Empowering Black Communities through IoT: The Case of RebuildBlackBusiness.com

RebuildBlackBusiness.com serves a dual customer base. On one hand, it supports Black-owned businesses across various sectors, from restaurants to agritourism to IT and beyond. These businesses are either in desperate need of support or are looking for a platform to reach out to potential customers. On the other hand, the website also serves consumers who are looking to support Black-owned businesses. It provides them with a centralized platform where they can find and support these businesses. The website also has a directory of health professionals, helping consumers find healthcare providers they feel comfortable with.

Justin Samuels, a Senior Software Engineer at Mailchimp, was inspired by the community reaction to civil injustices across the U.S. However, he noticed a gap in the support for Black-owned businesses. While there was a lot of social media posting about supporting these businesses, there was no centralized platform where people could gather to support them. This lack of a centralized platform made it difficult for people to find and support Black-owned businesses in need. Furthermore, the absence of a unified platform also made it challenging for these businesses to reach out to potential customers and supporters.

To address this challenge, Justin Samuels and a team of over 500 volunteers, including developers, designers, marketers, project managers, policymakers, and web professionals, built RebuildBlackBusiness.com. The website serves as a directory of over 14,000 Black-owned businesses across the U.S., allowing users to filter by business type and find businesses in need. The site also includes a directory of Allies, volunteers offering their skills to Black-owned businesses that need help rebuilding or staying afloat. To manage the website efficiently and focus on marketing and website development, the team used Zapier to automate tedious processes. They connected various apps for communication, project management, and information storage using Zapier. They also automated tasks such as sending information to Mailchimp whenever there's a new record in Airtable, posting between Facebook and Twitter, and setting the city and state based on a ZIP code.

• The creation of RebuildBlackBusiness.com has provided a centralized platform for supporting Black-owned businesses, filling a significant gap in the market. It has not only helped these businesses reach out to potential customers and supporters but also made it easier for consumers to find and support these businesses. The automation of various tasks using Zapier has allowed the team to focus on marketing and website development, thereby improving the efficiency of their operations. Looking ahead, the team plans to host events like a demo day to showcase the skills and projects of its volunteers and create a documentary series on Black-owned businesses.

• The website has a directory of over 14,000 Black-owned businesses.

• The team of volunteers consists of over 500 professionals.

• The use of Zapier saves the RBB team at least 5-6 hours a week.