Key Moments
Morgan DeBaun on Reaching 20M Millennials - With Kat Manalac at the Female Founders Conference
Y CombinatorKey Moments
Blavity founder Morgan DeBaun shares her journey building a media brand for Black millennials.
Key Insights
Blavity was founded to create products and experiences celebrating Black people, filling a gap in media and lifestyle brands.
The company evolved from an email newsletter to a blog, discovering user preference for text-based content over video initially.
Community empowerment is central to Blavity's strategy, with user-generated content forming a significant portion of their output.
DeBaun faced challenges raising capital as a Black female founder, learning to trust her vision and build a compelling business case.
Blavity has expanded beyond media to include conferences (AfroTech, Empower Her) and acquired a film industry news outlet.
The long-term vision for Blavity is to be a universally recognized brand synonymous with positive Black culture and tailored experiences for the Black community.
FROM ASPIRATIONAL GOALS TO ENTREPRENEURIAL ROOTS
Morgan DeBaun's journey began with a desire to impact her community, initially aiming to be a teacher and then a politician. However, she realized that financial influence and entrepreneurship offered a more powerful avenue for change. After graduating and moving to Silicon Valley, she worked as a product manager at an established tech company. This experience, while providing valuable insights into product design and user focus, also highlighted a significant gap in the market for products and experiences tailored to underserved communities, particularly Black individuals.
THE SPARK FOR BLAVITY AND EARLY ITERATIONS
The catalyst for Blavity's creation was deeply personal and societal. The tragic events in Ferguson (Mike Brown's killing) made it difficult to find reliable, centralized information on Black community issues. DeBaun observed that existing media outlets were slow to adapt to digital and mobile-first trends, and the broader millennial media landscape largely ignored the Black demographic. Recognizing this void, she envisioned Blavity as a platform to celebrate Black people and address their unique needs, starting with an email newsletter that curated essential content for the community.
NAVIGATING USER PREFERENCES AND FAILING FAST
Initial efforts to direct newsletter subscribers to a video-first website, and later to a feature-rich website, met with user resistance. Blavity's audience preferred a simpler, more accessible content format. Through rigorous A/B testing and analytics, DeBaun discovered that a blog format, initially hosted on a subdomain, was generating significantly more traffic. This led to a strategic pivot: Blavity became the blog, and the video-specific subdomain was de-emphasized. This experience reinforced DeBaun's belief in 'failing fast' and being agnostic about the medium, prioritizing user engagement above all else.
BUILDING AND NURTURING A PASSIONATE COMMUNITY
A core tenet of Blavity's success is its unwavering focus on the community. The company operates on the principle of "how does this help someone else?," prioritizing content that provides value, entertainment, or essential information. Initially, this meant giving platforms and resources to emerging Black creators who were not receiving adequate press or monetization opportunities. Blavity actively empowers these creators, enabling user-generated content to become a significant part of the platform, fostering a reciprocal relationship where the community's growth fuels the company's expansion.
OVERCOMING FUNDRAISING BARRIERS FOR DIVERSE FOUNDERS
DeBaun openly shared the significant challenges she faced in securing funding as a Black female founder. She made the common mistake of approaching investors based on competitors' funding history, only to realize her unique position required a different strategy. Early pitches were often met with skepticism due to a lack of understanding of the ecosystem Blavity aimed to build. By returning to her team to focus on building the product and demonstrating undeniable traction and numbers, Blavity eventually made it impossible for investors to ignore its impressive growth, forcing them to either believe in the vision or miss out.
EXPANSION INTO CONFERENCES, BRANDS, AND ACQUISITIONS
Blavity's ambitious vision extends far beyond a single website. The company has successfully launched major conferences like AfroTech, a tech gathering, and Empower Her, a women's conference. They have also launched new brands, such as 21Ninety for Black women, and acquired Shadow and Act, a publication focused on the Black Hollywood industry. This multi-faceted approach demonstrates a commitment to building a comprehensive lifestyle brand and media powerhouse that caters to diverse needs within the Black community across various sectors.
THE LONG-TERM VISION: A POSITIVE AND TAILORED BRAND EXPERIENCE
Looking ahead, DeBaun envisions Blavity as a brand universally recognized for its positive impact and energy surrounding Black people. For the Black community, the brand should signify a product or experience designed specifically for them, fostering a sense of belonging and understanding. Whether it's a party, a music festival, or a Netflix show, Blavity aims to set expectations for quality and cultural relevance. Furthermore, the company is exploring untapped communities, like music media brands that center Black culture, to continue its mission of representation and empowerment.
ADVICE FOR FOUNDERS: UNAPOLOGETIC VISION AND AUTHENTICITY
DeBaun encourages founders, especially women and Black women, to be unapologetic about their grand visions, even when initial feedback suggests being more focused. She advises against seeking external validation and emphasizes the importance of self-belief, particularly when facing systemic barriers. Surrounding oneself with a supportive community and learning to overcome the fear of failure are crucial. The core message is to trust your intuition, build a strong case with data, and refuse to seek permission to be great, thereby forging your own path to success.
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Common Questions
Morgan initially wanted to be a teacher, then switched to political science aspiring to be a politician. She eventually realized the influence of money and pivoted to technology and entrepreneurship, working as a product manager at Intuit before founding Blavity.
Topics
Mentioned in this video
Founder of Blavity, discussing her journey and the growth of her company.
Co-founder of Quad Connect and Morgan's current CTO.
The event that significantly impacted Morgan and contributed to the founding of Blavity, as she felt the need for better information dissemination.
A creator who started by making videos for Blavity and has since become very successful.
A company where Morgan DeBaun worked as a product manager after college.
A media company and lifestyle brand for black millennials. Started in 2014, it aims to create products and experiences celebrating black people.
A platform used to find information during events like the Michael Brown shooting, and a place where black creators often shared content.
A camera provided to creators like Quinta Brunson to document their lives for Blavity.
A brand launched by Blavity specifically for black women, focusing on lifestyle.
A website format that was popular during Blavity's early days, which users preferred over Blavity's initial website.
Acquired by Blavity, this company focuses on black Hollywood and entertainment news.
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