Business

Ellis Island Tea wins $300,000 investment at Detroit Demo Day

MICHIGAN CHRONICLE — Nailah Ellis-Brown had 90 seconds to convince five judges that she should be the winner of the 2019 Quicken Loans Detroit Demo Day. The Detroit native made every second count, going home as the $300,000 investment winner in the Scale category Friday night at the Fillmore Theatre. Her popular Ellis Island Tea is available in stores around the country, including Sam’s Club, Whole Foods, and Meijer already, but Ellis-Brown has bigger aspirations for her family recipe of Jamaican Sweet Tea.

Published

5 years ago

June 19, 2019

Oakland Post

By Branden Hunter

Nailah Ellis-Brown had 90 seconds to convince five judges that she should be the winner of the 2019 Quicken Loans Detroit Demo Day. The Detroit native made every second count, going home as the $300,000 investment winner in the Scale category Friday night at the Fillmore Theatre. Her popular Ellis Island Tea is available in stores around the country, including Sam’s Club, Whole Foods, and Meijer already, but Ellis-Brown has bigger aspirations for her family recipe of Jamaican Sweet Tea.

“I’ve gotten a lot of accolades in Detroit and I keep getting trophies, but trophies don’t pay my bills,” said Ellis-Brown, who is a graduate of Renaissance High School. “This money will give us a real opportunity to go national with our brand.”

Fifteen finalists were chosen out of hundreds of impressive applications received, to pitch their businesses on stage at Detroit Demo Day. Seven of the metro Detroit entrepreneurs received a share of the $1.2 million in funding from Quicken Loans. The finalists’ pitches were judged, and the winners decided, by nationally-acclaimed entrepreneurs from across the country.

Ellis-Brown impressed the judges during her pitch, with help from the crowd. Competing in the Scale category, the judges wanted to see that Ellis Island Tea could continue its success and thrive beyond the Michigan market. Ellis-Brown felt it could, announcing that Sam’s Club offered her a national long-term distribution contract. In order to do that, Ellis-Brown will need automated equipment and effective marketing, which is what she will use the money for.

“Getting money for marketing has been the hardest and I’ve been at this for 12 years,” said Ellis-Brown. “So, I’m going to pour some of the money into marketing and into better equipment. We need a label machine. Right now, we hand label everything and with a machine, we will cut production by two hours and the labels will be more consistent. This interest-free loan will finally allow us to finance our marketing department and finally take us to the next level.”

In the Grow category, Detroit Dough took home second place, winning a $200,000 investment. The Detroit-based cookie dough maker was founded in 2017 by co-founders Autumn Kyles, and siblings Victoria and Daniel A. Washington. Kyles took the stage during the 90-second pitch, showcasing Detroit Dough’s accolades, including landing sales contracts with MJR Theaters, Emagine Entertainment, the Michigan Science Center, and Michigan Stadium. Detroit Dough now has its eyes set on taking their product nationally.

“I think we were chosen because of our story,” said Kyles, an alumna of Hampton. “We’ve grown our company really fast, we’ve shown that we can market, and we’ve been successful thus far. In my pitch, I showed them that there is growth potential for Detroit Dough and I am really glad that we were chosen for this investment.”

Detroit Dough also won the $25,000 People’s Choice award, as voted by the audience. It also donates five percent of its gross revenue back to its neighborhood in Detroit, Northwest-Goldberg.

This year, attendees voted for three People’s Choice award recipients. A Quicken Loans Demo Day app was made available for the audience to either swipe left if they were not feeling the company or swipe right if they were. The most swipes in their favor in their particular category got an additional grant of $25,000.

“We don’t want the audience to just come and watch and celebrate,” said James Chapman, who manages entrepreneur initiatives including Detroit Demo Day for Rock Ventures. “We want them to get in on the action, because these are going to be businesses that are in their neighborhood, they know who the founders are, and we want to get the audience in on the act. It almost makes them a mini investor.”

To end the festivities, rapper and entrepreneur T.I. took the stage performing many of his hits, including “Motivation”, Whatever You Like”, “24’s” and others.

START category winners:

$100,000: Healthy Roots

$75,000: Honey Cure

$50,000: Gus & Grey

$25,000 People’s Choice Award: Healthy Roots

GROW category winners:

$250,000: Louisiana Creole Gumbo

$200,000: Detroit Dough

$150,000: Eastern Market Brewing Company

$25,000 People’s Choice Award: Detroit Dough

SCALE category winner:

$300,000: Ellis Island Tea

$25,000 People’s Choice Award: Functional Fluidics

This article originally appeared in the Michigan Chronicle.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

Published

20 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

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V.P. Kamala Harris: Americans With Criminal Records Will Soon Be Eligible for SBA Loans

Speaking in Las Vegas on Jan. 27, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a forthcoming federal rule that will extend access to Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to Americans who have been convicted of felonies but have served their time. Small business owners typically apply for the SBA loans to start or sustain their businesses.

Published

4 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

On her daylong trip, Harris was joined by Horford, SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman, Interim Under Secretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Eric Morrissette, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev).

By California Black Media

Small business owners typically apply for the SBA loans to start or sustain their businesses.

Harris thanked U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV-04), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, for the work he has done in Washington to support small businesses and to invest in people.

“He and I spent some time this afternoon with business leaders and small business leaders here in Nevada. The work you have been doing to invest in community and to invest in the ambition and natural capacity of communities has been exceptional,” Harris said, speaking to a crowd of a few hundred people at the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Hall in East Las Vegas.

“Formerly incarcerated individuals face significant barriers to economic opportunity once they leave prison and return to the community, with an unemployment rate among the population of more than 27%,” the White House press release continued. “Today’s announcement builds on the Vice President’s work to increase access to capital. Research finds that entrepreneurship can reduce recidivism for unemployed formerly incarcerated individuals by as much as 30%.”

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G.O.P. Lawmakers: Repeal AB 5 and Resist Nationalization of “Disastrous” Contractor Law

Published

4 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

File Photo: Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City)

By California Black Media

Republican lawmakers gathered outside of the Employee Development Department in Sacramento on Jan. 23 to call for the repeal of AB5, the five-year old California law that reclassified gig workers and other independent contractors as W-2 employees under the state’s labor code.
Organizers said they also held the rally to push back against current efforts in Washington to pass a similar federal law.

“We are here to talk about this very important issue – a battle we have fought for many years – to stop this disastrous AB 5 policy,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City).
Now, that threat has gone national as we have seen this new rule being pushed out of the Biden administration,” Gallagher continued.

On Jan. 10, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a new rule providing guidance on “on how to analyze who is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).”
“This final rule rescinds the Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act rule (2021 IC Rule), that was published on January 7, 2021, and replaces it with an analysis for determining employee or independent contractor status that is more consistent with the FLSA as interpreted by longstanding judicial precedent,” a Department of Labor statement reads.
U.S. Congressmember Kevin Kiley (R-CA-3), who is a former California Assemblymember, spoke at the rally.

“We are here today to warn against the nationalization of one of the worst laws that has ever been passed in California, which has devastated the livelihoods of folks in over 600 professions,” said Kiley, adding that the law has led to a 10.5% decline in self-employment in California.

Kiley blamed U.S Acting Secretary of Labor, July Su, who was the former secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, for leading the effort to redefine “contract workers” at the federal level.
Kiley said two separate lawsuits have been filed against Su’s Rule – its constitutionality and the way it was enacted, respectively. He said he is also working on legislation in Congress that puts restrictions on the creation and implementation of executive branch decisions like Su’s.
Assemblymember Kate Sanchez (R-Rancho Santa Margarita) announced that she plans to introduce legislation to repeal AB 5 during the current legislative session.

“So many working moms like myself, who are also raising kids, managing households, were devastated by the effects of AB 5 because they lost access to hundreds of flexible professions,” Sanchez continued. “I’ve been told by many of these women that they have lost their livelihoods as bookkeepers, artists, family caregivers, designers, and hairstylists because of this destructive law.”