This is the face of a founder.

2020 Roadmap to Billions Conference

Feb 27-29, Penn Plaza Pavilion, New York, NY

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February 27-29 2020

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The immersive three-day tech conference, designed by black women founders for black women founders.

Roadmap to Billions is a call to action: giving voice, strategy and opportunity to help black women founders build the next billion dollar businesses.

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Penn Plaza Pavillion, NY, NY

Meet the 2020 Speakers

Cara Sabin

CEO, Sundial Brands

Courtney Adeleye

Founder , The Mane Choice Hair Solutions

Maria Velissaris

Founder, SteelSky Ventures

Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon

Founder, Founder Gym

Crystal Etienne

Founder , Ruby Love

Maisha Walker

Founder , Message Medium

Simone Taitt

Founder , Poppy Seed Health

Natasha Bansgopaul

Co-Founder , DarcMatter (DM)

Elisha Thompson

Managing Director , Thompson Global Group LLC

Andrea Evans

Intellectual Property Attorney, The Law Firm of Andrea Evans, LLC

Ugwem Eneyo

SHYFT Power Solutions, Co Founder & CEO

Kristina Jones

Court Buddy, Co Founder

Courtney Caldwell

ShearShare, Co Founder & COO

Natasha Bansgopaul

DarcMatter, Co-Founder & COO

Maci Peterson Philitas

On Second Thought, CEO

Darline Jean

CDO, Essence Communications

Tiffany Dufu

Founder & CEO, The Cru

Bria Sullivan

Founder & CEO, Tech Stack'd

Natina Marie Adams

Founder & CEO, Blossom Digital

Rakia Reynolds

Founder & CEO, Skai Blue Media

Stefanie A. Thomas

, Investments Impact America Fund

Lisa Opoku

Global COO Engineering Division, Goldman Sachs

Sheena Foster

Journalist, The Grio

Jasmine Lawrence

Founder & CEO, Eden BodyWorks

Zandra Cunningham

Founder & CEO, Zandra Beauty

Danielle Toaltoan

Founder & CEO, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Chris-Tia Donaldson

Founder & CEO, Thank God It's Natural

Traci Copeland

Master Trainer , Nike

Pauleanna Reid

Journalist & Founder , New Girl On The Block

Brianna Garrett

Assistant Editor, Forbes Women & Small Business

Jasmine Baker Taddeo

Deputy Director, Women.nyc

Jarrid Tingle

Managing Partner, Harlem Capital Partner

Colleen Heideinger

President, 43North

Shelly Bell

Founder & CEO, Black Girl Ventures

Tosh Ernest

Head of Wealth, JPMorgan Chase

Bea Arthur

Founder & CEO, The Difference

Jamika Burge

Co-Founder, blackcomputeHER.org

Grace Mahari

Model and Global Activist,

Jacqueline M. Baker

Innovation Programming AARP, Innovation Labs

Pauleanna Reid

Journalist & Founder , New Girl on the Block

Selena Hill

Digital Editor, Black Enterprise Magazine

Jasmine Baker Taddeo

Deputy Director, Women.NYC

Philiana Patterson

Managing Editor, Money & Consumer Tech, USA Today

Tina Eskridge

Senior Director, Cloud for Everyone , Microsoft

Vanessa Liu

VP SAP.iO Foundries NA,

Rhoden Monrose

Founder & CEO, Cariclub

Kishau Rogers

Founder & CEO, Time Study

Judith Williams

Head of People Sustainability and SVP, Chief Diversity & Inclusion, SAP

Kelli Fisher

Co-Founder, The Matchmaking Duo

Dawn Norvell

Senior Buying Manager - Food Division, Cookies, Crackers, and Snacks on the Go, Walmart

Margaret Anadu

Head of the Urban Investment Group, Goldman Sachs

Traci Copeland

Master Trainer , Nike

Jamika Burge

Co-Founder, blackcomputeHER.com

Rodney Williams

Co-Founder & CCO, LISNR

Ruth Yakubu

Sr. Cloud Advocate, Microsoft

Marquita Brown

Senior Manager, Supplier Inclusion, Walmart

Tabitha Holbert

Founder & CEO, Artemis

Kelli N. Jones

Program Manager, The Heritage Group Accelerator Powered by Techstars

Brianne Garrett

Assistant Editor , Forbes Women & Small Business

Brandon Hoffman

Innovation & Tech Research , Sammsung

Congresswomen Yvette Clark

Representing the 9th District of New York,

Tunde Kelani

Associate , Investment Team Republic

See All Speakers

Roadmap to Billions is for self-identified black women founders with scalable businesses and technology companies, investors, tech evangelists, and our allies.

Agenda

Founder Pass

Founders' Retreat

The retreat is dedicated exclusively to founders and includes self-enriching sessions, networking and one of a kind experiences.

Location: Luminary (1204 Broadway NYC)

5:00 - 5:30PM

Registration & Networking

5:30 - 6:00PM

Black Women Talk Tech & Sponsors Welcome

6:00 - 6:30PM

6:45 - 7:15PM

Dating & Relationships: Balancing Personal & Career Goals

7:30 - 8:00PM

Dance it Out: Dance Therapy Class With Nike

7:30 - 8:00PM

Conquering Anxiety:Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy As A Founder

6:00 - 9:00PM

Beauty Services

The retreat is Enjoy Brow shaping, lashes, light makeup, hair updos by TresseNoire, a beauty platform for women of color!

15 Minute Appointments are first come, first serve. Our virtual beauty coach app sends free expert advice that’s perfectly customized to their unique textured hair needs, so she gets the perfect twist out the first time, every time!

Founder Pass

Founders Day

Founders Day is dedicated exclusively to Black women founders of scalable businesses and tech companies. The day encompasses panel discussions with seasoned founders, workshops including growth strategies, and one of a kind experiences exclusively for founders.

Located at Penn Pavillion, 401 7th Ave, New York, NY 10001

8:00 - 9:00AM

Registration & Breakfast

9:00 - 9:45AM

Black Women Talk Tech & Sponsors Welcome, Keynote & Host Intro

9:45 - 10:45AM

Creating A Successful Product Launch through Digital Marketing

The difference between failure and glowing reviews for a new product launch all boil down to one thing, preparation. Designing and launching a product includes a solid digital marketing plan that will get your product in front of the right audience at the right time. While there’s never a guarantee that a new product will be successful in the marketplace, properly preparing for and timing your launch can make your product debut a success or a flop.

9:45 - 10:45AM

Sales Workshop: Accelerate Your Sales Team For Hockey Stick Growth

Hockey stick growth is a term often used to describe the explosive growth of a startup. Most startups struggle to create a plan of action to be ready for this stage of their company’s growth. Here are some strategies to ready your sales team for when everything changes and the huge uplift occurs.

10:45 - 11:00AM

Break

11:00 - 12:00PM

Protecting Assets: How to Create your IP Portfolio

Intellectual Property is often the most valuable asset of a technology startup. An IP strategy should naturally be a part of the growth process for all founders as many discover that protected intellectual property can be essential to obtaining venture capital funding or even preventing competitors from racing ahead or unfairly competing. What are the essential IP strategies that all founders should implement for their startups?

11:00 - 12:00PM

Money In The Bank: Scaling Your Operations with Acquired Funding

You’ve pitched, closed several VC meetings and finally got the golden ticket. Now what? What are some diligent and prudent steps that every tech founder should take in creating a strategic plan to spend their newly acquired funding in the most optimal way to scale their companies? After all of your hard work, the check is finally in the bank. What now? Let’s discuss the diligent steps that every tech founder should take in creating an optimal strategy to scale their companies with acquired funding.

12:00 - 1:30PM

Lunch: Chapter of The Year

1:15 - 2:15PM

Headliner

To Be Announced

2:15 - 2:30PM

Break

2:30 - 3:30PM

Unexpected Glitches: Motivating Early Developers

You’ve finally found someone to help you get your ideas on paper and your MVP completed. What happens when your golden child becomes a problem child? In what ways can founders effectively communicate with developers when there are cultural challenges or communication hurdles and when should founders part ways with their current developers?

2:30 - 3:30PM

AI: Transforming Your Business With Artificial Intelligence

Most businesses are infusing AI into apps making them smarter, intuitive, and customized to provide better user experiences. This is crucial to build customer loyalty and give your business a competitive advantage from other businesses. Microsoft will illustrate how any tech founder can use Pre-built AI services and how founder can built their own AI solutions to integrate with existing applications for any scenario.

3:30 - 3:45PM

Break

3:45 - 4:45 PM

The Raise: How Black Women Invest

Despite the dismal number of venture funding going to black female founders, there are black women investors who are spearheading the much needed movement of changing the current narrative. Get keen insight from three female investors who are normalizing and accelerating the success of female founders to build more prosperous and equitable futures.

3:45 - 4:45 PM

SAP: Enterprise Sales & Go-To Market Best Practices

Landing the Fortune 2000 as enterprise customers is a challenge to get right, but for those companies that do, this is the key to growth. Learn best practices from two founders who have been doing it and how they have partnered with SAP to further their growth.

4:45 - 4:55PM

Break

4:55 - 5:40PM

Get To Know Walmart

At Walmart, we believe we’re at our best when we promote diversity across our supply chain. For our suppliers, working with Walmart means access to the 275 million customers who shop our stores around the world each week. For us, supplier inclusion means delivering better products and a broader selection to the communities we serve. We encourage diverse companies to explore new possibilities with Walmart.

5:40 - 6:00PM

Closing Remarks

A Day for Everyone

Open Conference is an inclusive day for all founders, investors, brands, engineers, developers, press, and sponsors. Panels encompass topics from social, cultural, tech and business savviness. The experience will be wide-ranging and diverse.

Located at Penn Pavillion, 401 7th Ave, New York, NY 10001

8:00-9:00AM

Registration & Breakfast

9:00 - 9:45AM

Welcome & Host Intro:
Black Women Talk Tech, Keynote & Sponsors

9:45 - 10:45PM

Morning Keynote:

10:45 - 11:00AM

Break

11:00 - 12:00PM

Mastering Intrapraneurship:
Honing Your Skills With Less Risk

Entrepreneurs are self-motivated, proactive, and action-oriented people who have leadership skills and think outside the box. Intrapreneurship is a system which allows an employee to act like an entrepreneur within an organization. Learn about different entrepreneurship programs at large companies that hone your skills before you take the leap.

11:00 - 12:00PM

Young Moguls: Fostering Entrepreneurship Early

Innovation has become second nature to many of today’s younger generations. How do we as a community foster entrepreneurship in our youth and encourage their ideas and growth?

12:00 - 12:15PM

Break

12:15 - 1:15PM

Creating Revenue Streams While Building a Start Up

While building long term visions most founders find cash flow can become a personal pain point. Finding creative ways of tapping into additional streams of income can be daunting and personally rewarding. How are founders creating streams of income while working on their startups and what are the fastest yielding options that aren’t currently saturated? Meet four incredible women who are creatively creating streams of income while building their startups.

12:15 - 1:15PM

Competing and Winning with the Big Guys

Competing with Fortune 500 companies may be a daunting task, but more founders are taking on the challenge head on. How does one compete with companies that have one hundred times more access and resources? How does one actually win in a field full of Goliaths?

1:15 - 2:15PM

Lunch & Award Presentations: Game Changer & Chapter of the Year

2:15 - 3:15PM

Political Town Hall

Policy can drive and change the tech ecosystem for women and other disenfranchised groups in the tech industry. This non-partisan panel provides black women business owners insight into how they can drive the needle of policy to benefit the endeavors of their communities.

3:15 - 3:35PM

Goldman Sachs

Lisa Opoku, global chief operating officer for the Engineering Division at Goldman Sachs and Margaret Anadu , head of the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs, will share their journeys to senior leadership roles in engineering and investing, respectively and make a special announcement on behalf of Launch With GS, the firm’s $500 million investment strategy focused on the belief that diverse teams drive strong returns.

3:35 - 3:45PM

Break

3:45 - 4:15PM

Pitch Competition - Brought to you by Shea Moisture

This year’s prizes include Mentoring from Sundial Executives, Enrollment in Tuck School of Business’ Executive Program, all expenses paid travel & accommodations to shadow a Walmart Store No. 8 CEO for a day, $5,000 in cash & $10,000 in cash! Plus the top three Black Women Talk Tech finalists will gain automatic entry into the $1 MILLION competition sponsored by 43North.