Company: ACE Entrepreneurs
Website: https://www.aceentrepreneurs.com
Business: Community to help launch, support and grow black-owned businesses.
About Nadine and ACE Entrepreneurs
Nadine is the founder of ACE Entrepreneurs, a free to join community for black entrepreneurs. Its mission is launching, supporting and growing black-owned businesses, now with a network of over 3,200 people.
ACE is also a disrupter in the investment space, with the ACE Investment Program – investing £10,000 into black-owned businesses in 2021.Nadine launched the business in early 2020, after recognising there was a lack of support and funding for black entrepreneurs and their businesses. This was in response to research showing that only 1% of venture-funded startups have black founders.
ACE Entrepreneurs currently provides free access to 20 key business & finance content hubs, start-up funding after collaborating with Capital On Tap and grant finder Charity Excellence. The other business services include business plan writing, mastering social media, black mentoring and business masterclasses. Nadine’s mission is to make it easier for black entrepreneurs to run successful businesses.
As a black woman in business, Nadine’s career has been a challenging one. She has overcome intersectionality by working twice as hard to secure her place in the corporate marketing world, often standing alone as one of the only senior black females in almost all of her roles. Nadine started The Digital Helpdesk marketing consultancy in 2012 and has worked with clients including Huawei, Sky, Samsung, Unilever and Ford.
As a serial entrepreneur, Nadine knows how to set up, run and scale successful businesses. How to navigate traditionally English, male-dominated spaces and now use this business expertise to help underprivileged entrepreneurs too. Nadine has won the 2019 eCommerce Social Campaign for Samsung, being a 2019 Marketing Freelancer of the year finalist and recently winning the IPSE 2021 Success Story award for ACE Entrepreneurs, all while being a new mum! In 2022 Nadine and her team will expand the Ace Investment program by securing £25k in angel investment, to invest in at least 5 businesses.
She has also just partnered with a course provider to offer fully subsided career led courses for at least 200 people. This allows ACE to close the barrier to disadvantaged people getting into digital marketing and software engineering. Finally, after seeing a lack of diversity in consumer data, Nadine is launching a new initiative, working with global brands and startups, to ensure the black community is not just sold, but has a more inclusive voice with the brands they buy from.
The ultimate goal is for ACE to be the largest national membership organisation for Black-owned businesses in the UK and beyond.
