Think and Zoom

In today's America, the average wealth of a white household is 10X that of a black household, and the fastest way to grow wealth today is through technology entrepreneurship, as evidenced by fortune 500 companies, or highest earning 500 individuals or founders of startups since the 2008 economic crisis, such as Facebook, Stripe, AirBnB, etc.  

Unfortunately, blacks are missing in the technology entrepreneurship ecosystem, and as such, are not able to take advantage of the economic opportunities it offers.

Think and Zoom aims to close the wealth gap by educating and empowering blacks with exposure, knowledge, and application of technology entrepreneurship, that will enable them to build and scale tech enabled, tech focused and deep tech / emerging tech companies.

We aim to scale our solution by leveraging the venture studio model, and delivering content through a cohort based online platform.

Think and Zoom is solving the problem of wealth gap in America, where the average wealth of a white household is 10X that of a black household, and this translates to roughly $171,000 versus $17,000.  While this affects 40 million blacks in America, it is quite similar in all countries in Africa.

The factors contributing to this problem are lack of knowledge on personal finance, problem-solving skills using technology, tech entrepreneurship and wealth creation.

A much deeper problem is that these affected communities do not have access to such information and knowledge, and as such, at a large scale do not practice them.

These conditions arise from 240 years of slavery, 60 years of Jim Crow and segregation, and so only in the last 50 years have blacks been integrated in America, and in Africa, population over 1 billion, average age, 19, western colonization started in the 1800s, and ended around 1980s.

Think and Zoom aims to close the wealth gap by educating and empowering blacks with exposure, knowledge, and application of technology entrepreneurship, that will enable them be innovative problem solvers in their community as well as to build and scale tech enabled, tech focused and deep tech / emerging tech companies.

Our solution leverages the venture studio model, for the purpose of a life incubator that teaches tech entrepreneurship, personal finance, wealth creation, leadership and personal development topics.

We leverage online live video sessions, paired with a cohort based learning methodology that delivers an immersion, hands on practice curriculum for reinforced learning.

For each cohort community, students are able to put into practice what they learn, as well as build life long relationships through peers in their network and by working together to either tackle community problems or company challenges, they practice collaboration and team work.

After going through the program, participants will know how to mange their own finances, create personal wealth, solve community problems or start companies, through tech entrepreneurship techniques.

Think and Zoom is targeting middle and high school students in public schools.  Out of over 15 million students recently surveyed, only 2% have enough STEM proficiency, and for the black students, their household income is 10% of their white counterparts.

Think and Zoom aims to close the wealth gap by educating and empowering blacks with exposure, knowledge, and application of technology entrepreneurship, that will enable them be innovative problem solvers in their community as well as to build and scale tech enabled, tech focused and deep tech / emerging tech companies.

Our solution leverages the venture studio model, for the purpose of a life incubator that teaches tech entrepreneurship, personal finance, wealth creation, leadership and personal development topics.

We leverage online live video sessions, paired with a cohort based learning methodology that delivers an immersion, hands on practice curriculum for reinforced learning.

For each cohort community, students are able to put into practice what they learn, as well as build life long relationships through peers in their network and by working together to either tackle community problems or company challenges, they practice collaboration and team work.

After going through the program, participants will know how to mange their own finances, create personal wealth, solve community problems or start companies, through tech entrepreneurship techniques.

The impact that the solution will have on the students is that at a minimum, they will have enough knowledge and application experience to leverage STEM, and personal finance skills to pull themselves individually out of poverty.

To take it further, an individual can also become an innovative community problem-solver, thereby leveraging their acquired skills in finding solution to pressing needs in their community such as gentrification, or filthy water or police brutality, etc.

And for others, they can leverage tech entrepreneurship  in starting companies and organizations that can create jobs and provide economic opportunities for their communities thereby causing an overall decrease in wealth disparity.

The Challenge that Think and Zoom aims to address is generational wealth through equity in education.

Example of generational wealth would be Henry Ford, and how his original Ford Motor company has created enormous wealth for his family generations as well as tremendous economic opportunities for his communities and the nation at large.

Henry Ford leveraged tech entrepreneurship, personal finance and wealth creation strategies to achieve his goals.

Think and Zoom aims to provide similar knowledge exposure to blacks in America, whose wealth is 10% of their white peers.

My background includes pre-med and computer engineering undergraduate education, as well as innovation certificates from MIT, Harvard Business, Harvard Medical, and NSF.

I've also been awarded a US Presidential Service award from President Obama for STEM mentoring.

I chose this response because after over a decade of providing global mentoring to students, I'm now converting my knowledge into a a business that can turn participants into bona fide problem solvers that can tackle personal and community problems.

Over the next 6 weeks, I will be providing a pilot of my content through Ella Austin STEM summer program for high school students.

While there is a lack of diversity in STEM, and both schools and companies are working on filling that pipeline, wealth creation is not being addressed.  And the fastest way to grow wealth today is through STEM/tech entrepreneurship.  This is clearly evidenced by the highest earning individuals, or the fortune 500 companies or the startups from the 2008 economic crisis like Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, etc.

Blacks are not able to take advantage of the economic opportunities that technology entrepreneurship offers because 90% of the country only knows about lifestyle entrepreneurship and small business entrepreneurship as evidenced by organizations like Small Business Administration SBA, Small Business Development Center SBDC, and others.

From an experiment by One Laptop Per Child, we know that kids can understand advanced concepts if they are taught in community and cohort style, no penalty, experimentation and learning methods.  This experiment dropped off Motorola Laptops in a remote village in Ethiopia where English is not spoken and did not give instructions.  Within a few minutes, one kid figured out how to turn the laptop off and on, and showed others.  Within 2 weeks, one started understanding english and taught others, and within 4 weeks, one hacked the operating system.

We believe that if kids with no background in tech, or familiarity with English language can pull this off, then they can also be taught concepts of personal finance, wealth creation and tech entrepreneurship along with their STEM learning.

I have been a mentor to students for over 10 years, helping students from Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and here across the United States, and for my work, I was awarded the US Presidential Volunteer Service award by President Obama.

I have also been a mentor to amazing tech entrepreneurship programs like (MIT Launch, now) LaunchX, as well as at National Society of Black Engineers,  SXSW hackathon, and many more.

In all, certain aspects of the solution has served and impacted over 1000 students, but this summer, I'm piloting the solution during a 6 week period at  Ella Austin STEM summer program for high school students.  This will be an amazing opportunity to get feedback from the students, in terms of better understanding how students want to be reached, and what medium, or methods they respond better to.

For the summer pilot program, we are targeting 100 students, and over the course of one year, we aim to reach 1000 students, and by year 5, we aim to reach 10,000 students.

We will achieve this by employing an after school program format, that will cater to 100 students per cohort by year one.  And by year 3, we will leverage feedback from participants to fine tune the program and spin off a parallel cohort, like a franchise.  And by year 4, we will also add an additional parallel track.  This will get us to our goal of reading 10,000 by year 5.

We will measure our progress through the feedback channels embedded in the program, that continuously checks in with participants to know if they are on their way to achieving their vision board / life financial plan or set goals, or if they need external extra help to get than back on track, in case they veered of course due to unforeseen circumstancess.

I'm a solo founder working along at the moment, but actively seeking cofounders and collaborators.

My education in pre-med and computer engineering give me an amazing STEM background.

My innovation certificates from MIT, Harvard Business, Harvard Medical, and NSF, give me an amazing background in problem solving through STEM and tech entrepreneurship.

My 10 years of mentoring and receiving a Presidential Service award from sTEM mentoring from President Obama shows I'm able to reach and impact students.

What I'm seeking are cofounders and collaborators to help make this idea a reality.

My background of being a black, African born immigrant, US Army veteran and legally blind and disabled person ensures that I fully understand diversity as I wear many hats in the diversity space.

I plan to recruit a team that represents the nation as well as the demographic of economically disadvantaged individuals we aim to serve

After immigrating to America to study medicine, I started pre-med, joined the US Army, then within 18 months I became legally blind, which ended my military career and medical studies.

I was forced to choose computer engineering as I had a passion for STEM, and struggled all through due to my legal blindness.

I've been homeless, and faced rent eviction, and poverty and dealt with no food to eat.

I am the demographic I aim to serve and I fully understand the reasons why millions of people are economically disadvantaged, and I aim to change that situation by providing people with the opportunities I didn't have while I was much younger.

I'm actively recruiting for cofounders and partners, and I'm seeking a cofounder who loves business, as much as I love tech and innovation.  Despite being legally blind and disabled, I leveraged my experience in obtaining 2 USPTO patents, including Brain Control for Blind Assistive Tech, which allows legally blind people like me to leverage human brain  waves in controlling electronic devices.

And along with the business minded cofounder, will will round out the team with folks who love numbers, to handle finance and accounting, and we will all keep working on a sustainable business model as we pitch to investors.

I would like to partner with MIT Bootcamps and Bill Aulet, to be able to deliver their 24 Steps to Disciplined Entrepreneurship under an agreement.  The audio book is now one of the best business audio books ever!

I would also like to partner with MIT Solve and other parts of MIT like Legume leaderships which are interested in economic development and uplifting of economically disadvantaged communities.