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

7 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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Chase Launches Fraud & Scam Prevention Month

JPMorganChase is launching Chase Fraud & Scam Prevention Month this November to help consumers protect their personal information and finances. As the holiday season approaches, the nationwide initiative provides education on avoiding sophisticated tactics used by criminals, such as phishing and impersonation scams. The program features free workshops hosted by community managers across the lower 48 states and builds on existing financial wellness efforts that have reached over one million customers. Read more to learn how these new resources and technologies aim to stop financial crimes.

Published

19 hours ago

October 25, 2026

Post News Group

By Sponsored by JPMorganChase

New initiative builds on Chase’s longstanding commitment to fraud and scam prevention education nationwide.

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2026 – Scams can happen to anyone. That’s why Chase is dedicating November to helping consumers protect themselves.

As consumers prepare for the holiday season, criminals are increasingly using sophisticated tactics to pressure people into sending money, sharing personal information and making decisions they’ll later regret.

This November, JPMorganChase is launching Chase Fraud & Scam Prevention Month, a nationwide consumer education initiative designed to help people recognize common scams, avoid in-the-moment mistakes and better protect their money and personal information during the holiday season.

The initiative builds on Chase’s longstanding efforts to help consumers navigate fraud and scams through education, awareness and community-based programming. Through its financial wellness initiatives, Chase has served more than 1 million customers and continues to host more than 1,000 fraud and scam prevention workshops annually across the country.

Throughout November, Chase Community Managers will host free educational workshops in all lower 48 states, as Chase continues to expand digital resources and consumer awareness efforts focused on helping people spot scams and take practical steps to protect themselves. Programming will address scams commonly seen during the holiday season, including impersonation scams, package delivery phishing attempts, gift card scams, fake online deals and fraudulent charity solicitations.

“Scammers are constantly adapting their tactics, making education and awareness more important than ever,” said Jennifer Roberts, CEO of Consumer Banking at Chase. “For years, JPMorganChase has invested in helping consumers recognize scams, understand warning signs and feel empowered to protect themselves. Chase Fraud & Scam Prevention Month builds on that commitment by providing practical guidance that can help people make safer decisions during the holiday season.”

Fraud and scam prevention remains a key component of Chase’s broader commitment to consumer financial wellness. Through educational workshops, local partnerships and community outreach, Chase helps communities build financial confidence and stay informed about evolving fraud and scam threats. The firm also works closely with law enforcement to share scam trends and insights and help drive more effective interventions as agencies work to combat financial crime.

Ongoing Fraud and Scam Prevention Efforts

Beyond consumer education, Chase continues to invest in technology, partnerships and customer protections designed to help prevent fraud and scams before they occur.

Scam prevention is embedded throughout the customer experience, from account opening and authentication to payments and customer service interactions. Chase continues to strengthen protections across the customer journey through targeted warnings, risk-based interventions, behavioral science-informed approaches and frontline employee training. These efforts help employees identify potential scams, recognize warning signs and better support customers who may be at risk of fraud or scams.

In addition, the firm continues to invest in next-generation security tools, including expanded use of passkeys and other authentication technologies designed to help defend against phishing, social engineering and account takeover attempts, as well as Trusted Contact Person, which allows customers to designate a trusted adult who may be notified of certain transactions to help guard against potential fraud or financial exploitation.

Earlier this year, JPMorganChase also announced nearly $14 million in philanthropic investments focused on consumer awareness, real-time prevention and victim support.

For more information about Chase’s fraud and scam prevention efforts and tips, visit Chase.com/security and attend a local fraud and scam prevention workshop.

About Chase

Chase is the U.S. consumer and commercial banking business of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America with operations worldwide, assets of $5 trillion and $375 billion in stockholders’ equity as of June 30, 2026. Chase serves more than 87 million consumers and 7.5 million small businesses with a broad range of financial services, including personal banking, credit cards, mortgages, auto financing, investment advice, small business loans and payment processing. Customers can choose how and where they want to bank: 5,100 branches in 48 states and the District of Columbia, 14,500 ATMs, mobile, online and by phone. For more information, go to chase.com.

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Fate of Bay Area Public Transit Hinges on Regional Transit Measure

Voters in five Bay Area counties will decide the fate of a regional sales tax measure on Nov. 3 that could determine the future of local public transportation. If approved, the Regional Transit Measure would implement new sales taxes in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Francisco counties starting in 2027. The funding aims to address massive financial deficits facing agencies like BART and Muni, providing nearly $1 billion annually to prevent station closures and service cuts. Read more.

Published

20 hours ago

October 25, 2026

Post News Group

By Tanay Gokhale, Bay City News

On Nov. 3, voters in five Bay Area counties will vote on a regional sales tax measure that, if it fails, could prompt local transit agencies to close train stations and cut bus service.

If passed, the Regional Transit Measure, or RTM, will impose a half-cent sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties as well as a one-cent sales tax in San Francisco starting April 2027.

The tax would raise an estimated $980 million annually for 14 years to fund the region’s public transit agencies, which are struggling with massive financial deficits. Revenue would go to BART, Muni, Caltrain, Alameda-Contra Costa Transit, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, the San Francisco Bay Ferry, Golden Gate Transit, and other transportation agencies operating in the five counties.

In California, a regional measure for a new sales tax would normally require a two-thirds majority approval if the state Legislature directly places it on a ballot. Transit advocates, however, chose to collect signatures to make the sales tax a citizen-initiated ballot measure that would lower the threshold to a simple majority of votes cast across the five counties.

The RTM received more than 241,000 signatures, exceeding the 186,000-signature threshold required to qualify for the ballot.