Nobody goes home empty-handed this season. When REVOLT’s Bet On Black returned on Monday, October 19, the entrepreneurship series dropped its single grand prize and replaced it with a shared one: every student founder in Season 6 takes a portion of a $500,000 growth fund, receives hands-on mentorship, and keeps 100 percent of the equity in their company.
The change is the story. Pitch competitions usually concentrate their money on one winner and turn the rest of the class into television. Season 6 spreads the capital across the whole cohort, and the cohort is specific: every founder is a student at a historically Black college or university. The six campuses are Howard University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, Grambling State University, and Fayetteville State University. Three of the six sit in Atlanta, where the season was filmed, including at the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs. About 90 percent of the production personnel are Black, according to REVOLT.
A shortage of capital, not of talent
Detavio Samuels, the chief executive of REVOLT, stated the premise without decoration. “Black entrepreneurs don’t have a shortage of talent, ideas or ambition. They have a shortage of capital,” Samuels said. “Bet On Black was built to help turn Black entrepreneurship into Black wealth by putting real checks behind Black-owned businesses. This season, we’re taking that commitment even further. Every founder gets funded, they get access to people who can help them scale, and they keep 100% of their equity. If we’re serious about closing the wealth gap in this country, we have to invest in Black ownership.”
Target has backed the series for all six seasons. REVOLT puts the running total at nearly $3 million directed to Black founders and Black-owned businesses across that span, with the Season 6 fund the latest installment. The no-equity term matters as much as the dollar figure: a student founder who takes this money gives up no ownership stake in return, so the business she builds in school is still entirely hers at graduation.
Mentors who have built companies
The founders are coached by operators, not lecturers. The mentor bench includes Ryan Wilson, co-founder of The Gathering Spot; venture capitalist Jewel Burks Solomon; designer Brandon Blackwood; financial expert Ashley M. Fox; and podcast host Reginae Carter. Their sessions cover entrepreneurship, investing, brand building, and tax and finance strategy, the mechanics that decide whether a funded idea is still operating two years later.
At the center of the season is a reunion. Host Marsai Martin and executive producer Kenya Barris are working together for the first time since black-ish, the series Barris created and Martin starred in. It is also Barris’s first project with REVOLT since he was named vice chair of REVOLT Labs. Martin is an entrepreneur herself, a producer since her teens, and her presence gives the student founders a host who has sat on their side of the ownership question.
New episodes air Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on REVOLT, with streaming on REVOLT.tv and YouTube on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. ET. The season announcement is at PR Newswire.
The Social Register’s event directory tracks the season’s galas, benefits, and society evenings. Plan your next evening there.
