We are making history at this year’s We Buy Black Convention. Black entrepreneurs from across the country will have the opportunity to pitch and receive constructive feedback on their business ideas at our first “Pitch Black” competition. We have secured an all-star lineup to judge the competition and you should meet them.
Adrienne Lance Lucas is founder and president of Lance Lucas & Associates, LLC, a business strategy, operations, and fundraising development consultancy serving a broad spectrum of for profit, non-profit and political organizations. Lucas has more than 26 years of experience as a financial analyst, strategic leader, fundraising and development experience.
Lonnie Abdul Saboor, Manager of Small Business Finance, for Invest Atlanta, formerly known as the Atlanta Development Authority. He is listed in “Who’s Who” in the South and Southeast; is a recipient of the “Personalities of the South” Award and the “Leadership Award” from Entrepreneur Magazine. Mr. Saboor is a graduate of the 1990 “Leadership Atlanta” program. Mr. Saboor has provided financial leadership to several commercial projects in the City of Atlanta since 1979, including Underground Atlanta’s Minority Tenant Program and the renovation of Greenbriar Mall. He has arranged financing for over 600 businesses in the city, representing over $500 million in public/private funds that resulted in the creation of over 5,000 new jobs.
The concept of J’s Kitchen Culinary Incubator, LLC was created and birthed by Jonnetta Patton. With her documented success as one of today’s most decorated business figures in Music and Entertainment, she is now taking her decades of business experience and applying it to a new passion – the culinary industry. As an avid food lover and a proven entrepreneur, Ms. Patton is looking to combine her business experience, vast professional network, and fondness for the culinary arts into one comprehensive effort to provide the perfect environment to elevate today’s budding food artisans into tomorrow’s food service moguls!
Jay Morrison is an educator, business mogul, influencer and the CEO and founder of the historic Tulsa Real Estate Fund; the first black owned real estate crowd fund and the Jay Morrison Academy; a financial institution which was named Inc. 500’s 13th top financial institutions in 2018. Beating the odds after growing up in poverty, dropping out of high school and serving time in prison for drug trafficking, Jay was able to turn his life around by breaking into real estate and becoming one of the industry’s biggest influencers. This path would not only keep him off the streets, but would eventually lead him to build two 8 figure businesses, teach 50 inner city corner classes across 26 cities, and author of two best selling books. Jay’s mission is to serve the underserved and assist working class families primarily by increasing their access to financial literacy and wealth education.
Ernestine Johnson Morrison is an electrifying, energetically bold poet and compelling actress. Starting her acting career in Hollywood, California Ernestine began as a featured extra on major WB network shows. She hit the Big Screen for the first time opposite Kevin Hart in Think Like a Man Too. Her recent credits TV and Film include Shots Fired and 24 Legacy on the FOX network, Downsized on Tv One opposite Nicole Ari Parker, her debut lead role opposite DC Young Fly in #DigitalLivesMatter on BET, and Ambitions on the OWN network. Ernestine is infamous in the spoken word world for being uncensored, raw and untamed on the mic speaking on social issues and being a voice for women.
In addition to our amazing judges, the competition will be hosted by Zakee Furqan, Chief Operating Officer of Threez Company. Threez Company is the first African-American owned and operated paper supply company to distribute a full line of its own name brand of residential and commercial paper products, Blissful (TM) Paper Products, established in 2008.
If you would like to be a part of the Pitch Black Competition, click here. If you still haven’t secured your tickets to come to our annual We Buy Black Convention later this month, you need to do it now by clicking here.