What do a hijab hoodie, a bottle-cleaning brush, and a halal TV dinner have in common? A few sunny Saturday afternoons ago, these three Philly-based products and the women behind them stood out among 200 other businesses to win the top prizes at “Pull Up and Pitch,” Black Girl Ventures’ high-energy entrepreneur competition. The contest comes at a time when Philly is still lagging when it comes to Black-owned businesses — and venture capital is even farther behind when it comes to supporting Black women-owned businesses.
Currently, Black women in the U.S. receive one-third of one percent (.33 percent) of all venture capital. Here in Philadelphia, despite our population being 44 percent African American, Black residents own only 5.4 percent of all Philadelphia businesses. According to a Pew Research Center report, as of 2021, African American-owned businesses are more likely to have 10 or fewer employees. Most — 53 percent — are male-owned, while 39 percent are women-majority owned, and 8 percent belong jointly to men and women. Only 7 percent of Black businesses owners are under age 35.
Philadelphia City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who, for the past several years, has put together a Black-Owned Business Crawl during Black History Month, attended Pull Up and Pitch in support of improving these statistics. “We want more entrepreneurs to start their businesses here and more business owners to grow here,” he said. “Events like this put money directly into people’s pockets.”
Pull Up and Pitch is an annual tour for Alexandria, VA-based Black Girl Ventures (BGV), a nonprofit that, in the words of founder and CEO Omi Bell, “creates access to social and financial capital for Black and Brown women founders.” Bell compares Pull Up and Pitch to the TV show “Shark Tank — with an audience,” except for promising entrepreneurial women of color, with much friendlier Sharks.
Since its founding, Black Girl Ventures has funded more than 450 women of color and held over 50 Pull Up and Pitch events across 15 cities, serving more than 10,000 founders. Bell estimates her efforts have resulted in more than $10 million in revenue for Black women-owned ventures — and supported more than 3,000 jobs.
Bell has taken BGV’s pitch competition on the road for eight years now. But this September marked the event’s first time in Philly, which joins Columbia, SC, New York’s Financial District, and Los Angeles, CA as this year’s tour stops. Pull Up and Pitch returns to the World Cafe Live on November 1. If that first visit to Philly is anything like the first one, there’s going to be a lot of buzz, endless goodwill, and a line out the door.
Shark Tank, only…nice
Pull Up and Pitch is a free-to-enter competition in two rounds. First, each entrepreneur who signs up has 60 seconds to pitch the panel of judges — in September, this panel included Mom Your Business founder Tanya Morris and representatives from Visa. If the pitch-maker receives one thumbs up from one judge, the entrepreneur receives $200. Two thumbs from two judges: $250. Three from three: $500 — and an invite to round two, where pitches extend to three minutes, and prizes, awarded to meet the specific needs of the finalists, grow too.
Whereas the TV “sharks” tend to get smug or snarky, BGV’s judges and audience are supportive. As for the entrepreneurs, they get at least as ecstatic as the picked-for-TV inventor receiving an offer from Mark Cuban or “Mr. Wonderful.”
“When people get those three thumbs up and have that cheering moment where they’re crying and jumping on stage, it’s like wow,” says Bell.
At Philly’s Pull Up and Pitch Day, the variety of entrepreneurial endeavors was impressive. There was Miss Monroe Hair Care, an organic hair oils, bonnet, durag and wave brush company Philadelphian Jaelyn Monroe began in her Penn State dorm room. There was Brown Kids Read, 19-year-old Howard student Ssanyu Lukoma’s literacy nonprofit she founded at age 13 to share diverse books with diverse kids through story times, pop-up sales, book drives, reading competitions, and literacy promotion. And then, there were adults-only pitches, like Oralicious, Tatiana Carrera’s sex cream for women.
Meet the winners
After waiting hours in line to get into the World Café Live, after making presentations to a crowd of hundreds of similarly eager contestants, Kady Meite, Bessie Lee, and LaVaughn Jones were the last ones standing on the University City stage holding giant checks for $2,000, $3,000, and $10,000, respectively.
Third place winner Meite represented Veil Street, her streetwear company that designs and sells “hoodjabs,” patented, pullover hoodies with snug-fitting interior hijabs. Most recently, Veil Street offered two looks: a plain black version and one with the words “Modesty Princess” printed on the front.
Like so many entrepreneurs, Miete created her company after personally identifying a need in the market. A few years ago, the West Philly resident was a junior at West Chester University adjusting to online school while managing an online cosmetics brand when TikTok came calling and asked her to make 40 videos in 30 days for the brand.
“As I got ready each day, pairing a hoodie with full glam, I realized I was spending way too much time wrapping and adjusting my headscarf,” she says. “With my to-do lists piling up, I wanted something that could simplify my getting-ready routine, so I invented the hoodjab.”
“Something we can all agree on is that the needs of women are often overlooked,” Miete continues. “My brand recognizes that and serves a severely underrepresented community.”
Like many entrepreneurs, Miete ran into hurdles. Demand outpaced supply. Veil Street sold 2,500 hoodjabs, and she says she “can’t imagine what that number would be if we weren’t selling out.” She came to Pull Up and Pitch seeking funding to help purchase equipment to remedy inventory issues and to better engage with a global audience.
Lee’s company, Baby Bottle Brush Bib, started with a clever invention intended for anyone who’s hand-washed a baby bottle — and gotten suds and/or drops of water flung onto their face when removing the dish brush from the bottle. A circle of silicone slides over the brush to provide an anti-splash barrier. It’s a bib for a baby bottle brush. The company also sells silicone pacifiers, pacifier clips, and teethers.
First-place winner Jones came in strong with Aruba’s Halal Kitchen — a TV dinner of Salisbury steak and garlic parmesan mashed potatoes with gravy — that, unlike pretty much every other heat-and-eat meal on the market, is both delicious and permissible for Muslims.
Celebrating Black and Brown women entrepreneurs
Not that their competitors went home empty-handed. In addition to the $200 to $500 prizes, event sponsor Visa also gave out an additional $15,000 in grants, laptops, and business support services (customer management systems, payment solutions) to other small Black-owned businesses.
While those are the hard numbers that onlookers use to measure success, Bell feels other, less tangible benefits are equally valuable. Her intention is for everyone to leave Pull Up and Pitch with the distinct feeling of being seen, supported, and celebrated.
Says Miete, “Honestly, it felt surreal. I can be a little delayed when reacting to things, so part of me was present, and I remember most of it, but it really set in afterward just how amazing the experience was.”
Everyone “walks away with something in their pockets — and in their spirits,” Bell says, “This is about much more than just funding. It’s about providing visibility, mentorship, and the platform that entrepreneurs from marginalized communities often struggle to access.”
The next Pull Up and Pitch takes place November 1, 2024, from 6 to 9 pm at World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut Street. Participation is free. Registration is required.
