Welcome to my new podcast series called “Dear Founders” where I shine light on my founder journey as Co-founder and CEO of media technology company TANTV & Syndex AI. This space is a chill space for founder to founder chats, reflections, lessons and everything in between that makes a founder the most special human alive!
With Pharrell as an investor in TANTV, I’m part of a prolific group of founders who are restless and ambitious just like him!
Recently, the 2025 Black Ambition prize winners traveled to Paris for Learning Labs, stepping directly into the orbit of our investor, Pharrell Williams. It came as no surprise that amidst the chaos of the Louis Vuitton Spring runway, he carved out time to meet with the cohort. A recent piece in Puck aptly labeled him the restless creative director. “He is everywhere, from his design studio at the Louis Vuitton offices on Pont Neuf to launching limited-edition Moët & Chandon campaigns in Saint-Tropez.”
Pharrell operates with a mysterious, unmatched dynamism. He successfully navigates opening hotels, launching skincare lines, and investing in diverse ventures like the handroll chain Nami Nori and the retail platform Quince. He moves globally, developing new projects across Japan, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. This latitude to pursue wildly different projects with absolute credibility and authority is precisely what makes LVMH want to partner with him. More importantly, it serves as the ultimate motivator to the founders he backs. Watching his engine run makes us hungrier to achieve new heights.
Backed by Pharrell & Building a Media-tech Company with Community in Mind!
When Pharrell invested in TANTV -SYNDEX, it truly shifted my world view on self belief! So, I doubled down on everything I was doing and adopted that tagline Felicia Hatcher, Black Ambition CEO always prompts us: “Who am I , Uninterrupted?” I have taken that mindset to building Syndex. I looked closely at the media and technology landscape and identified a critical gap. Most artificial intelligence and data systems are engineered entirely for scale, leaving community context behind. These platforms easily track broad trends but completely miss the local nuance, civic signals, and foundational trust that dictate how neighborhoods actually function.
If our technology fails to understand local media infrastructure, it cannot adequately serve the future of civic information or the publishers doing the grueling work on the ground. Syndex is our direct answer to this industry-wide problem. We are actively building the infrastructure that helps independent publishers turn civic signals into stories, and those stories into sustainable revenue. This means equipping newsrooms with sharper intelligence, streamlined workflows, and clearer pathways to monetization so the value of trusted local reporting is properly rewarded.
Being part of a network built by Pharrell and supported by powerful institutions gives this mission a deeper resonance. Black Ambition is a constant reminder that true success is not just about gaining access to rooms filled with capital. It is about bringing your community’s stories, data, and voices into those rooms alongside you.
An Ecosystem of Restless Founders
That same relentless hunger I feel building Syndex is reflected across my friends who are backed by The Pharrell! We are surrounded by an ecosystem of founders moving at the speed of culture, each redefining their respective industries.
CPRWrap provides a revolutionary disposable template with visual instructions to guide users through proper hand placement during CPR.
Black Paper Party champions inclusivity by creating culturally resonant holiday decorations and gift wrap that celebrate Black families.
Grind–A pioneering smart sports brand is building a connected ecosystem starting with a portable basketball rebounding machine that seamlessly bridges hardware and athletic software.
Farm to Flame Energy is a solution to the problem affecting over 700 million people around the world do not have access to affordable and reliable, clean electricity. It costs 3-4x the regular electricity price on the grid to operate diesel generators. The toxic smoke that comes off diesel exhaust kills over 21,000 people per year…. We have built the Farm to Flame Generator, a carbon-neutral electricity asset that is just as reliable as diesel…but half the cost, with no smoke and no odor.
Hamilton Perkins Collection crafts premium, eco-conscious bags from upcycled materials like plastic bottles and billboards.
SAINT MILES aggregates direct-to-consumer brands into a niche marketplace driven by passionate shopping communities and subcultures.
Reddrop is a FemTech Co that empowers girls from within so that they can grow into powerful women. From the first period to the last, we celebrate womanhood with products that fit their bodies, a distribution model that removes the stigma, and a social network that grows the girl.
And I could go on and on! The founders in Black Ambition are actively building the future of our industries and nothing motivates me more than being inspired by their own restlessness just like Pharrell!
