Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday are known as champions on the basketball court but the duo along with Holiday’s wife, Lauren are champions for Black entrepreneurs and building generational wealth in the Black community.
In August, they launched a search for the first cohort of Boston XChange, an incubator to empower underrepresented creators and entrepreneurs by providing the resources, support, and opportunities needed to thrive.
Last Wednesday, the group of ten BIPOC businesses that were chosen met at the Seaport’s Grace by Nia to get to know each other and celebrate being a part of the inaugural cohort.
Meet the Boston XChange’s 2024 Cohort:
Everybody Gotta Eat is influencing Boston’s food culture by providing a range of services such as catering, social media marketing, and community and brand partnerships.
Future Masters Chess Academy uses chess to promote better decision-making and help youth become future masters–not only on the chessboard but, more importantly, in life.
Little Cocoa Bean Company creates culturally diverse, ready-made, fresh and healthy baby and toddler food for the next generation of parents. Our meals are served in a chic, baby-friendly café setting that’s every parent’s dream eatery.
Jaylen Brown, Lauren Holiday and Jrue Holiday address the crowd at Grace by Nia during the Boston XChange Inaugural Cohort Dinner. PHOTO: JAMYRA PERRY/BAY STATE BANNER
PYNRS founder Sidney Baptista found that running apparel didn’t fit a majority of the bodies in his running community, and the apparel design didn’t meet the stylistic taste of the runners he served. Sidney got to work and soon came to understand that the reason running gear wasn’t fitting was because running apparel had been designed and tested to serve a narrow definition of a ‘runner’. Soon PYNRS was born. It’s a streetwear-inspired performance running apparel that champions community, culture, and diversity in running and beyond.
Rivet is an AI marketing tool for musicians. The app leverages the power of social media to help grow an artist’s fanbase. It bills itself as everything an artist team needs to put fan marketing and community building on autopilot. Rivet uses AI to kickstart and artist’s direct messaging, content creation, ads and more.
Dorchester Art Project is on a mission to contribute to the growth of the creative community in Boston. Once known as a community arts organization, now it’s a worker-owned cooperative with a goal of providing affordable studios, performance spaces, and educational resources to artists, creators, and organizers.
Anawan Studios was founded by Rui Lopes, Zair Silva, Edilasio Manuel and Duane Denny. It is a family of award-winning filmmakers and storytellers. Team members come from different cultural backgrounds and bring with them multifaceted perspectives that help to bring their client’s vision to life.
Crown Legends is a South End-based hat store that specializes in exclusive, limited-edition baseball caps and unique apparel.
Uvida is Boston’s first zero-waste and eco-friendly store. They provide plastic-free products for improving home health with the purpose of protecting the environment from plastic waste, allowing those who want to escape mass single-use plastic products and packaging, which result in environmental degradation, an alternative through our wide variety and ever-expanding selection of affordable and sustainable household goods.
Melanin Haircare was founded by sisters Whitney and Taffeta White.
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