10 women of color leading startups in marketing and ad tech

'START 2022' curriculum included participation in a one-on-one mentorship program.

Konoly Konoly
Dec 9, 2022 - 21:02
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10 women of color leading startups in marketing and ad tech

Uplevel Communications Founder Courtney Culmer has been named winner of the 2022 START Award, presented Tuesday by She Runs It and Digitalundivided as part of a program to support women of color-owned startups in the marketing, media and ad tech industries.

Culmer's business plan was chosen by a panel of judges over eight other “Demo Day” finalists following a 10-week curriculum that included participation in a one-on-one mentorship program with She Runs It. 

Last month, the Census released estimates that nearly 20% of employer businesses in 2020 were minority-owned and 21.4% were owned by women. Although women are gaining more roles in marketing managerial positions (57.3% compared to men), only 14.6% of chief marketing officers are Black, Hispanic/Latino or Asian, according to the Association of National Advertisers’ 2022 Diversity Report.

“It's all about, at this point, returnship. I think is the phrase that would capture what we're trying to do with this initiative,” said She Runs It CEO Lynn Branigan. “If we want to see more women at the head of the table, they have to be sitting at the table first. And if we're losing them, we have to do our part to get them back in the field.”

Lauren Maillian, founder of Digitalundivided, expects to see finalists’ businesses online or as a beta in the next six to 12 months, but also “that they take this experience and these learnings and they go back to the drawing board and build and develop teams.”

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Culmer received a $5,000 grant to put toward her business, which connects companies with freelancers and small agencies. Eight other finalists received $2,000. The program began with more than 110 applicants.

Here are the 10 entrepreneurs and their startups.

Halima Hubbard

Bemix: a digital beauty counter with social commerce, allowing users to interact with each other and curate marketed products.