We want to make it clear that BounceX, soon to be Wunderkind, stands with the Black community. We steadfastly condemn the overt and systematic racism that has permeated throughout our country’s history and has been so acutely illustrated by the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.
But, this moment isn’t just about policing. We’re each being asked to look at ourselves and our communities to understand how systemic racism affects our lives. Within the eCommerce industry specifically, it’s clear how much racism plays a role in the funding required to get a business off the ground.
When starting a business, many online retailers rely on VC funding and invest in paid channels to help fuel their growth. But, in reality, only 1% of VC funding is actually awarded to Black start-up founders as of 2016. So, the next option is to look at traditional banking as a resource. But in 2018, Black-owned businesses were 20% less likely to receive funding than their non-Latinx white counterparts. Without access to VC funding or a traditional banking partner, a business founder would then turn to generational wealth in order to self-fund. But according to the Brookings Institute, the median white family has 6.7x the wealth of the average Black family. Simply put: Black-owned brands are blocked from accessing the capital required to grow a business.
We have a responsibility to address what we can to challenge and combat this injustice. We know that we haven’t done enough to fully address these issues in the past. We have a long way to go, but we’re fully committed to enacting programs that drive real change for the Black community. As many businesses have donated money to various causes, we also wanted to think about how we can make a real commitment that has long-term impact.
Today, we’re announcing our $1 Million initiative to support Black-owned businesses. With this initiative, we hope to do our part to combat this inequity in three ways.
First, we’re offering a year of free services to eight Black-owned eCommerce businesses. We’ll be working with companies that are at a pivotal moment in their growth journey, so we can help scale their revenue and take their business to the next level. Each Black-owned business will have free access to our website and email products to dramatically scale their 1:1 marketing messaging which drives significant incremental revenue. They’ll also receive free support from our customer success, creative, and dev teams, who will work to ensure that they unlock as much revenue from our products as possible without creating extra work for their teams. Finally, they’ll be receiving free ad placements from our publisher and ads teams.
The goal is to drive $1 million in revenue for these clients. And this is just the start.
For larger, more established Black-owned businesses, we’re also aggressively discounting our standard contracts to acknowledge the inequity in the marketplace. They’ll receive the same level of service and attention, simply at greatly reduced rates.
And finally, for smaller businesses, we’ll be working within our network of partners to create a free (remote) growth summit, where they can connect with industry leaders and each other on ways to take their eCommerce business to the next level.
If you are a Black-owned business, we want to hear from you. Please fill out this form so that we can understand how we can best support you. BounceX, soon to be Wunderkind, fully stands with and supports our Black colleagues, friends, and community.