Black Elites

Founders. Visionaries. Industry Leaders.

Discover the people building enduring companies and shaping the future of business. Through in-depth interviews, founder stories, business playbooks, and behind-the-scenes insights, Black Elites Profiles explores the journeys, strategies, and lessons of entrepreneurs and executives creating the next generation of category-defining brands.

In Profile

How IShowSpeed Turned Unfiltered Chaos Into a $40 Million Empire

January 21, 2026. Darren “IShowSpeed” Watkins Jr. stands in the middle of Lagos, Nigeria, surrounded by a sea of fans during his “Speed Does Africa” tour. The crowd has...

How Damola Adamolekun Is Using $60M And A Four-Pillar Plan To Rebuild Red Lobster 

For decades, Red Lobster was one of America’s most popular restaurant chains. By 2024, it faced significant challenges.  Falling sales, expensive leases, and years of poor strategic...

Why Monique Woodard Ignored Silicon Valley’s Favourite Investment Playbook

While most venture capitalists were chasing the next app for twenty-somethings, Monique Woodard was asking a different question: what happens when the fastest-growing market isn’t young at all?...

Tristan Walker’s Career Timeline: Key Milestones in Business and Innovation

Tristan Walker’s career is more than just a list of jobs, funding rounds, and board positions. It tells the story of how one founder turned cultural insights into effective business strategies...

Why Tristan Walker Is One of America’s Most Influential Black Business Leaders

Tristan Walker is one of America’s most influential Black business leaders. He built a consumer brand around a problem that mainstream companies had overlooked for generations. He scaled the brand...

From Twitter to Foursquare: Tristan Walker’s Career Before Entrepreneurship

Before Tristan Walker founded Walker & Company Brands and Bevel, he experienced a unique early career journey in modern tech. He moved from Wall Street to Stanford, then to Twitter, and...

Tristan Walker’s Early Life: The Childhood That Shaped a Visionary Entrepreneur

Tristan Walker is an American entrepreneur, investor, and founder of Walker & Company Brands, the health and beauty business behind Bevel and FORM Beauty. His journey did not start in Silicon...

Who Is Tristan Walker? Meet the Founder Behind Bevel and Walker & Company

Tristan Walker is an American entrepreneur, investor, and brand builder. He is best known as the founder of Walker & Company Brands, which created Bevel, a grooming brand aimed at Black men and...

How Clarence Carter Used Love, Loss, and Humor to Create Timeless Music

Clarence Carter, a major figure in Southern soul who was known for his powerful voice filled with raw emotion, has died at the age of 90. His death on May 13, 2026, marks the end of an extraordinary...