Black Elites

Founders. Startups. The making of enduring companies.

Playbooks, teardowns and interviews from the operators building the next generation of category-defining brands.

In Entrepreneurship

Where Black Entrepreneurs Are Actually Finding Funding Today

For Black entrepreneurs, the most visible form of business capital is still venture capital. It is also one of the least representative of where most Black-owned businesses actually get money...

Ted Colbert Went From Boeing CIO to Running Its $26.5 Billion Defense Business

Few CIOs are handed the keys to a $26.5 billion defense business. In 2022, Ted Colbert made that unusual leap at Boeing, moving from the company’s top technology role to president and CEO of its...

LLC vs. Sole Proprietorship: Which Is Better for Black Entrepreneurs?

Imagine a freelance designer. They start making $3,000 a month from a home office. At first, it’s simple. Money comes in. Expenses go out. Everything runs under the owner’s legal name...

How Shonda Rhimes Turned Fear Into One of Hollywood’s Greatest Success Stories

Nobody expected a first-time television creator to reshape Hollywood. Back in the early 2000s, network TV ran on familiar formulas. Writers felt pressure to deliver a hit, and that pressure usually...

Bozoma Saint John Built Her Career by Taking On the Toughest Challenges

Most people in corporate America play it safe. You protect the brand that’s already winning. You don’t volunteer for the mess. Bozoma Saint John did the opposite, over and over. She helped...

What Rich Paul Understood About Player Empowerment Before the Sports Industry Did

For decades, sports worked on an unwritten rule: teams held the power, players took what they were offered. Free agency loosened that grip a little, sure. But most agents still just fought for bigger...

Instead of Reinventing Lowe’s, Marvin Ellison Fixed the Fundamentals 

When Ellison stepped in as CEO back in July 2018, Lowe’s was making money, but it was all over the place. Home Depot was beating them on sales. Core retail tech was falling behind. Activist investors...

The Retail Problem That Turned John Imah Into a Billion-Dollar Founder

Retail has a returns problem. A massive one. In 2024, American shoppers sent back roughly $890 billion worth of items. Apparel accounts for a disproportionate share of those returns, driven largely by...

Kevin Caldwell Is Challenging Decades of Transplant Medicine With Bone Marrow From Deceased Donors

For decades, bone marrow transplants have depended on living donors. The problem is that suitable matches are scarce, leaving thousands of patients waiting each year, and many never receive a...