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Breakr Founders Discuss Innovation and Support from Us

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Breakr


The relationship between Breakr founders Anthony and Ameer Brown is what happens while you mix innovation, entrepreneurship, and resilience. As siblings, their love for one another runs deep, and they convey that very same admiration to their work as co-founders of a dynamic platform that connects artists, brands, and creators as they work to rework the landscape of the music industry.

As a tech company, Breakr quickly became an industry powerhouse, changing the best way music, talent, brands, and influencers are discovered and shared. Since its launch in 2020, Breakr has been connecting artists with labels and brands seeking to capitalize on the creator economy. Beyond that, Anthony says ensuring creators are paid what they’re value keeps him up at night (in the easiest way) with regards to business.

“We’ve been doing this for about three and a half years now, and you can get tired if you don’t have a reason to,” Anthony said. BLACK ENTREPRENEURSHIP. “I think our why has really crystallized over the last few weeks, which is really more like months. It’s like, Hey, we want to make it easier for brands and labels to find creators, but we also want to make it easier for brands and labels to interact and provide value to creators.”

“The most important thing is streamlining those payments. Payments was a really important innovation that we pushed at Breakr,” he continued. “We made it our business and kind of our modus operandi to pay these kids in real time. For us, that stops evictions. That stops people from having to have a job and be a creator on the side. It allows people to go out and price themselves appropriately because they know they’re going to get their money immediately.”

The company’s name comes from the beatbreaker that DJ is, and the opposite half of its name comes from the concept that the corporate desires to act as a switchboard or an off switch for the entities that use its platform, whether or not they’re creators, brands, or record labels.

“We want to be the central infrastructure,” Ameer explained. “Think about a home. All the different devices in your home are powered by electricity, but they need to be told where to go, what voltage needs to be delivered, all the information that needs to get there is transmitted through the electricity that goes to that device, so we think of Breakr as a way for the creator economy, we want all the different inputs and all the different devices to get the right information. They need the right payment. They need the right resources. They need the right performance. They need the right data that they need at the right time, and that’s basically why we’re called Breakr. We’re just a routing engine that connects people and solves problems at an efficient scale.”

As founders of Breakr and graduates of the esteemed HBCU, Florida A&M University (FAMU), the Brown brothers’ vision for the corporate got here as an “aha” moment at the identical time the world was shutting down attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brown brothers were in a position to bring their friends along on the journey. For Anthony, working alongside his siblings was “the biggest, most stressful, amazing experience” of his life.

“We started Breakr with two other co-founders who are friends of Ameer,” he recalls. “They did a ton of events together in college. They went to FAMU, Daniel Ware and Rotimi Omosheyin, and that was the beginning. They created a whole culture from the beginning in terms of how they operated together, and I think Breakr works because from my perspective, as a technical outsider who didn’t know how they operated together, I kind of got to know them, and what they mastered together was culture. It’s a deep appreciation of culture. My background was more in finance, Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, but they spent so much time in culture, curating culture, and creating culture, that it ended up being part of our DNA as a company. We really stand on the shoulders of that culture.”

Breakr’s culture itself attracted early investors like rapper-turned-entrepreneur and culture maven Nasir “Nas” Jones. Through a program called General Assembly, which each Ameer, along with his background in PR and communications, and Anthony, along with his work in tech, had access to earlier of their careers, they not only got a deeper dive into the world of digital marketing and coding, but additionally caught the eye of Nas and Queensbridge Venture Partners, this system’s early backers.

The pair had no concept that not only would they meet Nas just a few years later at Hip Hop’s fiftieth anniversary party, but that it will occur while they were fully immersed of their entrepreneurial careers, constructing Breakr from the bottom up.

“The story has come full circle for Tony and me and everything,” Ameer said. “We’re both from Queens. Our family is from Southside Jamaica Queens. Our whole story is from Queens, and Nas is basically a Queens kid, you know what I mean. So the fact that he is who he is and we know him is the coolest thing in the world.”

Anthony added, “We had the opportunity to meet him in person, tell him the whole story, take pictures, etc. It was just a great moment, a complete turnaround, to meet him as an entrepreneur who literally taught himself technology and coding through an investment he made years ago. And also for him to reinvest in our company, which was significant for us in those early days in terms of just giving us a battery in the back to keep going.”

“The opportunity to actually fund our business is just crazy. It’s a story that no one would believe if it wasn’t true,” Anthony continued. “I actually wrote it. My essay to get into the General Assembly was read and they said, ‘Why did you name your essay that?’ I was like Nas said in 2009: it meant ‘worst of the worst, coolest thing ever.’ And I thought, I want to be the greatest tech guy. I want to be able to do tech with the best of them, right? So I named the paper. And that was the thing that the person at the General Assembly who read the essay said that convinced me. She said, ‘That’s a unique approach and I think it’s a great story and I want to hire you for the program.’ So it’s a crazy story.”

In addition to being an investor, Nas is included in Breakr’s ever-evolving roster of artists using the platform. Other notables include Megan Thee Stallion, Gunna, Rick Ross, Future, and more. In addition to musicians, corporations like Meta, Live Nation, and P&G are among the many brands currently tapping the startup for various campaigns with the aforementioned artists.

With exponential growth in a brief time frame, Breakr has built a world database of 55 million creators, and the corporate is growing by the minute, employing over 70,000 creators. Looking ahead, the Brown brothers hope to succeed in over $25 million in transaction volume by the tip of next 12 months.

“I think it’s not unrealistic to see a world where we’re doing over $160 million in transactions by 2026,” Anthony said. “In fact, by 2027, we predict we’re doing somewhere around $330 million to $350 million in transactions. The North Star for me is what’s it going to take? How long is it going to take us to get to a billion dollars in payments processed per 12 months? So every strategy and all the things we do is tied to attending to that in the following five years.

Crash Here to learn more about methods to join the Breakr community.


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Business and Finance

Research shows that political disputes and political uncertainty take a toll on business investment

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Partisan arguments aren’t just annoying – they’re also bad for business.

That’s what my colleagues and I discovered in a recent study on the impact of environmental policy uncertainty on corporate investment.

First we analyzed over 300 million press articlestrying to find keywords related to environmental policy uncertainty. We found that this uncertainty increases during election periods and has almost doubled over the past decade.

Then we took a look business investment rates of interest – a common way of assessing a company’s financial health – in corporations in affected sectors akin to agriculture, mining, energy and automotive. We found that environmental policy uncertainty reduced these corporations’ business investment rates by 0.010%.

This may not seem to be much, but how economists like me You know, small amounts add up over time.

For example, we found that the rise in environmental policy uncertainty within the run-up to the 2008 presidential elections was linked to a one-off 25% decline within the investment rate for corporations covered by environmental policy. This effect was greater than the uncertainty related to defense, health and financial policies.

But my team also found positive sides. We found that political uncertainty had a much smaller impact on business investment when control of Congress was divided and policy changes required bipartisan support.

When the identical political party controlled each houses of Congress, environmental policy uncertainty was related to a 0.013% decline in investment rates. However, when Congress was divided, this decline shrunk to a much smaller 0.002%.

Why it matters

Because political uncertainty typically increases around elections, our results suggest that the present political environment is hampering business investment.

Our research also suggests that policies geared toward boosting business investment could also be less effective than previously thought due to uncertainty they introduce.

Let’s take for instance Inflation Reduction Actpassed in 2021, and the bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2022. Both were designed to encourage investment in clean energy technologies.

However, uncertainty over whether these packages can be adopted in any respect – and if that’s the case, what the policies would come with – could have discouraged investment before they got here into force. Uncertainty over what features of the foundations will apply after the election could also hamper business investment.

The green line represents uncertainty about U.S. environmental policy, and the black line represents overall environmental policymaking. Places where the green line exceeds the black line indicate periods of serious uncertainty. A price of 198 in January 2017 means that the variety of articles on environmental policy uncertainty in January 2017 is 1.98 times the common frequency of such articles over the period 1985–2009.
“Environmental Policy Uncertainty” by Himadri Palikhe, Georg Schaur and Charles Sims

There could also be a degree of uncertainty built into the democratic process. After all, the faster and more secretive a government is, the less accountable it’s to the general public. If you concentrate on it this fashion, some uncertainty is an inevitable cost of a sound policymaking process.

Our research puts a price on these costs and reminds policymakers that political conflicts are a drag on the economy. Our results suggest one promising path forward: bipartisanship.

What’s next?

Because there may be such a wide range of environmental policies, our team is currently conducting research to see whether corporations respond otherwise to the uncertainty related to “carrot” policies – akin to subsidies or tax breaks – in comparison with “stick” policies, akin to fines or other penalties.

Answering this query will help decision makers minimize the results of uncertainty.

It’s also an open query whether news articles convey information to business leaders or just reflect information they have already got. In the latter case, media coverage might not be a good measure of the uncertainty corporations face.

To solve this problem, we’re working on developing ways to measure uncertainty based on transcripts of telephone conversations about earnings as an alternative of press articles. They could provide a more direct strategy to measure uncertainty affecting business decisions.

This article was originally published on : theconversation.com
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Business and Finance

How a Black-owned radio station stayed independent for 50 years while other media became corporatized.

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WDKX, WDKX Radio, WDKX Rochester, Rochester radio stations, B lack-owned radio stations, WDKX Andria Langston, theGrio.com

If you have ever checked out a radio station’s call letters, it can have gave the impression of they were just letters to you.

But at WDKX radios in Rochester, New York, the letter “D” stands for Frederick Douglass, “K” stands for Martin Luther King Jr., and “X” stands for

In a media environment where many Black radio stations that air promoting to Black listeners usually are not Black-owned, WDKX exemplifies the legacy and power of independent Black media. This yr the station is celebrating 50 years in business.

According to African American Public Radio Consortiuman estimated 10,000 industrial radio stations broadcast each day within the U.S., but lower than 1% are black-owned. This discrepancy reveals greater than just an ownership gap; highlights a systemic problem that ends in fewer Black leaders being accountable for the voices and messages that claim to talk for Black people.

“Anyone can play black music or turn on black shows, but with black creators there is a different kind of authenticity and connection,” says Andria Langston, current co-owner of WDKX and national sales manager.

Langston is Andre Langston’s daughter and granddaughter Andrew Langstonwho founded WDKX in 1974 in Rochester. While the northern New York city is commonly considered a destination for abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, that does not imply racism wasn’t prevalent in the realm.

Andrew Langston (right) is the founder and visionary of WDKX Radio, which he founded in 1974. (Photo via WROC-TV)
(*50*)
Andria Langston poses along with her father, Andre Langston, current owner of WDKX radio in Rochester, New York, who made sure the station remained independently owned. (Photo courtesy of The Langston Family)
(*50*)

“My grandfather was a visionary, and interestingly enough, he moved to Rochester, New York, because he was promised a job at CBS,” Langston tells Grio. “But when he got there and they saw he was black, they didn’t want to show him on TV. Being in Rochester during the Rochester Riots, my grandparents saw there was a need to tell our story.”

Today, WDKX is a model of resilience, being certainly one of the last independently operated Black-owned radio stations within the United States. The station organizes community events and highlights issues related to health, education and politics. Its mission is deeply rooted within the vision of Mr. Langston, who overcame regulatory and racial barriers to create a platform dedicated to authentic Black voices. For Andria, who began learning the station’s operations on the age of 5, that is of great importance.

“I’m a third-generation owner and seeing my grandfather build this station throughout my life and my father continuing it, I think it’s a testament to the American dream; what can be achieved with persistence and community and simply focusing on your goals,” Langston tells theGrio.

(*50*)

Like many Black-owned public radio stations, WDKX attracts socially and culturally aware listeners who help keep this legacy alive. Although many African-American public radio stations are licensed by universities – accounting for 70% of all such stations, including NPR affiliates – WDKX is certainly one of the few that also operates independently.

This weekend, as WDKX celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, it does in order a testament to the importance of getting Black people in media. From its commitment to unfiltered storytelling to its ability to construct authentic connections, WDKX stays a critical voice in an era where community-centered, Black-owned media is required greater than ever. For listeners in Rochester and beyond, WDKX is greater than just a radio station. It reminds us of the strength and resilience that comes from having your personal narrative.

“My grandfather was in his 40s when he finally started a radio station,” Langston explains. “So you may have a dream in your 20s and it should take you years to comprehend it. Don’t surrender in your dreams. To proceed. Because you have got time and there may be enough for everyone here.

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Business and Finance

No, the boom in battery factories in America is not over – construction of the largest factories is proceeding as planned and it is planned to employ over 23,000 people

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The United States is experiencing the largest-ever boom in investment in clean energy production, driven by laws such as the bipartisan bill Act on infrastructure investments and employment and Act on reducing inflation.

They have these rights used billions of dollars government support to drive private sector investment in clean energy supply chains across the country.

For several years, one of us, Jay Turner, and his students at Wellesley College have been tracking clean energy investments in the U.S. and sharing the data on the website The big green machine website. This study shows that since the Inflation Control Act went into effect in 2022, firms have announced 225 projects with a complete investment of $127 billion and the creation of greater than 131,000 latest jobs.

You could have seen on the news that these projects are in danger of failure or significant delays. In August 2024, the Financial Times reported this. 40% of over 100 projects he assessed that they were delayed. These include battery production, renewable energy and metals and hydrogen projects, as well as semiconductor manufacturing plants. The technology industry magazine The Information recently warned of this 1 in 4 firms left from government subsidies for investment in batteries.

Workers assemble battery packs for electric vehicles in Spartanburg, South Carolina. New battery factories in the state will help move the supply chain closer to U.S. electric vehicle factories.
BMW

We checked all 23 battery cell factories announced or prolonged since the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law – just about all of them are gigafactories which might be expected to produce greater than 1 gigawatt-hour of battery cell capability. These factories have one of the highest employment potentials of all the projects supported by the Act.

We wanted to discover whether the U.S. clean energy production boom was about to fizzle out. Most of what we learned is reassuring.

The largest battery factories are on the right track

While exact investment amounts are difficult to determine, our study shows that planned capital expenditure shall be $52 billion, which would supply 490 gigawatt-hours of battery production capability per 12 months – enough to put about 5 million latest electric vehicles on the road.

While not all 23 firms have announced hiring plans, the facilities are expected to create nearly 30,000 latest jobs, with projects primarily in the U.S. Southeast, Midwest and Southwest.

We wanted to know whether these projects were progressing as planned or whether there have been delays or problems.

To do that, we first contacted local and state economic development agencies. In many cases, local and state tax incentives support these projects. Where possible, we now have tried to confirm the status of the project through public data Or formal announcements. In other cases, we looked for messages to see in the event that they existed construction proof Or hiring.

Our study shows that 13 of 23 projects are on the right track, with total planned capital investment exceeding $40 billion and production capability of nearly 352 gigawatt hours per 12 months. Importantly, they include most of the largest projects with the largest investments and expected production.

Our calculations show that 77% of total planned capital investment, 79% of proposed jobs, and 72% of planned battery production are on the right track, meaning the project is likely to be accomplished roughly on time and overall as expected. result. level of investment and employment.

Three projects are on the bubble. These have shown progress but have experienced delays in construction or financing.

Five others show deeper signs of distress. We do not yet have enough information to draw conclusions about the two projects.

An example of an ongoing project is the Envision AESC battery plant in Florence, South Carolina. His the scale has been enlarged twice since it was first announced in December 2022. It is now a $3 billion investment with the goal of producing 30 gigawatt-hours of batteries per 12 months supplies the BMW factory in Woodruff, South Carolina.

In early October 2024, South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Harry Lightsey visited the Envision i facility published a video. Construction of the plant began in February 2024, and 850 employees are working six days per week to complete the 1.4 million square foot facility by August 2025. Once full production begins, the project shall be accomplished expected to hire 2,700 people.

The 2024 elections could end or speed up the boom

However, much relies on what is going to occur in the upcoming elections.

Our data suggests that the real risk facing these projects and projects like them is not sluggish demand for electric vehicles, as some suggest – in fact demand continues to grow. It’s not the local opposition that did it either it only slowed down a number of projects.

The the biggest risk is policy change. Many of these projects are counting on advanced manufacturing tax credits approved by the Inflation Reduction Act through 2032.

During the campaign, Republicans are promising to repeal key laws under Biden, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which incorporates funding for grants and loans to support clean energy, as well as tax incentives to support domestic manufacturing.

While an entire repeal of the Act could also be unlikely, an an administration hostile to clean energy redirect unspent funds to other purposes, slow the pace of grants or loans by slow project approvals, or find other ways to make tax incentives tougher to obtain. Although our research focused on the battery industry, concerns concern investments in wind energy AND solar energy too.

So will the great U.S. boom in clean energy production soon come to an end? Our data is optimistic, but the policy is uncertain.

This article was originally published on : theconversation.com
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