Kunbi Tinuoye is an award-winning journalist and passionate social entrepreneur. She is the founder of Geekz Ventures, a startup pre-accelerator for Black and brown founders launching their first tech-enabled startup. The program is industry-agnostic; however, the focus is on media, connectivity, entertainment, and mobile technology.

Crunchbase has recognized Tinuoye as one of ‘25 Black Entrepreneurs Making Waves.’ VentureBeat has also listed her as one of 10 black journalists in tech you should follow.

Tinuoye is also the founder of UrbanGeekz, a video-centric African-American, Latinx, and multicultural digital news platform focused on technology, science, business, and startups.

Prior to relocating to the U.S., she was a senior broadcast journalist for the BBC in London. She is an international writer whose work has been published in The Daily Mail, London’s Evening Standard, Ebony, and The Voice newspaper.

01. What is the elevator pitch for Geekz Ventures?

Geekz Ventures is a pre-accelerator for underestimated entrepreneurs launching their first tech-enabled startup. We provide access to community, curriculum, training, resources, and coaching to help founders refine their ideas and get their first paying customers. The program is industry agnostic however our focus is Media, Connectivity, Entertainment, and Mobile Technology.

02. How does Geekz Ventures create a more diverse and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem?

Our mission is to create more minority-led profitable startups and venture-backable businesses. We want to work with ambitious founders at the start of their journey to help them develop their ideas and get a better understanding of what it takes to run a successful business. Our goal is to diversify the tech ecosystem from the ground up. 

03. How will support from the Techstars Foundation and the Techstars network further the mission of Geekz Ventures?

We are thrilled to be part of the Techstars family. In joining the network, we hope to develop our programming, make meaningful connections, and focus on fundraising strategies to help us support our community. 

04. How did you come to do this work and why is it important to you personally?

Launching a startup is hard and underestimated founders face a unique set of challenges. I want to share my knowledge and provide much-needed resources for this demographic. My goal is to give overlooked talent the tools to achieve profitability, outside investment, and technology to help them with the early stages of launching their startup. 

05. Tell us the story of an entrepreneur you are proud to have supported.

I have a wealth of experience supporting early-stage founders through my work at UrbanGeekz and volunteering in the local community. For several years I have volunteered as a lead startup mentor for 'The Farm', a Comcast NBCUniversal-powered accelerator program headquartered in Atlanta. I have also hosted several workshops for the 'It Takes A Village', a pre-accelerator program for startups led by women and people of color.

I am incredibly proud of the support I gave to Soumodip Paul, who I mentored while his startup DigiByto Inc. participated in The Farm. His AI-powered online cloud platform helps journalists and bloggers maximize the reach of their message through video content. We worked together to come up with various iterations and innovative ideas to help refine DigiByto’s working prototype. 

Geekz Ventures is a participant in the Accelerate Equity program of the Techstars Foundation in 2022.

Donate now and advance equity through entrepreneurship with the Techstars Foundation. 

Read More