Megan Graham is the Founder and CEO of Ries, a new brand addressing single-use plastic waste in the beauty industry with refillable, reusable travel-size bottles designed for beauty. Megan spent her formative years in Atlanta, where her father was an anchor for CNN. She attended Florida State University, choosing to major in Textile Science and Fashion Merchandising. Megan translated this into a career in media and fashion, ultimately helping to run beauty marketing at Vogue. Her roles over those years involved extensive travel. And it was this context that led to her insight around wasteful ..read more

Naza Shelley is Founder and CEO of CarpeDM, an exclusive member-only dating community, created for singles seeking meaningful relationships with professional Black women. Naza is the daughter of military parents, so she lived in many places growing up. She eventually settled down in Virginia for high school, and then the University of Virginia for college. From a young age, she had aspirations to become an attorney. She pursued this journey, with a law degree from Howard University. Naza says it was a year post law school teaching in China that reinforced her desire to practice. And so she di ..read more

JUNETEENTH 2023 - Part II In honor of Juneteenth and the 3rd anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, we thought we’d do something a little different this month. Back in June 2020, we did two episodes with black men and black women founders, capturing their raw thoughts, emotions, and insights at the time. These were two of our most popular episodes of all time. And the sentiments shared, and vulnerability shared are as powerful today as they were then. This is part two, where we were honored to have Dr. Ivor Horn step in as guest host, moderating a panel of black women founders: Helen Adeo ..read more

JUNETEENTH 2023 - Part I In honor of Juneteenth and the 3rd anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, we thought we’d do something a little different this month. Back in June 2020, we did two episodes with black men and black women founders, capturing their raw thoughts, emotions, and insights at the time. These were two of our most popular episodes of all time. And the sentiments shared, and vulnerability shared are as powerful today as they were then. This is part I, with me moderating a panel of black men founders: Kahlil Ashanti, Bara Cola, AK Ikwuakor, and Claudius Mbemba.  In som ..read more

Kofi Gyekye is a serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Lane, the world's largest and most innovative workplace experience platform, connecting 300+ properties across 22 cities and 8 countries. We are trying something a little different with this episode. Kofi along with his cofounder Clinton, has actually built and sold Lane, so not really still unfound. But he was so interesting and the journey so compelling, I couldn’t resist sitting down with him as a guest. Kofi grew up in Europe with African parents. He was good at school and realized that he loved the dual pursuit of creativity and ana ..read more

Melissa Brogdon is Co-Founder and CEO of FourthParty, a justice technology company that increases access to mediation services so that people can resolve legal conflicts outside of court. Proud to hail from Oakland, Melissa was raised by an incredible role model - her great grandmother. Despite opportunities to stay local for college at Berkeley, she followed the urging of a mentor and went to Spelman, a premier HBCU in Atlanta. Emerging from undergrad with confidence and curiosity, Melissa was initially a teacher, but ultimately pursued a successful career in the nonprofit sector. But then c ..read more

Donald T Boone, Founder and CEO of BoxedUp, a B2B equipment rental marketplace, similar to the Airbnb for camera gear. Growing up in Maryland, Donald came from humble beginnings and followed his older brother in pursuit of an engineering degree at the HBCU North Carolina A&T. Donald had distinguished roles at companies like Exxon and Amazon. But as a 3-time founder, the call of entrepreneurship has always been loud in his ear. And talk about conviction. He has borrowed against his 401k for a previous startup and taught himself how to code from scratch. And get this, in the middle of the p ..read more

For the month of February, we are publishing flashback clips from some of our wonderful past episodes. Please a take some time enjoy (again) the full episodes from these founders. Season 4 of Founders Unfound starts in March!   Kistein Monkhouse is Founder and CEO of Patient Orator, a startup that improves healthcare access and breaks down health inequities through an easy-to-use app.   Original Episode: No.16, July 2020 foundersunfound.com/patient-orator-founder-profile-podcast   MORE ON KISTEIN AND PATIENT ORATOR Kistein: @KisteinM linkedin.com/in/kisteinmonk45/ vimeo.com/onde ..read more

For the month of February, we are publishing flashback clips from some of our wonderful past episodes. Please a take some time enjoy (again) the full episodes from these founders. Season 4 of Founders Unfound starts in March!   Wole Ayodele is Co-Founder and CEO of Fincra (formerly Fliqpay), a startup that makes it easy for fintech firms, platforms and global businesses to accept local and international payments through an easy-to-integrate API and merchant portal.   Original Episode: No.14, June 2020 foundersunfound.com/fliqpay-founder-profile-podcast   MORE ON WOLE AND FI ..read more

For the month of February, we are publishing flashback clips from some of our wonderful past episodes. Please a take some time enjoy (again) the full episodes from these founders. Season 4 of Founders Unfound starts in March!   Roger Roman, Co-Founder of AfriBlocks, the global Pan-African freelance marketplace and collaboration platform. They are building THE resource for devs, designers, and virtual assistants.   Original Episode: No.39, July 2021 foundersunfound.com/afriblocks-black-founder-profile-podcast   MORE ON ROGER AND AFRIBLOCKS Roger: https://www.linkedin.com/in ..read more