This Black History Month has those within and allies of the Black community wanting to do more to support a variety of industries. Blapp is a new app catered to making the issue of finding Black businesses and services easier throughout the United States.
Created by New York-based comedian Jon Laster, the app founder spoke to CBS Chicago‘s team on how he decided to resolve this growing need to find and support Black-owned ventures.
“Everyone wants to help, but you got to help me help you make it easy,” Laster said. “A friend of mine, Margot, introduced me to someone else in Silicon Valley, a friend who was at Google, and said why don’t we try to do it a different way?”
Ranging from bookstores to clubs, and real estate agents to doctors, Blapp is making the quest to
find Black businesses in all avenues easier to source. Described as a “Black shopping app,” Blapp is aiding consumers who want to be more conscious about where their dollar is being spent, and want their money to either be poured back into their communities or overall help minority businesses thrive.The initiative comes as Black consumer spending continues its trend of growth. According to statistics obtained by McKinsey, the “collective economic power” of Black people is set to reach
$1.7 trillion by 2030, nearly doubling from its estimated $910 billion in 2019. However, Black patrons and entrepreneurs are still faced with setbacks and obstacles, such as “consumer deserts” and inaccessibility to capital funding, respectively, that limit their ability to engage in the cycle of consumerism. However, Blapp seeks to be the answer to the issue of finding and promoting Black-owned businesses, being part of an ongoing resolution to grow the Black dollar.According to Laster, Blaap is currently boasting 60,000 diverse businesses, as he hopes to expand to all Black entrepreneurs to promote their companies across audiences.
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