The best and brightest in tech at the megafestival SXSW joined forces to watch our Urban Creatives Rapid Accelerator and Pitch Contest produced by Urban Co-Labs, hosted at WeWork Austin and sponsored by Tangueray.

The process began with a rapid accelerator which included featured mentors such as Quincy Jones III and Shawn Ullman, Founders of Feel Rich; Bryan-Michael Cox, Grammy award winning R&B producer; and Dame Dash, entrepreneur, music producer, actor and co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, among others.

Today, the contestants faced our judges. Each company received just five minutes to present their mission, their value and why they should receive the winning prize.

For a quick recap, these were the finalists for the inaugural $10,000 Rapid Accelerator and Pitch Competition:

Screenshot 2017-03-03 14.22.18

*Innclusive – Founders, Rohan Gilkes-Founder & Dara King-Co-founder. Industry: Lifestyle.

ZUBY with Device PIC 7 (600w)

* Think and Zoom – Founder, Zuby Onwuta. Industry: Gaming.

Scriptertainment Team Photo

* Scriptertainment – Founder, Stephen Longsworth. Industry: Film & Video.

IMG_9168

* Camellia Alise, LLC – Founder, Lyndsey Brantley. Industry: Beauty & Fashion.

Go Dutch Founders

* Go Dutch Today – Founders, Alysia Sargent. Industry: Lifestyle and Mobile.

 

Our powerhouse judges included Michael Gibson, Chairman of EBONY Media Operations [EBONY & Jet Magazine], Ryan Smith, Director of Investment, Magic Johnson Enterprises, Universal Music Group, James Andrews, Founder of SMASHD Group, Edward Castillo, Marketing Manager at ScoreMore Shows, Chanelle HardyStrategic Partnerships and Outreach, Google and Victoria Taylor, Director of Digital Community at WeWork. Each provided valuable feedback and insight – a responsibility that they did not take lightly.

“It’s really exciting to see and hear about the latest technology and innovations,” EBONY Chairman Michael Gibson shared. “We’ve seen some really outstanding presentations.”

After the intense competition, the winner was finally announced and who took home the victory?

Innclusive.

“It feels amazing we are so excited. We found out about this on the last day [of the entry period] and we applied, found out [we were accepted] and flew out. So we’re really excited to be able to do this,” co-founder and strategist, Dara King.

So what’s next for this exciting platform? Dara King continued to give us the scoop: “We actually launched two months ago and we’re getting 185,000 properties at the end of this month – you’re going to be able to travel anywhere with Innclusive – we encourage people to book a trip.”

Co-founder Rohan Gilkes, joined in on celebrating the company’s win while sharing his gratitude. “Out of all of the publications we’ve been featured in, EBONY has held us down from day one.”

Congrats again to the Innclusive Team! Read their amazing journey here and to continue the conversation and support around Blacks in tech, stay tuned to our EBONY series, The Upload.


Melissa Kimble is the Senior Social Media Manager for the EBONY brand. An advocate for Black Creatives via #blkcreatives, you can connect with her on Twitter at @Melissa_Kimble.