Young, gifted and Black.

ACADEMY MENTORS YOUNG BLACK MEN ON ROAD TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

As more jobs are automated, globalized, or require more education than they once did, a bet that has always been considered very risky—creating your own job by starting a business—is starting to look like a safer path to a secure future.

Henry Rock, executive director and founder of City Startup Labs, an entrepreneur’s academy based in Charlotte, N.C., sees how many jobs small businesses create in the American economy, but he noticed that the face of entrepreneurship—at least the Silicon Valley variety—didn’t seem to have space for young, Black males. He decided not only to create that space, but to try to change the way young Black men think. In a society that often demonizes them, Rock wants young Black males to think of themselves as businessmen—as people who build things and solve problems.

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