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Meet the local winners of WeWork’s Black-owned Business Grant Program

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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Five Miami-area founders of black-owned businesses received $10,000 grants from WeWork, as well as resources from WeWork Labs to grow their businesses. It’s part of WeWork’s Black-owned Business Grant program announced in June that is awarding a total of $2 million in funding to 200 Black small business owners who operate out of WeWork locations around the country. After WeWork and Ureeka reviewed hundreds of applications and developed a meticulous point system, an independent judging panel chose the 200 grantees, WeWork said.
Here are Miami’s grant winners:


  • Bobby Harris

    Cabana One Media (Concept Media): Concept Media, founded by Bobby Harris and Ashley Carpenter, creates Mobile Apps for independent restaurants and grocery stores. its mission is to get them away from relying on the third party Apps such as UberEats, Door Dash etc. that are charging excessive fees and taking away any chance of profitability for the owners.
  • Club Rapunzel: Club Rapunzel, founded by Monique Woodland (pictured above), is a hair growth program in the form of a subscription box membership. The 4-step program includes overnight treatment oils and a plan to grow your hair despite the damage from heat/chemicals/color or any other form of manipulation. Club Rapunzel’s hair repair and growth program is for all hair types and it includes education, products and a support network.

  • Evan Leaphart

    Leaping Harts: Leaping Harts, founded by Evan Leaphart, is the creator of Kiddie Kredit, an app that teaches kids about the basics of building credit as they complete their chores. He is now crowdfunding on MircroVentures.

  • Debbie Dickinson

    Thermaband: Thermaband Zone, founded by Debbie and Markea Dickinson, is a smart wearable device providing a personal thermostat, supplemented with health data to understand your body.  The company’s patented technology leverages machine learning algorithms to automatically activate based on user’s temperature through sensors embedded in the device. This device is the first smart tech solution leveraging inclusive design by women, for women. 

  • Rodney Rigg

    Utility Elf: Utility Elf, founded by Rodney Rigg, is a consulting firm in the energy industry that focuses on sustainability.  Its goal is to help reduce operational expenses in such key areas as natural gas, telecommunications (Internet/Cable/Phone), power and water conservation technologies through invoice analysis and auditing, as well as, offering of more cost effective product options, without sacrifice to product quality and service.

Follow @ndahlberg on Twitter and email her at [email protected]

Nancy Dahlberg
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