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Supporting Black-owned businesses isn’t an ideal to be relegated to Black History Month alone. Portland is replete with BIPOC-owned businesses, and Vanport Studios gives those entrepreneurs space to smash glass ceilings well beyond our own six quadrants.
“It’s about helping Black and Brown businesses not just start up, but scale,” says Jelani Memory, co-founder of the small business incubator Vanport Studios, “and doing that not just with anecdotes, bits of advice, or little crumbs from the table, but with real operational expertise.”
Founded in 2024, Vanport Studios is a startup incubator focused on helping brands scale their businesses, and now oversees the annual event PitchBlack, a pitch competition exclusively for Black entrepreneurs.
“PitchBlack started about 10 years ago in a pub,” Memory says. “Stephen Green [co-founder of Vanport Studios] gathered a handful of Black entrepreneurs and a bunch of folks interested in hearing them pitch their businesses. At the end of the night, the one with the best pitch won a cash prize.”
PitchBlack has maintained the same prize model, but grown exponentially. Last year’s event took place at the Reser Center for Performing Arts in Beaverton, the winner HOLLA School, a tuition-free charter school with a diverse culture-focused curriculum, took home $30,000.
PitchBlack Food is happening Feb. 27, featuring seven Black and Brown chefs, restaurateurs, and mixologists cooking and making a seven-course meal for 100 guests. But it sold out in eight hours.
“The hope is to do three to four events annually and then push nationally, likely to the tune of two new cities every year,” Memory says, “with main stage, showcase events and more niche events that celebrate, amplify and highlight Black and Brown folks. A lot of the support ecosystem that existed for small businesses has collapsed. So this is not about charity. This is about providing real, meaningful support to incredible entrepreneurs, stellar ideas, and companies that could be really massive.”
In the meantime, we asked Memory which growing Black entrepreneurs and former PitchBlack presenters should be on our radar right now. Here are a few he was especially excited about:
Pacmodo: Bags for Practical Sustainability
Founded by former Nike designer David Ngene, Pacmodo reimagines the backpack as a modular travel case with a detachable harness that can be swapped between three different sizes.
“His observation—not just among his own backpacks but with his kids—was that once you get a stain, a rip, or a broken buckle, you basically have to trash it,” Memory explains. “So he thought, what if there was a better, more sustainable way?”
Pacmodo’s three ultra-efficient bags and detachable modular harness could set a new standard for sustainable work, activity and travel bags.
Camp Yoshi: Outdoor Adventures for All
Founded by Shequeita and Rashad Frazier, Camp Yoshi is a tour company specializing in bespoke outdoor excursions for those who have historically felt excluded from or intimidated by the Pacific Northwest’s wilderness culture.
“The idea behind Camp Yoshi is that Black folks deserve to be just as much a part of the outdoorsy identity as white folks,” Memory explains. “Our identity belongs there as much as anyone’s.”
Camp Yoshi operates with a twofold mission: first, the excursion side, which fosters connection to nature regardless of skill level or experience, and second, the content side, where a team of filmmakers and photographers create stunning visuals alongside their trips.
Plant Bomb: Plant-Based Sauces for Healthy Flavor Blasts
“Gotta shout out my guy Rajiv Harry with Plant Bomb plant-based sauces,” Memory says. “He’s doing something really incredible with that business.”
Harry, the founder of Plant Bomb, is also a health and fitness coach and chef. His sauces were born from watching his health-conscious friends either eat bland, unseasoned food or rely on unhealthy flavor boosters. Motivated to change that, he created a line of sauces designed to elevate clean eating.
Each of the brand’s three sauce blends is plant-based, vegan, gluten-free, and free of added oils or sugars. Designed to top leafy salads and quinoa bowls—or add rich, complex flavors to soups, pastas, and proteins—Plant Bomb is available in Caribbean Peppa, Thai Almond, and Garlic Tahini flavors.