News — black entrpreneurs

Ayesha Selden has inspired millions with her journey from the projects to becoming a real estate millionaire at age 30.

Now, the Philadelphia native owns over 40 rental properties. She’s teaching others about the importance of ownership and what it takes to get started.

“Condition yourself as a saver first,” Selden shares during a podcast interview. “There are steps to this game. You can’t go from one end of the process all the way to a disciplined investor and think that everything is going to be gravy. I always say that someone who hasn’t mastered the art of being a saver first…how are you going to be a landlord if you don’t have any money saved? If you can’t figure out how to save reserve money, you are going to lose your house and destroy your credit. Figure out how to be a saver first, then investor, and then a disciplined investor.”

Getting Started in Real Estate

Selden was raised by a single mom in one of the most under-resourced communities in South Philly. When she was 18 years old, her family moved to a better area. Selden believed that the area she left would turnaround and that her mom’s property would become valuable one day. She was right.

“I told her not to sell our house and that she should rent it,” Selden shares with Shoppe Black. “She was nervous about being able to find a tenant and sold it in 1997 for $35,000. Within 10 years of her selling, that house was worth 10 times what she sold it for and today, it’s probably worth around $500k to $600k.”

Selden has never forgotten the moment, using the lesson as motivation to become a competent investor.

She started her real estate journey at age 24. Selden bought a foreclosure in Philly for $67,000 using her personal savings. She rehabbed the place, moved in, and got a roommate. Due to house hacking, Selden was able to save more money. She invested in equities and bought a rental property two years later. In 2011, she used the equity from her first house to buy and rehab more properties.

Going From Poverty to Plenty

Although Selden has amassed a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio, she still works as a Private Wealth Advisor. She helps others manage their money since that has been something that has always come easy to her.

“As a kid, money just always made sense to me,” Selden shared during her podcast interview as she talked about growing up poor in Philly. “I could always save a buck. If you gave me a $10 allowance, I would have that same $10 six weeks later. ”

But it wasn’t until she landed a job at a bank that she started to expand her view of money. “I started seeing real money. People started coming in with millions.”

The light bulb went off when she realized that the customers did not work. They were investing in stocks, mutual funds, and other assets that worked for them. That’s when Selden realized that she needed to transition from saver to investor.

Although Selden has a range of investments in her portfolio, she shares that real estate is her favorite. She has published a digital guide to help more people build their wealth to 7+ figures.

Flutterwave was not the first of its kind in Africa when it was started in 2016 by Nigerian technologists and former bankers. But perhaps, the point of its success can be attributed to the fact it was a financial tech platform that had a lot of input from those in finance.

Often, the process of technological innovation can seem like a developer’s license to play to the gallery. The app or whatever is developed could therefore lose its ergonomic utility. Flutterwave turned out differently and by 2018, it was a market leader in sub-Saharan Africa.

A digital payment app known for being seamless and secure, Flutterwave continues to be the choice for small to medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).

Founder and CEO, Olugbenga Agboola said via social media that plan was always to “build a payments technology infrastructure that connects Africa to the global economy by making local and international payments seamless.”

Flutterwave’s website says the app is available in 11 countries, however, it will soon be 20. This is thanks to a Series C funding that was announced on Wednesday to much funfair in Nigeria and across Africa.

The $170 million secured means in the third round of funding means that the fintech start-up is now a unicorn – a startup worth over $1 billion. This is the first time an indigenous African fintech is valued at that amount.

“We’re grateful for our People, Customers, Investors, Partners, Regulators, the people at @EndeavorNigeria and well-wishers. Through your support, we have empowered millions to start their journey to economic freedom, wherever they are, knowing that the world is their market,” Agboola continued in a series of tweets.

But signs show that this could only be the beginning of a lot of good for Flutterwave. Currently, the app hosts more than 1,000 African SMEs that sell their wares on the platform.

Apart from that, individual users of Flutterwave are in their hundreds of thousands but growing. There are now intentions to expand the company’s services to North Africa as well.

Victor Asemota, a Nigerian venture capitalist, believes the success of Flutterwaves will have a positive impact on other tech start-ups across the continent.

“The panic this Flutterwave raise had created in certainly [sic] circles means that Africa was severely underrated both externally and internally. Look, we have done Telco payments all over Africa and this is the tip of the iceberg. Flutterwave will list [sic] and be a greater success,” Asemota said via Twitter.

In his early twenties, Shaun “Lucky” Corbett was arrested on three different occasions. First, he was arrested for a concealed weapon, then he was caught for breaking and entering, and finally on drug charges, which was later dismissed because the search that led to the discovery of cocaine in his car was illegal.

However, it was his third arrest that led Corbett to turn over a new leaf. He wanted to live an honest life but no one was willing to hire someone with a criminal record. On one occasion when he applied for a job, he left blank the section seeking information on his criminal record.

When he was called for an interview, he confessed to serving time in jail and the managers of Value City hired him for his honesty. He worked there for more than two years and later enrolled in No Grease barber school. 

Finance almost became an impediment for him to train as a barber. So he took a job to serve pizza to keep the cashing coming in. It earned him the name Pizza Boy and Mr Pizza.

He graduated in 2016 as a certified barber and eventually managed to acquire his own barbering shop at North Tryon Street. He opened his first Lucky Spot barbershop in 2010 and later operated his shop in Walmart, making him the first Black businessperson to ever own and operate a barbershop in any Walmart.

“I want to open a Lucky Spot in every inner-city in America,” Corbett told. “I want it to be the standard of what community barbering is.”

Lucky Sport barbershop is not just a local shop where people go for a haircut but it has also become a place that promotes cooperation between African Americans and the police. Corbett has now gone from being a former felon to a community leader.

“You know, I’ve been building on the relationship and the community service that I had already done with Walmart. I started meeting and talking with certain people higher up on the food chain,” Corbett told.

Now 41, Corbett has opened three locations in Walmart, his latest location being in Gastonia amidst the pandemic. “Covid allowed me to map things out like I got the next 20 something stores laid out,” he said.

His next shop in Columbia, SC., is set to open in the spring while another shop is being planned in Atlanta. “We’re really just taking advantage of the opportunity, and it’s bigger than us, we’re about creating opportunities for others,” Corbett said.

Generational wealth and bridging the racial wealth gap have been topics discussed heavily throughout the past year as a result of the protests over racial injustice. Since then, numerous organizations have made new pledges to do their part to help the Black community create more wealth for their families. One Black woman used her finance background to create a platform to teach Black consumers how to generate wealth through the stock market.

Tiffany James is the founder of the Modern Black Girl, a digital platform designed to help newcomers learn to use the stock market and other resources on wealth-building and managing a stock portfolio. James says she was inspired to start her business after learning about stocks in her free time driven by her curiosity and sought to create a platform where users can learn the basics.

“The stock market is 80% psychology 20% technical,” said James in an email interview. “Not only do you learn wealth-building tips and how to manage your money but you also learn patience, confidence, critical thinking skills, and leadership.”

James has also been using the audio social app Clubhouse to help provide resources and engaging panels through the app that has helped her reach a new audience.

“When Clubhouse started I would join the guy’s stock rooms and in most cases be the only women in the conversation,” she said. “After a few rooms with the guys, a lot of women begged me to start my own platform back in November. Three months later, we are here with over 94,000 members [who are] primarily women of color.”

The platform also hosts a Teen University for younger people to learn the basics about the stock markets in addition to classes for adults.

Hart Wilson is a young, bustling entrepreneur at the tender age of 11. According to Because of Them We Can, the prepubescent tween launched his scented candle line, Candles From The Hart, to pay for his education at the school of his dreams- Howard University. 

Hart created the aromatic wax lights after going to the prestigious historically-black university at the age of six. The youngster fell in love with the school and earned money to pay for his tuition. 

The Texas tween implemented a plan and fundraised through selling his candles last year.

“I got on the internet and saw that people were making different things to sell and earn money, and I settled on candles,” Wilson told the publication. 

“My parents and I watched YouTube videos and started experimenting with making candles, and we figured it all out, and that’s when it all started,” he confessed.

Wilson created a store on Etsy and started selling his candles. 

Candles From The Hart offers a plethora of fragrances like Guava Fresca, Tranquil Sea and Cashmere Plum (a scent he created to honor Alzheimer’s Awareness Month.) He also has a line of wax melts and car fragrances.

Customers can find Wilson’s luminary delights in local stores in his hometown of Pearland, Texas, Chicago and Houston. 

Candles From The Hart even caught the eyes of some big-name celebrities including, the New Orleans Pelicans basketball team, Inda Craig-Galvan, a television writer for ABC’s “How To Get Away With Murder,” actress Keena Ferguson from Tyler Perry’s “Sistas” and “Queen Sugar” actress Tracey Bonner.

Although Wilson’s candle company is flourishing, his main objective is to pay for his education at Howard University.

At 29, Theo Baloyi has a made name for himself in South Africa as one of the thriving young entrepreneurs. His journey started when he met a French businessman with a shop at Durban Airport a few years ago. In a long conversation, the two of them talked about entrepreneurship and culture.

That was when the interest to go into entrepreneurship started for Baloyi. He told himself if he wanted to make an impact, he needed to take calculated risks. He then decided to venture into the footwear industry after noticing a market gap.

Through his research, he noticed that most of the sneakers on the continent were imported brands. And so he wanted to design something with an African touch. Initially, he wanted to import the sneakers from established brands but later decided against it.

In the process, Baloyi co-founded Bathu, a South African township slang for ‘shoes’, in 2015. His brand of sneakers is designed with a distinctive mesh fabric and thick white soles.

“I did 18 months of research and development, which included coming up with a proof of concept, quality testing and quality assurance,” Baloyi explained in an interview with Howwemadeitinafrica. Baloyi’s accounting experience helped in this regard. “I’ve been fortunate to have extensive experience with business and finance modelling in a corporate environment.”

According to him, he settled on the name Bathu because his business is about uniting people. “It doesn’t matter where you go, whether it’s a place filled with isiXhoa, isiZulu or Sepedi speaking people, South Africa know what it means. It unites us, and that’s what the business is about- uniting people,” he told news24.

Today, his shoe business makes a turnover of over $1 million. The company also has four cars, two stores at Gauteng, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth. 

South Africa is one of the unestablished markets for sneakers and so for most designs, manufacturing companies do not have the right equipment for it. And in some cases, the companies have to source the right equipment, by which time the designs submitted would have been outmoded.

“In South Africa, you need about eight months to manufacture a new shoe. In the East, this usually takes four weeks. While South African factories can buy expensive equipment to manufacture according to specific requirements, the trends and styles may no longer be current when the product is completed,” Baloyi told Howwemadeitinafrica.

Through his network, he found a manufacturer for his first 100 Bathu sneakers. “A colleague at PwC whose friend’s family owned a factory… So, I got to work,” he said. In 2017, he managed to release 1000 pairs of Mesh Edition sneakers through a collaboration with an incubation hub in Johannesburg.

Baloyi said his success even surprised him. “The rewards were are reaping now are pleasures I thought we’d only see a couple of years from now,” he said. “But through the hard work and perseverance of my team, we’ve come this far in just three years.”

According to the entrepreneur, he reinvested profit from his business in order to make it a sustainable venture. “Five years later, this is where we are: 15,000 pairs per month and it’s growing,” he said.

Currently, there are 12 Bathu retail outlets across the country, aside from the online store. The company employs 103 people.

Byron Allen, the chairman and CEO of the Allen Media Group and owner of the Weather Channel, has settled and withdrawn his $10 billion racial discrimination lawsuit against Charter Communications.

Both Allen and Charter Communications announced the settlement in a joint statement Wednesday. The settlement follows one between Allen and Comcast last summer in which Comcast agreed to carry several of Allen’s channels.

In 2015, the former Real People actor sued both Charter and Comcast for $20 billion alleging the companies weren’t carrying his TV channels due to racism. The suit made it to the Supreme Court, but the high court struck down his arguments in a 9-0 decision, saying it was not enough to assert that race was one of several factors in not picking up his channels, he had to show it was a critical factor in not picking up the channel.

With Charter and Allen settling, the suit is officially over. The terms between Allen and Charter have not been released, but if it’s anything close to his settlement with Comcast, Charter will pick up some of Allen’s channels.

The Allen Media Group owns 16 power four (ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX) affiliate broadcast stations and 10, 24-hour networks including the Weather Channel, Pets.TV, and Comedy.TV. The group also has active license agreements for stations in the Bahamas, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand.

The former stand-up comedian told the Hollywood Reporter last year that he wants to own CNN one day and he will.

“I’m close to the same age when Rupert Murdoch came here to America,” Allen told the Reporter in an interview published July 9. “He was in his 50s. I’m 59. What you see today will be 10,000 times bigger.”

When pressed on what would make the ultimate jewel in his crown, without hesitation, the media mogul replied, “I’d love to own CNN. But I have to buy AT&T to do that. And I will. Believe me, I think about it every day.”

Entrepreneurial, innovative, and faithful are among adjectives that describe Ceata Lash, the founder and inventor of the PuffCuff.

Lash in 2013 launched PuffCuff, a user-friendly hair clamp and unisex styling tool not just for women. An industry disruptor, the easy-to-use accessory upholds curls and kinks without the tension and strain linked with elastic bands and other hair ties.

She searched stores and online for such an accessory but did not find one that worked comfortably for her naturally thick hair without getting a headache. Those discoveries—and inspiration from her late grandmother—sparked Lash to start her company.

“The PuffCuff Hair Clamp was developed from a simple idea: create a tool that not only makes it easy to achieve stylish looks without stressing your hair or causing pain but one that is sanitary, durable, and affordable too,” Lash says.

She says that approach also is tied to the company’s mission to champion for self-love and self-acceptance by providing tools for individuals to nurture the hair God gave them.

The hair clamp rapidly became a smash in the beauty accessories industry. Since its inception in 2014, PuffCuff now has more than 115,000 customers globally, Lash says. It is sold online by PuffCuff, Amazon.com, and Sally Beauty. Some 50 small independently owned foreign retailers sell it as well, including in Australia, the Netherlands, and Spain. PuffCuff is based in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta.

Now, Lash has ambitious growth goals. The first Black woman to hold three patents in her industry, Lash’s aim is to build PuffCuff up to a $25 million evaluation in the next five years. Her company’s current market value is $6 million.

She is bullish her firm’s value will appreciate greatly as it operates in the global haircare business that generates more than $85 billion in annual revenues and includes 65% of the world’s population with curly hair.

Another potential market value booster for PuffCuff is that it has no rivals. Lash says her patents have allowed her first market access but also made her a target. Her firm has spent more than $100,000 in legal fees protecting against copycats being sold in America.

In the next five years, she is confident her firm will see significant increases in revenue. She expects the gain to come from multiple sources, including PuffCuff along with products/sub brands under it. PuffCuff plans to launch a male product line. And there is more.

“I still have another patented product to produce that will address the needs of an even larger market segment,” Lash says.” “And we have another initiative that I cannot disclose.”

Lash owns 100% of PuffCuff. Her husband, Garrett Lash, has been its CEO since 2017. A seasoned executive with an IT background from the financial and insurance sectors, his duties include acquiring new business, operations, and developing strategic goals. The business is allowing the couple to build generational wealth for their three sons.

PuffCuff has posted steady revenue growth, bringing in $80,000 in 2014, $1.3 million in 2019, and $2.2 million in 2020. Lash projects 2021 revenue up to $5 million, with the rise largely coming from online consumer sales. “I think we’ll have a banner year in 2021 because of the increased exposure and new opportunities created for Black businesses resulting from the greater attention placed on systemic racism last year,” she says.

Lash says her main customers includes all genders; people age 24 to 54 with medium income of $35,000 to $55,000.

But the journey has not been a breeze. Lash says having no seed money was among the biggest challenges initially. In 2014 she got a $16,000 loan from a nonprofit lending institution, but her husband still had to co-sign. She also used her 401(k) and borrowed against their life insurance policies. In 2017, she got a $50,000 loan from a nonprofit that lends to the underserved.  “Traditional lending institutions were not and still do not give people that look like me money when they need money,” she says.

The bottom line: PuffCuff has survived on revenue for its growth. “No secret. No sauce. Just the grace of God and determination,” Lash says. In 2018, she won the President’s Innovation Award from Sally Beauty, giving PuffCuff retail distribution at all 3,000 Sally Beauty stores in the U.S. and Canada as well as online distribution at wwww.sallybeauty.com.

Another obstacle Lash had to conquer was not having anyone in her immediate personal or professional network to emulate or ask for advice. “I was naïve but determined,” she says. “I knew the Lord would put the individuals needed at the right time and the right place. I needed to seek him for discernment.”

She noted PuffCuff just ran a successful equity crowdsourcing campaign that helped alleviate some of its supply chain issues, and it next plans to seek investors for future funding. And like other businesses, PuffCuff has had ups and downs from COVID-19. Some of its employees tested positive and major shipping delays occurred. Due to COVID, PuffCuff got two SBA loans for the first time ever, allowing the business not to lay off any of its 10 employees. “Also, whole families were at home letting their curls grow,” Lash says. “2020 was the year for e-commerce growth.”

On giving back to the community, PuffCuff has and continues to donates to local and national efforts. That includes donations to fight systemic racism, African American Adoption Awareness, Atlanta Public Schools, and other causes. It recently donated more than $3,000 to groups that raise awareness tied to abuse of systemic power, police brutality, and injustice.

“As long as my husband and I are at the helm, we will support those projects,” Lash says.

There is nothing more rewarding and inspiring than to see women of color set new standards and trends through entrepreneurship. African American women were among the fastest-growing groups launching and owning new businesses according to Forbes. Tenisha Williams, CEO of Elite Realty Partners, is no exception. She has established and grown the largest Black woman-owned real estate brokerage firm in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale (South Florida) area—breaking $100 million in sales in just over two years.

While this is an impressive milestone, Williams and her Elite team show no signs of slowing down but are staying focused by remaining positioned and purpose-driven to help more individuals and families achieve their goals of homeownership and real estate acquisition. Currently, there are 140 agents with virtually no marketing efforts. Much like Chick-fil-a customers, agents keep on pouring in—what a wonderful problem to have.

Williams, a former county worker, knew from the onset that she was not there to stay. While fellow employees were content with great benefits and the future hopes of retirement, her sights were set on higher aspirations. In 2017, during a mother-daughter trip to St. Lucia, she was settled after speaking with her husband that she was not returning to work. She was convinced that she found her purpose through the love of real estate, and she had made her first six figures working part-time.

When asked to what she attributed the accelerated growth of Elite Realty, Williams credited it to her faith and favor from God. She was determined to put in the work and remain faithful. Although she manages a large team, there is a culture of family where no agent is an island. The benefits are the friendships that have been established, the collaboration of agents, the joys of winning together, and the willingness of helping one another succeed.

Williams says that she is more than a CEO, but a coach at heart that pours into her team keeping them pumped and empowered to crush their goals. Her passion to help and develop other agents are innate. However, the ability to manage so many personalities synergistically was initially a struggle. As a former correctional officer and teenage mom, her strong personality seemed curt at times. She quickly learned to master the right delivery in communication and messaging without hurting or offending others in the process.

“The pressure is unimaginable. Sometimes I cannot sleep at night because my brain will not stop thinking of ways I can add more value to my team,” Williams says of the pressure of running a top brokerage firm in South Florida. “I truly am invested in their careers, so I take the responsibility seriously. This is not a task for the weak at heart.”

Of course, striking a delicate balance between work and family is vital, so self-care is a must and Sundays are exclusively reserved for family.

Elite Realty Partners is also considered a ministry (serving the needs of others) to many agents and customers. There has been an overabundance of customers and agents breaking through various hardships and setbacks, bouncing back to victory with the help of the brokerage. For example, some agents did not sell one house at their former brokerage, and after coming on board with Elite, they become top producers selling millions in real estate.

“Some agents come through the doors timid and withdrawn, then evolve into bold and assertive real estate warriors. It is beyond amazing to witness,” she says.

As the head of the largest Black woman-owned brokerage firm in her area, Williams remains humble, grateful, and thankful to the Lord for being chosen and entrusted with such a huge role. Her mission is to change the narrative and diversify the faces in real estate throughout the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. She and her team are always ready to do the work and reap the rewards that lie in the days ahead.

Most kids like to enjoy a bowl of cereal in the morning for breakfast. For one Black male entrepreneur, his love of the treat inspired him to develop his own brand of cereal dedicated to offering more representation of Black culture for youth.

Connecticut-based Nic King is the owner of Proud Puff Cereal, a vegan-friendly cereal featuring characters representing various aspects of African American culture. He came up with the idea in the middle of the night and said the idea behind the box design was to offer a positive representation of a Black family and household with his characters.

“I was sitting up in my bed and pulled out my phone and started scrolling in my phone seeing all these scenes from Minneapolis. And seeing a lot of companies talking about their initiatives involving Black creatives and going forward to help out the Black community,” King said in an interview with The Darien (CT) Times. 

 “The whole box has meaning, from the characters to a two-parent Black household, to the positive affirmations on the back of the box, as well as the facts on the side about iconic Black legends that helped shape our culture”

King revealed on his Instagram page that he has already received 1,000 pre-orders for his cereal and shared the company’s progress toward mass production. This brings the total to 4,000 since the new year began. He explained that he is looking for a larger crowdfunding platform to raise funds to grow his products and capital to produce large quantities for customers.

“In today’s climate, I believe a product like this is so important. We’ve been dealing with blatant racism, why Black Lives Matter Too, Diversity Inclusion, Systemic racism and so much more,” King writes on his website. “This cereal isn’t only for black people but rather it is a cereal owned by a black man. This is a cereal any and all families can enjoy as they start their morning on a journey to having a great day.”

In many countries, the gig economy remains largely informal and workers take a salary outside the formal banking system. Reading a 2016 report prepared by McKinsey on the Global Independent Workforce also known as the Gig Economy, Craig J. Lewis noticed that no one was servicing the firms that pay these workers.

He, therefore, set out to design a payroll system for the gig economy. He established Gig Wage not only to provide a platform that can be used to service the salaries of workers in the gig economy but to get everyone involved.

According to Bloomberg, the problem of under banking is urgent for Black people, who make up 35 percent of the statistic, against only 11 percent of White people.

Founded in 2015, Wage Gig provides the technology and the tools businesses need to pay gig workers, freelancers or contractors in a fast, flexible, and modern way, Lewis tells Shoppe Black. “Also by having 1099 specific software helps with classification concerns,” he adds.

On its website, the Dallas-based company says “our technology enables the world’s innovators to instantly pay 1099 workers with more control, flexibility & scale.”

The company recently made headlines when it raised a $7.5 million Series A round to boost its platform. The funding raising was led by Green Dot Corp., a California-based financial technology and bank holding company.

The deal also goes beyond just investment as Green Dot will also serve as an infrastructure bank partner to Gig Wage to deliver modern banking solutions and better financial tools to the Gig Economy.

“The 1099 economy is exploding, and Gig Wage is thrilled to bring a truly comprehensive solution to market,” Lewis says in a statement on Medium. “As we laid the foundation to offer financial infrastructure for the ‘Future of Work,’ it was abundantly clear Green Dot was the best partner for us to help the most people.”

Despite the effect of COVID-19 on Black-led businesses, the positive news for Lewis is that the pandemic has seen his firm grow due to rising demand for its services.

“The Gig Economy was rapidly expanding and Gig Wage was growing really fast pre COVID but COVID19 has definitely been an accelerant. The increased need for delivery has been the main area of growth we’ve seen,” he says.

Lewis is an expert in the payroll space. He started as a salesman for ADP small business payroll products in 2008 before realizing his passion for payroll tech. After selling over $10 million in payroll-related software, he landed in Silicon Valley, where he got to know the fundamentals of starting a company.

“I was just awed how they thought about technology and products and company building,” Lewis was quoted by deBanked. “And I vowed to bring that to the payroll industry.”

 “Growing up, I didn’t see any Black contractors,” says David Moody, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of C.D. Moody Construction Company, Inc., a Black Enterprise BE 100s listed company for several consecutive years.

From his bedroom, he started his construction firm in the 1980s when he was in debt and was financially constrained to the point that he could barely feed his family. His wife went back to nursing school to become a registered nurse so they could have a steady income as he struggles to ensure the company succeeds.

With determination and hard work, his company is thriving and has undertaken over 200 commercial projects valued at $3 billion. Also, he is responsible for some of the iconic buildings in Atlanta, Georgia.

“I worked for some small construction companies and a very large construction company and this might sound strange, but it just kind of happened. I had reached a point where my wife and I said we don’t have anything to lose, so let’s give it a try. That is how it all happened. Our first office was our bedroom,” Moody tells shoppeblack about his beginning.

The success of his company happened together with the regional growth and his contribution to the building of 21st century Atlanta cannot be overemphasized as its emergence helped fuel Moody’s success. He is also giving back to his community by mentoring the next business leaders and inculcating in Atlanta kids the habit of saving.

What is rewarding for Moody is the fact that what started as a dream is now the source of livelihood for many others. “Giving back to help others is a great feeling,” he says. He attributes the success of his company to God and the fact that God used him to help others turn trauma into triumph.

“The other reasons are my wife and I have never had an expensive lifestyle and I have loved architecture and construction since I was a child,” he says, adding that: “I am living a dream that I didn’t think would happen for me.”

One of his latest commercial ventures was in 2019 when he joined as a 49% partner on a $650 million mix of affordable and market-rate housing, restaurants, retail, offices, and a performing arts center.

Moody advises young entrepreneurs to have a passion for whatever they do and not to be motivated by money. He stressed that once they are able to hone their craft, the money will follow. “…Don’t cut corners and honor your word. Never lie and let honesty guide your steps,” he adds.

Moody was born in Chicago, Illinois before relocating to Michigan when he was only 14 years old to stay with his dad who was employed at the University of Michigan. He attended Huron High School and obtained his B.S. in Psychology from Morehouse College in 1978.

By 1981, he had received his Bachelor of Architecture and five-year professional degree from Howard University. He worked as an architect/field engineer for Bechtel Power Corporation. He later taught structural design and mechanical systems at Washtenaw Community College.