After George Floyd’s controversial death in 2020, growing VC investments in businesses founded by people of color became a top priority. According to Crunchbase, just 2.4% of VC financing between 2015 and 2020 went to Black or Latinx enterprises. Funding for black entrepreneurs quadrupled to $1.8 billion in 2021. This year, however, saw a sharp decline in investments in minority founders.

Entrepreneur and co-owner of the Brooklyn Nets, Clara Wu Tsai, launched BK-XL, the biggest business accelerator that aims to support 12 startups founded by Black, Indigenous, and other minority founders in 2023 by investing up to $500,000.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Wu Tsai stated that a shortage of finance is a major barrier to wealth growth for BIPOC businesses. She and her husband Joseph Tsai believe investing in BK-XL would be the greatest approach to overcome this challenge and generate wealth for the entrepreneurs and the jobs they create.

Wu Tsai stressed that she aims to highlight the underutilized entrepreneurial potential in Brooklyn to assist the neighborhood get back on its feet. She also thinks that BK-XL will demonstrate to the rest of the nation that investing in Black businesses pays off and is a smart move.

She added that any money made from investments in the BK-XL startups will be put back into Brooklyn-based companies. “The best way to demonstrate our faith in Brooklyn and Black-owned businesses,” she continued, “is to invest in them and demonstrate to the rest of the world that they are wise financial decisions.”

Prior to the release of BK-XL, Tsai’s Social Justice Fund also introduced “EXCELerate” last year, which offered no-interest loans to Black-owned small companies in need of assistance in order to recover from the closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of her strategy to leverage a combination of investments and donations to achieve goals for the neighborhood, she stated that BK-XL will shortly be followed by a philanthropic grant program to assist other businesses in Brooklyn.

All Brooklyn-based, BIPOC-led firms may submit a BK-XL application starting on December 5. But only companies in industries where the Tsais have the expertise, like e-commerce, will be approved.

Ken Chan, a 29-year-old Filipino actor, proves that the pandemic has not only caused bad things but has also brought good fortune to some, being a celebrity-turned-entrepreneur after losing his job during the crisis.

Ken swiftly expanded his franchised iFuel gas station with 10 branches in different parts of the country in just a year. He also opened Cafè Claus, a Christmas-themed café, which has extended into three branches around Metro Manila, Philippines.

Nonetheless, he also braved the wellness industry with his Aromagicare Luxury Massage Chair. He mentioned that his triumph is also because of saving and spending wisely. 

Ken said he had taken to heart the financial lesson his parents had taught him wherein he learned not to overspend on himself.

During his recent interview, Ken said that he takes pride in the fact that he rarely makes purchases for himself and even makes the most of his cars while they are still roadworthy.

The actor realized during the pandemic that artists should secure their fallback in case they lose their jobs in the industry.

Shadiah Sigala co-founded HoneyBook, a $2 billion financial management software platform for small businesses, motivated by her ability to negotiate uncertainty while gathering information and making decisions.

When Shadiah was a child, her Mexican mother together with her two siblings moved to southern California. Despite most of her family members being unable to attend college, she was an honor student whose lifelong ambition was to acquire the greatest degree of education.

Shadia attended Pomona College for Latin American Studies and Harvard Kennedy School for public policy. As a result, she established a strategy for reaching goals she wasn’t sure about.

Before becoming an accomplished millennial, she finished her master’s degree and became the highest-earning member of their family as a project manager at Aetna, a health insurance company, where she learned about entrepreneurship, realized she is a “builder,” and thought starting her own company was the best option.

However, Shadia realized that she wouldn’t be happy there since she wouldn’t be valued. Shadia ultimately started a personal chef business in 2010, using her Pomona College alumni network to find well-off grads who wanted someone to cook for them.

In 2012, another realization occurred to her that cooking wasn’t for her. Shadiah then decided to move with her then-husband to San Francisco and found tech. She arranged informative interviews with everyone in the sector and learned that the problem she wanted to tackle was one she’d experienced as a business owner: no effective method to handle backend logistics like emails, payments, and bills.

With the three Israeli business people who have a similar concern as hers, they decided to digitize all these tedious procedures that micro small firms must complete to free them up to genuinely focus on doing what they love.

Using that concept, Shadia established HoneyBook in 2013 and worked there for five years according to CNBC.

As her most recent business, Shadia co-founded Kinside in 2018, a child-care marketplace that is available to employees that offers new parents a centralized location to look for daycare in their neighborhood, which has reached over $16 million, according to Crunchbase. 

Letting fear and excitement be one’s guide and being open-minded is what Shadia advises to other aspirants. According to her, opportunities that “feel like they are beyond your pay grade” are exactly how stellar is made.

Highlighting the impact of the Asian-American pop culture publication Giant Robot, the debut of the latest episode entitled “Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond” was finally aired last October 26 in the acclaimed arts and culture series ARTBOUND on KCET.

The episode showed Giant Robot’s examination of Sawtelle Boulevard as a Japanese-American neighborhood, sparking interest in Asian and Asian-American popular culture which resulted to a long line of Asian American artists who won recognition on a global scale. 

Established in 1994, Giant Robot was a bimonthly journal that focused on Asian popular culture that soon included works by Asian-American artists including David Choe and James Jean.

Eric Nakamura began publishing Giant Robot as a digest-sized zine. The piece covered a variety of subjects, including trendy Asian American independent filmmakers, Japanese punk rock, and contemporary Hong Kong films. National media sources including the New York Times, Wired, and LA Weekly published the story.

In 2001, Nakamura opened his first store named “Giant Robot Store” in Sawtelle Japantown and expanded in 2003.

Giant Robot co-founder, Martin Wong edited all 68 issues of the glossy magazine on Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture from 1994 to 2010, when it was still a punk zine. His wife Wendy Lau served as Giant Robot’s graphic designer beginning with issue 18. Even today, Martin continues to publish zines and contribute to them.

The popular weekly television program and online site ARTBOUND captures the essence of California’s expanding arts and cultural scene and investigates how it is transforming the state into the world’s creative capital. 

The KCET Original series investigates and clarifies contemporary cultural challenges, offering insightful in-depth study of how the arts and culture impact society.