENCE are proud of our commitment to empowering Black female entrepreneurs.
Please meet our winners!
01
Mary Blackford – Market 7 (Grand Prize Winner)
Market 7 is a community marketplace that features Black-owned businesses in Washington, DC; created for the purpose of alleviating the food and retail deserts in Ward 7.
Founded and led by Ward 7 resident, Mary Blackford, Market 7’s mission is to revitalize and restore the economic stability, holistic health, and the social needs of the residents in Ward 7 by developing sustainable commerce within the community. Over the last 3 years Market 7 has worked with 60 black-owned businesses in the Washington, DC area to create alternative community market pop-ups that includes fresh food, lifestyle products, and home items in Ward 7.
Market 7’s new project is a 7,000 sq ft food hall that will include a community grocery store and several food stall incubations that will represent culinary favorite sfrom across the Diaspora. The objectives of the new food hall are to alleviate food deserts in Ward 7 by creating a marketplace sourced with products and food concepts by Black-owned businesses, promote good health through sustainable lifestyle products, and build an ecosystem of support for entrepreneurs in an effort to cultivate access to educational resources, inspire innovation, and build profitable enterprises.
Market 7’s new food hall is slated to open in 2021.
To learn more, visit www.market7dc.com.
Founded and led by Ward 7 resident, Mary Blackford, Market 7’s mission is to revitalize and restore the economic stability, holistic health, and the social needs of the residents in Ward 7 by developing sustainable commerce within the community. Over the last 3 years Market 7 has worked with 60 black-owned businesses in the Washington, DC area to create alternative community market pop-ups that includes fresh food, lifestyle products, and home items in Ward 7.
Market 7’s new project is a 7,000 sq ft food hall that will include a community grocery store and several food stall incubations that will represent culinary favorite sfrom across the Diaspora. The objectives of the new food hall are to alleviate food deserts in Ward 7 by creating a marketplace sourced with products and food concepts by Black-owned businesses, promote good health through sustainable lifestyle products, and build an ecosystem of support for entrepreneurs in an effort to cultivate access to educational resources, inspire innovation, and build profitable enterprises.
Market 7’s new food hall is slated to open in 2021.
To learn more, visit www.market7dc.com.
02
Tasha Danielle – Financial Garden (Semi-Finalist)
Financial Garden teaches youth, adults and educators how to win with money and has impacted the lives of over 700 youth! Founder, Tasha Danielle, CPA, developed the idea to improve the financial health of youth by teaching the importance of: emotions and money, entrepreneurship, budgeting, banking, debt fundamentals and investing during her own personal journey of paying off $80k of debt before the age of 30! Financial Garden published a children’s book “Amina’s Bracelets: A Kidpreneur Story” to plant the seed of legacy and entrepreneurship in every child.
To learn more, visit www.financialgarden.com.
To learn more, visit www.financialgarden.com.
03
Paulana Lamonier – Black People Will Swim (Semi-Finalist)
Black People Will Swim is an organization working to smash the stereotype that Black people don’t swim. Founded by Journalist and lifelong athlete Paulana Lamonier, the organization has a goal of teaching 2,020 Black people how to swim by 2020. Encouraging the community to face their fears, Black People Will Swim educates by debunking myths and exposing the racial history of Black people and water on both a national and international level. BPWS is committed to hiring qualified instructors of color at a competitive rate. The team is working to bring awareness to the disparity in lieu of in person instruction due to COVID-19. Their #MySwimStory campaign takes a deep dive into the varied stories the Black community has with water. From having a near-drowning incident at a water park as a kid to growing up near beaches in the Caribbean, they know that Black stories aren’t monolithic. Through this campaign, they are working to explore what makes our stories unique, compelling and why we should learn how to swim.
To learn more, visit www.blackpeoplewillswim.com.
To learn more, visit www.blackpeoplewillswim.com.
04
Mavis Gragg – HeirShares
Founded by Mavis Gragg (the attorney) and Otis Jennings (the mathematician), HeirShares, LLC is a startup with a mission to educate individuals and families about family land management and to provide tools that simplify it.
Through her work on complex heirs property matters, Mavis met hundreds of individuals and families grappling with joint ownership of their family land without knowledge and resources to do so effectively and peacefully. The issues ranged from identifying who the co-owners are to sharing expenses to making important legal decisions, and more- all issues that resonated with Mavis as an heirs property owner herself. So, Mavis joined forces with her longtime friend and consultant, Otis, to create HeirShares.
HeirShares is developing a suite of tools that guides families from ownership resolution to sustainable, consensus-based land use. The first tool, TreeBuilder, empowers users to unlock critical information about their family’s land ownership through the use of family tree information, legal interpretation, and algorithms.
Through her work on complex heirs property matters, Mavis met hundreds of individuals and families grappling with joint ownership of their family land without knowledge and resources to do so effectively and peacefully. The issues ranged from identifying who the co-owners are to sharing expenses to making important legal decisions, and more- all issues that resonated with Mavis as an heirs property owner herself. So, Mavis joined forces with her longtime friend and consultant, Otis, to create HeirShares.
HeirShares is developing a suite of tools that guides families from ownership resolution to sustainable, consensus-based land use. The first tool, TreeBuilder, empowers users to unlock critical information about their family’s land ownership through the use of family tree information, legal interpretation, and algorithms.
05
Tiffany Mason – Harlem Pilates
Harlem Pilates is a cozy studio in the heart of Harlem founded by Tiffany Lauren Mason. The studio is on a mission to make Pilates accessible to our entire community. Their aim is for little girls and boys in Harlem to walk past their studio with curiosity, for hustling and bustling professionals to finally find a neighborhood class that can fit into their busy schedules, for the moms in our community to take some time for themselves and build their tribe with other moms (and the dads too), for the fitness enthusiasts to add Pilates to their regime, and for all Pilates lovers in Harlem to have a more consistent practice with classes closer to home.
“We’re more than a Pilates studio, we are a place for connection and community,” says Tiffany. “Harlem, this is for us.”
To learn more, visit www.harlempilates.com.
“We’re more than a Pilates studio, we are a place for connection and community,” says Tiffany. “Harlem, this is for us.”
To learn more, visit www.harlempilates.com.
06
Janei Maynard – 5th Element Center for Dance
5th Element Center for Dance is a nonprofit dance studio that provides dance, academic, and social emotional resources to youth in Aurora, CO with no cost barrier. 5th Element is named after the fifth element of hip hop, Knowledge, and centers hip hop styles and pedagogy as a culturally responsive approach to education. Currently in the process of startup, the organization strives to foster personal & artistic development for youth to grow into compassionate, knowledgeable, and expressive artists who are connected to themselves & their communities.
As founding Executive Director, Janei Maynard is working to create a space where everyone feels safe & empowered to express themselves and build connections in her hometown. Since 2011, she has dedicated herself as a dancer and scholar to hip hop equity, hip hop education, and hip hop feminism. Janei created 5th Element Center for Dance to fill a void that she saw in her community, surrounded by some of the most talented dancers she’s ever known yet knowing that none of them would have had a fighting chance in the dance field as kids and teens because of the systemic race and class barriers. 5th Element Center for Dance is fighting against these barriers, furthering race and class equity in the dance community, and creating space for low-income students and Black & Brown students in the field of dance.
To learn more, visit www.fifthelementdance.org.
As founding Executive Director, Janei Maynard is working to create a space where everyone feels safe & empowered to express themselves and build connections in her hometown. Since 2011, she has dedicated herself as a dancer and scholar to hip hop equity, hip hop education, and hip hop feminism. Janei created 5th Element Center for Dance to fill a void that she saw in her community, surrounded by some of the most talented dancers she’s ever known yet knowing that none of them would have had a fighting chance in the dance field as kids and teens because of the systemic race and class barriers. 5th Element Center for Dance is fighting against these barriers, furthering race and class equity in the dance community, and creating space for low-income students and Black & Brown students in the field of dance.
To learn more, visit www.fifthelementdance.org.
07
Ashley Rouse – Trade Street Jam Co.
Trade Street Jam Co. is a minority & woman-certified small batch jam company founded by Ashley Rouse. Ashley, who has been a chef for almost 15 years, created the name for the company in 2008 while living in an apartment on Trade Street in North Carolina. Now, some 10 years later, Ashley and her Brooklyn-based company create fruit forward and clean tasting vegan jams that are low in sugar and high in flavor. Her jams are best used in craft cocktails, BBQ sauces, glazes for meats or vegetables, baked goods, yogurt, overnight oats, salad dressings and more! She teaches jam classes to kids at underprivileged schools and aspires to use residual jams to feed the less fortunate, two efforts that are near and dear to the owner’s heart.
To learn more, visit www.tradestjamco.com.
To learn more, visit www.tradestjamco.com.
08
Kia-Shun Voltz – Shampoo Time
Kia-Shun Voltz is from Dallas, Texas, and the founder of ShampooTime. It’s no secret mothers have been struggling with shampooing their child’s hair for decades, with no solution provided, until now. ShampooTime offers a high-quality shampoo mat (patent pending) that supports your child’s neck and back and is designed to ensure the water rolls back into the sink to avoid getting shampoo or water in their face, eyes and ears.
It features an entertainment bar where you simply attach your smart device, turn on your child’s favorite show, and shampoo their hair without the hassle. Kia-Shun’s daughter, Karter was the inspiration for inventing this shampoo mat. Her head full of thick, curly hair gave Kia-Shun a tough time shampooing it in the bathtub, so she started thinking of ways to make it easier on the both of them. ShampooTime is reinventing washdays for generations to come.
To learn more, visit www.loveshampootime.com.
It features an entertainment bar where you simply attach your smart device, turn on your child’s favorite show, and shampoo their hair without the hassle. Kia-Shun’s daughter, Karter was the inspiration for inventing this shampoo mat. Her head full of thick, curly hair gave Kia-Shun a tough time shampooing it in the bathtub, so she started thinking of ways to make it easier on the both of them. ShampooTime is reinventing washdays for generations to come.
To learn more, visit www.loveshampootime.com.
09
Khalilah Womack – IScream Ice Cream
Khalilah Womack is the founder and CEO of IScream Ice Cream Rolls LLC, which provides single servings of made-to-order, hand-rolled, ice cream. After spending nearly two decades working for non-profits, grassroots coalitions, and public-school systems, Khalilah used her expertise in public administration to pursue a lifelong dream of entrepreneurship. IScream Ice Cream’s success lies in an exceptional product and an outstanding guest experience. Located in downtown Atlanta, IScream is poised to be a top tourist destination in the South.
Khalilah holds a BA in Political Science from Clark Atlanta University where she was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Georgia State University. Khalilah attributes much of her success to her amazing village of family and friends.
To learn more, visit www.iscreamroll.com.
Khalilah holds a BA in Political Science from Clark Atlanta University where she was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Georgia State University. Khalilah attributes much of her success to her amazing village of family and friends.
To learn more, visit www.iscreamroll.com.
10
Kobi Wu – VisuWall
Kobi Wu is the founder and CEO of VisuWall Technologies. VisuWall is computer vision and visual code software that enables any storefront to become a source of rich data and insights that informs demographic and consumer behaviors to the sku. VisuWall’s successes have included advertising campaigns for Apple Music, Kelloggs, Celine, Burberry, Harry’s, Bumble, Google et al. VisuWall is brand category agnostic and works with private landlords, institutional owners and brokers. They are now aligning for a new user case, enabling retailers with a contactless shopping experience.
As CEO of VisuWall, Wu has been honored as Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs for 2017 and 2018. She was the first Place Winner at Black Women Talk Tech Pitch Competition 2018, a graduate scholar of the Goldman Sachs 10k Small Businesses program, participated in XRC Labs, Cohort 6 and was a presenter at TEDx Fulton Street 2018. VisuWall was also a finalist on Meet the Drapers and a presenter at ShopTalk Startup Pitch Competition Q1, 2019.
To learn more, visit https://visuwall.com.
As CEO of VisuWall, Wu has been honored as Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs for 2017 and 2018. She was the first Place Winner at Black Women Talk Tech Pitch Competition 2018, a graduate scholar of the Goldman Sachs 10k Small Businesses program, participated in XRC Labs, Cohort 6 and was a presenter at TEDx Fulton Street 2018. VisuWall was also a finalist on Meet the Drapers and a presenter at ShopTalk Startup Pitch Competition Q1, 2019.
To learn more, visit https://visuwall.com.
