BlogHer, Inc. Names Kathryn Finney New Editor-at-Large: 
Finney to Anchor BlogHer Publishing Network Style Vertical, Bring Expanded Style, Fashion and Beauty Offerings to BlogHer.com, and Develop Projects to Create Opportunities for Women of Color Across Media 


NEW YORK, NY—(Marketwire - Jan 18, 2012) - BlogHer, Inc., the premium cross-platform media network and publisher for women, has announced Kathryn Finney as a new editor-at-large for BlogHer.com. Finney’s blog The Budget Fashionista, which will join the BlogHer Publishing Network, launched the “budget fashion” movement and is now a top fashion site with more than 10 million unique visitors a year. Finney also joined Maria Shriver and Elizabeth Warren on AOL’s list of the Top Ten Women in Money in 2010, and was recently named to Black Enterprise’s 40 Under 40 list. 


Finney’s new role represents an upscaling of BlogHer’s style, fashion and beauty presence in response to community and client demand. In addition, Finney will work with BlogHer to advance the businesses of bloggers in the BlogHer Network, and to create opportunities for women of color at the intersection of technology and social media. 


“We’re excited to have Kathryn Finney join the BlogHer team,” said Elisa Camahort Page, Co-Founder and COO, BlogHer, Inc. “She is a long-time member of our community and an incredible entrepreneurial role model. Kathryn has long been a mentor within the community of fashion bloggers, and an established influence on how women shop with style, no matter the economic outlook.” 


“In this role, my focus will be to strategize expansion of the style, fashion and beauty community with BlogHer, while serving as a resource for women who want to evolve their blog into a media brand,” says Kathryn Finney. “I’m passionate about building a strong community of women. I want to help women find their community, enhance their voice, and guide them to build their brand in a sustainable way, while being true to themselves.” 


Finney has been profiled in The New York Times, InStyle, O Magazine, People Style Watch, Wall Street Journal, Essence Magazine, Redbook Magazine, Sister 2 Sister, and over 600 other print publications. She’s also a frequent style contributor to television shows such as NBC’s Today Show, CNN Headline News, E! News, ABC’s Good Morning America, and has served as a spokesperson for top brands including Febreze, PayPal, Right Fit, Marshalls/TJ Maxx and Sears.

Did you catch Black in America 4 last night? If not then you missed a great snapshot of Black’s tacking the tech world by storm. Inspired by the documentary, we wanted to start a living list of Black Tech startups. Please download their apps, visit their sites, give them feedback, and give them your support. 

If your a Black tech startup then PLEASE e-mail us at streetforce1@gmail.com and we will add your name to the list. We will keep this list as up to date as possible so please help us curate. 

List of Black Tech Startups

1. CEO Tiffani Bell created Pencil You In in 2009. - Pencil You In allows hairstylists, makeup artists, nail techs and barbers to accept client appointments online.
2. Crisson Jno-Charles, chief technology officer, and Alisa Boguslavskaya, CEO, co-founded Fetchmob in 2010. - Fetchmob is an online service that allows users to ask members of their community to buy everyday items for them, like detergent and cold medicine. Shoppers can post requests for specific items and members of their community can purchase it for them during one of their shopping runs.
3. CEO Hank Williams founded Kloud.co in 2008. Kloud.co puts users personal data in the cloud and lets them search it. It’s like a Google search engine for the information universe. It also allows users to create shared spaces online.
4. Co-founders Pius Uzamere and Becky Cruze started BeCouply in 2011. - BeCouply is a mobile app and network for couples. It allows couples to discover new date spots and date ideas, post and share their special moments, and connect with their couple friends.
5. Anthony Frasier and co-founder Alex Galkin created Playd in 2011. - Playd is a social network application for mobile devices that connects video game players across multiple platforms. Gamers can share their experiences playing games available on all gaming systems, and post their recommendations and feedback for other gamers to see.
6. Hajj Flemings is CEO and co-founder of Gokit, which was founded in 2011. - Gokit is an online identity platform that allows users to create visually compelling personal homepages that tell their stories and share their social network connections in a central location.
7. Angela Benton is CEO of Cued, founded in March 2011. - Cued is an app that gives recommendations based on where users are, what they like and their past experiences. For example, if a user tells Cued he or she liked a specific bar, karaoke and draft beer, the system will make recommendations for other places to enjoy.
8. Wayne Sutton co-founded Vouch in July 2011. - Vouch is a unified platform that allows people to share recommendations of others in their networks.
9. Clarence Wooton  founder and CEO of Arrived. Arrived is automatic and personal. Instead of manually checking-in every time you arrive someplace to share your whereabouts with all of your friends, Arrived automatically notifies the friends that matter, whenever you arrive at a place that matters to them. Arrived helps you manufacturer serendipity so that you meetup with friends, when time and place are right.
10. Will Lucas founder and creator of Thankyouaga.in. Thankyouaga.in is a social experiment designed to collect the good. On this micro-blogging platform, you have 140 characters to share what’s good in your world. Rave about a great meal you just ate or thank all the people who supported your moms fight against cancer. This is the app that lets you share your good with the world, and see the good happening to people all over the globe. Share the good in your life. See the good from all over the globe. 
11. Chris Bennett is the co-founder and CEO of Central.ly. The site is a web based product for small businesses to reach more customers through an easy to create, beautiful website and their social media tools.
12. Eric Hamilton is the founder of AdSmoke.com. AdSmoke allows website owners with video content the ability to earn revenue by showing commercials in front of their video content.
13. Amos Winbush III is the founder of CyberSynchs. CyberSynchs, a New York-based technology company that specializes in universal data synchronization and transfer.
14. Hermann Mazard’s HomeShopr, a mobile service that offers an organized approach to planning meals and shopping for groceries.
15. Curtiss Pope’s AisleFinder.com. A Supermarket API, an open source API for the grocery industry. The new API contains product details on over 150,000 grocery items as well as aisle info for over 2,400 supermarkets in the U.S.
16. Leon Fangnigbe is the CEO & Chief Software Architect at MLFSolutions. Their technology powers TaxMamba.com, the Expert Location platform for the Tax & Accounting community.
17. Chuck Baker’s Fileblaze - a professional cloud based storage and streaming system.(featured on last October cover of Black Enterprise)
18. Sulaiman Sanni is the cofounder and CEO of WeDidIt, an online crowdfunding platform for non-profit fundraising. We help non-profits launch viral fundraising campaigns, through social media.
19. Tanisha Gouté is a Managing Partner and Project Director for JamHouseLive.com, an online media company providing video live streaming, pay-per-view, and online promotions support.
20. John Andrews is the CEO of Rethink Impact, which helps simplify the grant-writing process by streamlining the procedure for applying to funding grants. 
21. Bolstr, Inc. Help’s main street small businesses access capital, and who’s founders where featured speakers at the New York State MWBE Forum (http://www.nysmwbeforum.org/), and also featured inin Diversity Agenda Magazine: http://www.diversityagenda.com/content/news/small-business-capital-made-simple-secure-and-social/
22. Tre Barker and Lawrence Watkins are the founders of Ujamaa Deals, which plans to offer Daily deals from Black-Owned businesses across the country starting in December 2011.
23. Kimberly Bryant is the founder of Black Girls Code, a Bay area organization whose mission is to increase the young women of color in the field of digital and computer technology. 
24. Kalimah Priforce and the team at Qeyno Labs want to turn career discovery into a game for 13-17 year olds.  
25. Citiology is a social network for New Yorkers who love to experience the best restaurants and nightlife. Our diverse network of foodies and nightlife mavens are the people to turn to when planning a night out. 
26. GenJuice - GenJuice makes discovering trendsetting blogs and staying updated with their content easy. Currently in private beta.
27. Sian Morson is the CEO and founder of Kollective Mobile, a mobile development agency in Oakland, CA. Kollective Mobile also powers products by ArtKollect which offers mobile and web solutions for the art industry.
28. Kimberly is the CEO of the House of Mikko and the ILoveYourHairApp. Their goal is to provide personalized hair & beauty recommendations for women based on their “beauty twin” and then scour the web for the best places to buy online. Think of it as Pandora for beauty.
29. David Saintloth, Founder and Chief Software Architect of Apriority LLC an invention think tank I founded in 2002. His startup WorkNetz (currently in stealth) allows any business to find the best workers and allows people who are able to perform a given action to be considered for it no matter where they are. This allows people to maximize their inherent value of talents by being able to easily deploy them to any business that may need their services. Thus connecting those willing to work (whatever vertical) with those looking for workers more efficiently than ever before possible.
30. Garren Givens (http://garrengivens.com) is the founder and CEO of Dibsie.com (http://dibsie.com).  Dibsie is an online shopping catalog curated by your social network in real-time.  Dibsie is facilitates product discovery and makes eCommerce a socially interactive experience.
31. Mike Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv. Justin.tv is the easiest way to create live video and show anyone in the world what’s happening right now. Using only a laptop, you can share your event, class, party or thoughts, live, to anyone in over 250 countries while they chat in real-time with you and with other viewers. Justin.tv makes it fun, easy and fast to gather and engage with a live audience.
32. CEO/Founder Aishia Strickland created The GlamSpot in 2008. It allows hairstylists, makeup artists, nail techs, massage therapists, estheticians and wardrobe/fashion stylists to create a searchable online profile that can be used by potential clients to locate beauty professionals offering a specific service.
33. Jamil Ellis is co-founder and CTO of Splice a Social Media tool that identifies new business relationships. Splice provides actionable recommendations to enhance interpersonal connections, from face-to-face to virtual interactions.
34. NoBadGift .com; the cure for the bad gift was created to make sure people never again would have to deal with the struggles of not knowing what to get someone for their big day, and the awkward moments of receiving a gift you really don’t like. Co-founders: Michael Washington, McKeever Conwell, and Sam Henry
35. CEO/Founder of Trafalgar Solutions,Sharon Simmons-Hodge “The Black Tech Grandma” create an Emergency Response App launched  (launched Sept. 2011, available NOW). Entrepreneur with no tech experience, believes you can do whatever your mind dreams.
    
    “IGot’em will empower citizens and reduce crime and allow users to combat crime within their communities by uploading a recorded incident to the nearest law enforcement office. The application will notify law enforcement of the date, time, and location of the crime in progress. The combination of this information along with the general images taken by users will allow accurate reporting while protecting the identity of the user.
36. Diverse Mobile, LLC was formed in January of 2011 because of the marked absence of culture in the mobile world by a team of African American males headed by Brian A. Roberson. Having had several years of IT experience as well as a strong business acumen, the team at Diverse Mobile set out to fill this void with rich, engaging content that can be useful, as well as entertaining. We at Diverse Mobile feel that given this approach, it will help to bridge the Digital Divide. Diverse Mobile is more an just another app development company, it is a movement. In our short time developing mobile apps we have been pioneers in new media. Their newest mobile app, Kommercity, is now accepting testers for a private alpha. Sign up here  www.kommercity.com

The Silicon Alley Talent Fair is Friday at 135 West 18th Street (The Altman Building)There’s close to 100 NYC Tech Startups at the event hiring.Free booze throughout. Music, Ping Pong, Lounge.Details, Registration, Participating Startups, etc.: http://www.gosatf.com

Dear Blacks in Tech,

Black’s in Tech member, Faye Anderson, been nominated for the 2011 Women’s Media Center Social Media Award.  Co-founded by Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem, the Women’s Media Center works to ensure that women’s stories are told and women’s voices are heard.

Every vote counts! I hope I can count on you to go to the website and vote for Faye Anderson.  Also, please share the link with your friends and networks.  The winner will be announced on November 30. 

All souls to the online poll.  Thank you for vote!

http://beta.hashtracking.com/wimpy-1-report/streetforce1-bitchat-2011-10-03/

Click the link above for the transcript and the analytics from tonight’s #BITCHAT on Twitter. Thanks to EVERYONE who came out tonight and supported. We are just getting started.