Today we’d like to introduce you to Donovan Bridgeforth.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Before birthing The Black App LLC, I was a respected and renown basketball player. My renown basketball skills were recognized from coast to coast by many of the highest profile D-I Programs. As a result, I was one of the Top 25 ranked high school basketball players for the Class of 2011 in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Instead of accepting a D-I offer, I stepped out on the plan God has for me, and accept to play locally at Dallas Baptist University (DBU); a D-II Program. While I account the year at DBU as a rocky year, it was actually God leading me to my purpose. After one year at DBU, I took my basketball talents to McLennan College in Waco, Texas to earn my Associates Degree. Knowing God’s plan was greater for my life and that my parents prayed way too hard for me to stop there, I accepted being recruited by Hardin-Simmons University to continue my chase of basketball life. After thinking it would be all about playing basketball, God re-ordered my steps while there. I creatively founded and became the President of the Black Student Association (BSA). The more I advanced through my educational changes, I realized there was no platform geared for a student/person who looked like me. Needing a simple haircut would lead me to either fly or drive back to Dallas for service, thus planting the seed to birth The Black App.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of the most “up and down” experience I have experienced in promoting my business was when I was privileged to compete at the HBCU Battle of the Brains at SxSW in Austin, Texas this time last year. Here I had the chance to meet and greet with Forbes lister, financial guru and female black tech influencer, Angel Rich, who was there supporting Hampton University, her alma mater, at the competition. I was able to speak with Angel regarding the importance of black tech in today’s world and how we wanted to see support from our community in hopes to receive more notoriety for our tech ventures. This meeting would ultimately be a foreshadowing of the next meeting between Angel Rich and I, on an even bigger stage. The next time Angel and I crossed paths was in TriBeCa, New York City, in the lobby of the Breakfast Club. Angel was being interviewed by Charlemagne The God, DJ Envy and Angela Yee about Financial Literacy, Black Tech and the history of the Black Dollar and my team and I were brought to New York City amongst the viral moments of the Internet movement that trended the #GetToDiddy hashtag that was inspired by The Black App Team. For those who are unaware, P. Diddy and Jay-Z were inspired to create a mobile app that helps connect the public with black-owned businesses, which is exactly what The Black App does and much more. In light of this news, The Black App Team took a leap of faith to New York City in search of P. Diddy and Jay-Z to collaborate with them on this project. The conclusion of the #GetToDiddy movement was completed by Angel Rich, who shouted out The Black App and myself on Power 105’s Breakfast Club. She went on to defend The BLK App’s right to exist and stated that Diddy and his team should invest in existing black tech instead of attempting to reinvent the wheel.
The Black App LLC – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
While there are other entities that are charged to help organize the black dollar, The Black App LLC has tapped into specific niches that allow for our brand to stand out. The BLK App enjoys a name that unites the entire community behind itself. The app will lift aspects of the black community that are essential to the community’s growth, such as, black-owned business locations, black films, movies, docu-series, a social media space tailored for the black community, historically black colleges and universities’ , scholarship opportunities geared towards youth of color, greek life, and much more to unleash the unlimited potential of the black community. As the app continues to improve, the app user will have the ability to give to black community causes, connect with potential black business financiers and enjoy even more innovative solutions to pressing community problems.
Our company also makes a name for itself in ways that most do not, by being an HBCU start-up company. Starting a company on a predominantly black college campus has allowed for internal and external review, advice and constructive criticism from members of the millennial age and the black community, giving us direct access to test groups for our beta versions of The BLK App to ensure that we are giving the community and youth what they need to successfully redefine the narrative that we are associated with all too often.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Every day, I find myself being more and more proud of the work that we are achieving with The Official Black App. With our success through The Black App, we chose to bring goodness and fruitfulness to black communities within our reach. Although we have not yet reached our worldwide goal, our small successes have caused a chain reaction amongst our local community members to spend their dollars in places that could use it the most. This simple act of kindness to black businesses will have a tremendous effect on the economy of the worldwide black community, feeling of self- worth within the community and a clear cut avenue for aspiring business owners to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, if you will. We look to do more non-profit and charity work in our upcoming months as we continue to assist our community’s needs and address issues that hold us back from reaching our fullest potentials.
Pricing:
- 19.99/monthly – Business Listing/My Black Dollars Program
- 49.99/monthly – Enterprise Business Listing
Contact Info:
- Address: 3825 Wendelkin
Dallas, Texas 75215 - Website: mkt.com/the-black-app
- Phone: 4696507027
- Email: theblkapp@icloud.com
- Instagram: @officialblackapp
- Facebook: @theofficialblackapp
Image Credit:
De’Ondria Kyles
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