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Shelly Bell, Founder and CEO of Black Girl Ventures is leading the way to ensure that Black and Brown woman owned businesses receive the proper access and resources to rebuild as the pandemic slowly eases in the United States.
Shelly is responsible for funding over 130 minority owned businesses.
Black Girl Ventures has recently been profiled in Nike’s We Play Real campaign during NBA All-Star Weekend where Brooklyn Nets’ star forward Kevin Durant passed the mic to Shelly on his Instagram page. Recently, Nike, along with Kroger, donated a combined 1 million dollars to support Shelly Bell’s mission at Black Girl Ventures to provide more Black and Brown entrepreneurs with access to community capital.
Watch Black Girl Ventures Pitch Competition.
Named as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 100 Powerful Women in Business, Shelly Bell is a computer scientist, system disruptor, and business strategist who moves ideas to profit while empowering people to live, build, and foster better relationships.
She connects entrepreneurs, investors, and corporations in order to diversify their talent pipeline, increase equity, and grow their brands. Shelly is among the nation’s most sought-after transformational speakers in the DC Metro area with features in Forbes, Fast Company, The Washington Business Journal, NewsOne, Entrepreneur Mag, People of Color in Tech and on Politico Live.
Shelly Bell is among the nation’s most sought-after transformational speakers in the DC Metro area with features in Forbes, Fast Company, The Washington Business Journal, NewsOne, Entrepreneur Mag, People of Color in Tech and on Politico Live. Her organization, Black Girl Ventures (BGV) is a culturally converging ecosystem igniting economic security, civic engagement, and hyperlocal infrastructure at the intersection of STEM education and entrepreneurship for Black and Brown woman-identifying founders, funders, and veterans.
Since 2016, BGV has funded 130 women, increased access to social capital for over 200 program participants and launched their efforts in 12 cities. As a one of 8 original Google Coaches across the nation and an Ecosystem Builder, she engages audiences from grassroots to government. Through Shelly’s Return on Relationship (R.O.R) Method she is teaching intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs, and wantrepreneurs how to hold the ladder for others and/or how to find the person they need to hold the ladder toward moving to the next level of success. She has trained over 5,000 entrepreneurs, held over 300 events for empowering leaders, managed multi-million-dollar contracts, and helped to scale over 200 businesses.
About Black Girl Ventures
Black Girl Ventures was founded in 2016 as a solution to wealth disparity and lack of access to capital. We began with our signature event, the BGV Pitch Competition. Since then, we have traveled to 4 cities, raised over $30K, funded 10 founders, created a pipeline of over 300 Black/ Brown women founders, formed over 20 partnerships, and engaged a following of over 20K people with diverse backgrounds. BGV believes that the best way to engage Black/Brown founders is by using intense short-term learning experiences followed by an online peer to peer mentoring with experts available to guide and coach when necessary. Our approach is to create fee-based engagements in increments of two hours, half day (4 hours) and (8 hours) full day with specific tangible outcomes to cater to the lifestyle of Black and Brown women founders. Black Girl Ventures has made a national footprint by creating uniquely engaging crowdfunded pitch competitions in Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Austin, and NYC.
