Iconic Conversations with Tanaka Tava

Michael is a 2-time founder and currently the CEO of Entre. He started his career as a civil engineer and real estate investor, then started his first company by connecting and helping other entrepreneurs. He started hosting events for entrepreneurs and partnered with all the major co-working spaces throughout the country. As the community grew, he then created Entre in 2019 to scale and start building out the technology and app.

Interested in merging private and public art sectors and her commitment to making art more accessible to a wider audience, Bailey H. Summers, Director of the Green Family Art Foundation (Dallas, TX) has emerged as a driving force within the Dallas arts ecosystem. Summers is an ardent advocate for the transformative potential and power of art; possessing a profound appreciation for the ability of art to enact progress, catalyze change, unite communities and foster connections. Summers envisions a world where creativity and art function as conduits for progress and change. With a Bachelor of Arts in art history and arts administration from Texas Christian University, her academic background aligns seamlessly with her passion.

Grace Casper is the Host of Divorce: What I Wish My Parents Knew & Author of Dear Parents: Notes From a Child of Divorce.

She became a child of divorce at age eight. By age 10, Grace had already written her first manuscript draft for her book. Ever since then, she’s wanted to help families through the process of divorce. She is now 24 years old and runs Divorce Tips from Kids. This includes posting on social media, sending out emails to parents, and hosting her podcast, “Divorce: What I Wish My Parents Knew” (the first podcast created from the child’s perspective).

She is a Baylor University alumni; however, her hometown in Colorado will forever have her heart. When Grace isn’t creating content about divorce, she works as a full-time elementary school librarian. She lives in Waco, TX, with her tiny maltipoo, Teddy, and two best friends.

After 15+ years in the Tech Industry as an Enterprise Account Executive, Jarrett is now launching BlackHire (www.blackhire.com), which is the premier place for companies to find talented black freelance talent, and the go to place for black freelancers to find opportunities.  This venture stems from Jarrett’s calling: promoting Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the Tech space, which resulted from becoming a fast-growing Tech Influencer during the pandemic, amassing 120K+ followers across his social media channels, while helping 200+ people from diverse backgrounds find tech jobs through his social audio rooms on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces.  

This has evolved into Jarrett’s YouTube channel and podcast “Big Tech Energy” where he interviews Black leaders in Tech to uncover their story, process, strategies, and mindset that led to their 6-7 figure careers.  

https://youtube.com/@BigTechEnergyPodcast

The work that he’s done in the Diversity in Tech space has led to him being featured in NASDAQ, AfroTech, as well as being named Black in HR’s Tech Recruiting Influencer of the Year in 2021.

Brianna Kilcullen is the founder of Anact and is originally from Atlantic Beach, FL. In 2019, she helped legalize hemp in Florida while launching Anact. Prior to starting Anact, she worked in the apparel industry for prAna, a subsidiary of Columbia Sportswear and Under Armour traveling to 40+ countries working in factories on almost every continent. She is a dual citizen of the US and Ireland.

Ashley Fischer is the Chief Operating Officer at Anact. She is also the co-founder of Higher Innovation, an organization working on helping create more sustainable consumption.

Iconic Conversations with Zack Bolak - Founder of Culture Technologies

Albert Prewitt, 25, born and raised in Lexington, KY found some success as a logistics broker and early investor in cryptocurrency but found his true calling when he moved to Austin to partner with the startup, FreeWater. The company prints advertisements on aluminum bottles and paper cartons which pays for everything including a ten cent per beverage donation to water well charities. He quickly immersed himself in the startup community investing in 4 other Austin based companies.

Ace Patterson, also professionally known as Call Me Ace, is a Billboard-charting hip-hop artist and Founder/CEO of Five Mics, a digital hip-hop trading card game (think Yu-Gi-Oh! Or Hearthstone, but with rappers, not dragons). In 2023, Five Mics was selected by Techstars Music as 1 of 10 startups for its accelerator cohort, receiving early investments from Warner Music Group and Concord Music Group.

Gabe Warshaw is a musician, technologist, and the Founder of Baton - a platform that supercharges creative careers by building a community around work-in-progress material, while ensuring artists are properly credited and compensated for their work. Gabe is also a Founder in Residence at the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute and is currently finishing his master's at NYU ITP, a creative technology program within the Tisch School of the Arts known as an “art school for engineers or an engineering school for artists.”

Jake Zinn, from Chapel Hill, NC, is the founder/CEO of BEEPR APP, a company at the intersection of music and technology. Previously, he ran a music management company that signed and developed artists. Jake has a passion for music and the potential for technology to shape the industry.