UrbanGeekz 50: Digital Media

Kunbi Tinuoye, Founder & CEO – UrbanGeekz

Kunbi Tinuoye is an award-winning British-born journalist based in the United States. In 2015, she founded the groundbreaking multimedia brand UrbanGeekz. The video-centric African-American, Latinx, and multicultural digital news platform focused on technology, science, business, and startups. 

Tinuoye is also the founder of Geekz Ventures, a startup pre-accelerator for Black and Brown founders launching their first tech-enabled startup. The focus is on media, connectivity, entertainment, and mobile technology.

She currently sits on the SXSW Pitch Advisory Board and CES Conference Advisory Board. Tinuoye is a key player in the Atlanta startup ecosystem and serves as a lead mentor for the Comcast NBCUniversal Farm Accelerator. These accomplishments and many others have landed Tinuoye on Crunchbase’s ’25 Black Entrepreneurs Making Waves’. VentureBeat has listed her as one of 10 black journalists in tech you should follow.

Tinuoye is a former correspondent for NBC’s theGrio.com. Prior to relocating, she was a senior broadcast journalist for the BBC in London. She is an international writer whose work has been published in The Daily Mail, London’s Evening Standard, Ebony.com, and The Voice newspaper. For several years, Tinuoye served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Cambridge Alumni Magazine (CAM), which is distributed to approximately 150,000 readers globally per edition. 

Tinuoye graduated from the University of Cambridge, with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Social & Political Sciences. She studied a post-graduate in print journalism and is an NCTJ-qualified UK professional journalist, with credits in media law and 100 wpm shorthand.

PR Newswire has recognized UrbanGeekz as one of the Top 10 African-American news sites. Ranker has also listed UrbanGeekz as one of the top 20 tech blogs online. 

Morgan Debaun–CEO and Founder of Blavity

Morgan Debaun is a serial entrepreneur and corporate advisor. She is also the Founder and CEO of Blavity Inc., a leading digital media company for Black culture and millennials.

Through her work at Blavity, Morgan has grown the company into a market leader for Black media, reaching over 100 million readers per month through a growing brand portfolio that includes: Blavity News, 21Ninety, AfroTech, Travel Noire, Shadow & Act, and Blavity TV.

Her work at Blavity has made her one of the few African-American women founders who have raised more than $1M in venture capital.

Debaun came up with the idea of Blavity Inc. while attending Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Black students would sit together at lunch and talk for hours. She referred to this gathering of African-American students as Black Gravity, or Blavity.

She began her career working on product management and business development at Intuit. She ultimately left Intuit and committed to Blavity full-time due to her dissatisfaction with the media coverage of Michael Brown’s death.

Morgan acts as an advisor to influential global brands and companies including Pepsi Co., American Airlines, CES, and other businesses. She is also an angel investor in Golde, Ness, Boxed Up and Public. Morgan has been recognized by ADCOLOR’s Innovative Award, Forbes 30 Under 30 and America’s Top 50 Women in Tech lists, TechCrunch and Inc.

Rhonesha Byng–Founder and CEO of Her Agenda

Rhonesha Byng is a Journalist, Founder, and CEO of Her Agenda, a digital media platform established to bridge the gap between ambition and achievement for millennial women. Byng is a graduate of DePauw University and Alumna Posse Scholar.  Her experience as an on-camera reporter and freelance writer led to the creation of her brainchild, Her Agenda.

Her Agenda embodies the guiding principle encapsulated in her acronym N.E.S.H.A.- No One Ever Slows Her Agenda. The platform empowers millennial women with content, community, and resources to excel in their careers and pursue their aspirations.

Byng and Devon Christopher Johnson are also the co-founders of Black Owned Media Equity and Sustainability Institute (BOMESI), a fast-growing nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing Black-owned media businesses. The organization’s mission is to promote growth, self-agency, and accountability.

Byng’s trailblazing spirit earned her a place on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in both media and dorm room founders categories, and recognition from ESSENCE, NBCBLK, and BET for her impact. She’s shared her insights at Google, Cannes, and Adweek NexTech, discussing vital topics such as investing in diverse voices and creating an equitable media landscape.

Sherrell Dorsey-Founder of The Plug

Sherrell Dorsey is an award-winning data journalist, entrepreneur, speaker, and author. She uses her voice as a social impact storyteller to advocate for environmental, social, and economic equity in underserved communities.

Dorsey led “The Plug”, a subscription news and insights platform that covers the Black innovation economy and serves as the business intelligence source for Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, and ecosystem leaders across the country.

The venture-backed company served thousands of subscribers and has been featured in the Washington Post, The Information, Fortune Magazine, and others. The Plug became the first Black business publication to syndicate on The Bloomberg Terminal in 2021.

Alongside The Plug, Dorsey founded BLKTECH Interactive in 2016, an award-winning hub that has supported over 2,000 entrepreneurs and technologists of color throughout the city of Charlotte. The company was acquired in January 2021 by City Startup Labs.

In 2018, Dorsey was named one of CNET’s most inspiring women. She was named AdWeek’s 100 Most Creative Business Leaders in 2021. Dorsey holds a Master’s in Data Journalism from Columbia University and is the author of Upper Hand: The Future of Work for the Rest of Us published by Wiley. She’s also the host of TED Tech Podcast – creators of the TED Talks. 

Kori Hale-CEO and Co-Founder of CultureBanx 

Kori Hale is a notable figure in the world of social entrepreneurship and impact. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of CultureBanx, a platform that creates stock market-driven business news for hip-hop culture. Her online site delivers high-quality content focused on market-driven stories, innovative products, and services that culture leads the way in transforming.

Prior to starting CultureBanx, Kori was part of the launch team for digital media millennial news company Cheddar. She has the distinct privilege of being the first Black woman to anchor a daily news show from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. 

Previously she was a TV Producer for CNBC’s top-rated shows Squawk on the Street and Squawk Alley. Before joining CNBC, Kori was an international producer for Bloomberg TV and a financial correspondent for TheStreet.com.

Kori’s passion for business news started with her role at UBS Investment Bank in London and continued when she returned to the States to work as an Investment Banker for Goldman Sachs.

She is also passionate about the importance of the arts and community involvement. As a board member of the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Kori is part of a generation of emerging arts supporters.

Main Image: Rhonesha Byng–Founder and CEO of Her Agenda