Today we’d like to introduce you to Kwame Egerton II.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The Black Currency started in 2020 during a time when so many conversations were happening around racial equity, economic opportunity, and the wealth gap. My co-founder, Ackeem Kipp, and I kept coming back to the same question: how do we create something that not only talks about financial empowerment, but actually gives people the knowledge, access, and opportunities to build wealth?
We’re both from Brooklyn, and a big part of the inspiration came from seeing how differently people can experience money, investing, entrepreneurship, and access to capital depending on the environments and resources they’re exposed to. We wanted to help make those conversations more accessible.
What began as a platform focused on financial literacy and conversations around wealth creation has continued to evolve. Over the years, we’ve created educational content, hosted events, developed programming for young people, and built initiatives centered around investing, entrepreneurship, and financial empowerment.
One of the things I’m most proud of is our annual Virtual Pitch Competition. We created it because we didn’t just want to tell entrepreneurs to start businesses, we wanted to help put real capital behind them. This year will mark our fifth competition, and with it, we’ll reach a major milestone: $50,000 donated back to Black and Brown founders through the program.
For us, that number represents much more than prize money. It represents five years of betting on entrepreneurs, helping founders gain visibility, and creating opportunities for people who historically have not always had equal access to early stage capital and networks.
As we prepare for our fifth annual competition this October, we’re excited to meet the next group of founders and continue growing the platform. If you’re a Black or Brown entrepreneur building a business and looking for funding, exposure, and an opportunity to share your vision, we’d love for you to apply and be part of what we’re building.
The Black Currency has grown a lot since 2020, but the mission has remained consistent: give our community more tools, more access, and more opportunities to create wealth.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely hasn’t been a completely smooth road. Like most businesses and community driven organizations, we’ve had to learn a lot by doing.
One of the biggest challenges has been building The Black Currency while balancing careers, personal responsibilities, and the day to day work required to keep growing the organization. There’s a big difference between having an idea you believe in and consistently showing up year after year to turn that idea into something sustainable.
We’ve also had to learn how to evolve with our community. Financial literacy is such a broad topic, so over time we’ve had to become more intentional about where we can create the most meaningful impact. That has meant experimenting with different types of content, events, youth programming, partnerships, and entrepreneurship initiatives while paying attention to what people actually need.
Access to resources has also been a constant challenge. It’s one thing to talk about supporting entrepreneurs, but it’s another thing to raise and allocate real dollars toward them. Every year, we’ve had to think creatively about partnerships, sponsorships, and how we can continue putting meaningful capital directly into the hands of founders.
That’s part of what makes reaching our fifth annual pitch competition so meaningful to us. What started as an idea has now grown into a program through which we’ll have donated $50,000 to Black and Brown founders. There were definitely moments along the way when we had to adjust, rebuild, and figure things out, but we stayed committed to the mission.
I think one of the biggest lessons has been that impact compounds the same way money does. You may not always see the results immediately, but if you continue investing in people, relationships, education, and opportunity, eventually you can look back and see how far that consistency has taken you.
That’s why we’re especially excited about this year’s competition. We want to continue growing the program, reach even more entrepreneurs, and connect with founders who may just need that one opportunity, investment, or introduction to help move their business forward.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Black Currency ?
The Black Currency is a financial education and economic empowerment platform focused on helping Black and Brown communities build wealth through knowledge, access, and opportunity.
At our core, we focus on financial literacy, investing, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation, but what makes us different is that we try to move beyond education alone. We want people to not only understand money, but also have opportunities to put that knowledge into action.
Over the years, that mission has taken a number of forms. We’ve created financial education content through our podcast and digital platforms, developed programming for young people, hosted community events, and created resources that make topics like saving, investing, credit, entrepreneurship, and homeownership easier to understand and more approachable.
Entrepreneurship has become an especially important part of what we do. Our annual Black Currency Pitch Competition gives Black and Brown founders an opportunity to pitch their businesses, gain exposure, build relationships, and compete for real capital. This year will be our fifth competition, and we’ll reach $50,000 in total funding awarded back to entrepreneurs through the program.
That is probably what I’m most proud of from a brand perspective. There are a lot of platforms that talk about closing the wealth gap or supporting entrepreneurship. We’ve always wanted The Black Currency to be a platform that can point to tangible outcomes and say, “Here is what we actually put back into the community.”
Another thing that sets us apart is our belief that wealth building is not only about financial intelligence. Emotional intelligence, mindset, confidence, relationships, and access all play a role in the decisions people make with money and the opportunities they pursue. That perspective has been part of The Black Currency from the beginning.
Ultimately, we want people to think of The Black Currency as a bridge between financial education and real economic opportunity. Whether someone is learning how to invest for the first time, teaching their child about money, preparing to buy a home, or building a company, we want to create resources and opportunities that can help them move forward.
Right now, a major focus for us is our fifth annual pitch competition this October. We’re looking for Black and Brown founders who are building great businesses and are ready for more exposure, resources, and capital. If that sounds like you, or someone in your network, we’d love for you to apply, share the opportunity, and be part of this next chapter.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that you have to give yourself permission to grow as you go.
When we started the business, I think I felt a lot of pressure to have everything figured out. What the business should look like, what direction we should take, and what success was supposed to mean. Over time, I’ve realized that some of the most important growth happens when you’re willing to admit that you don’t have all the answers.
There have been ideas that worked, ideas that didn’t, periods where we had a lot of momentum, and others where we had to slow down and reassess. I’ve learned not to look at those moments as failures. They’re part of building something.
I’ve also learned how important it is to stay connected to your “why.” There are always going to be distractions, new opportunities, and moments where you question whether you’re moving fast enough. Having a clear sense of why we started The Black Currency has helped me stay grounded through all of that.
More than anything, this journey has taught me to be patient with the process. You can have a big vision while still allowing yourself to learn, evolve, and become a better leader along the way. I’m definitely not the same person or entrepreneur I was when we started in 2020, and I think that growth is just as meaningful as anything we’ve built as a company.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theblackcurrency.io/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblackcurrency/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theblackcurrency20
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-black-currency/?viewAsMember=true
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBlackCurrency
