A Journey of Significance.
Ras is originally from the Southeast Side of Cleveland, Ohio, a city known for its hustle and blue-collar grit. By age 16, Ras had developed a profitable landscaping operation, “Premier Mowers”, which was his first taste of “equity, time freedom, and creative control”. In 2013, Ras graduated cum laude from Morehouse College, with a degree in sociology (the same college and degree as Martin Luther King Jr.)
Just like MLK, Ras has always had an indelible passion to positively impact the world. He developed a financial literacy curriculum for teens and taught young black boys the basics of business and investing while still a student at Morehouse. This work caught the attention of BET Her (formerly Centric TV), prompting an invite from the Cleveland Branch of the NAACP to join their Economic Development Committee spearheading financial literacy classes for teens across the city.
Immediately after graduation Ras partnered up with Morehouse classmate Derrius Quarles, to build Million Dollar Scholar, a software platform that teaches high school students how to win college scholarships. Their company was chosen to participate in over 5 business accelerator programs. most notbaly TechStars, Power Moves NOLA, and Propeller.
Ras & Derrius were recognized for breaking racial barriers in the New Orleans tech startup community. From this experience, they were inspired to build BREAUX Capital, a cooperatively owned platform for Black millennials to pool their capital and invest collectively. BREAUX Capital was launched with $500 and was recognized in 2018 by Inc. Magazine in their 30 founders under 30 feature. Ras was also recognized by Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the BE Modern Men for his work with BREAUX Capital.
As a serial entrepreneur with a sociological background Ras and his partners at BREAUX Capital are constantly thinking of sustainable & profitable solutions to social problems. One way they found to close the employment gap for minorities at tech companies was to launch TechGroove Festival, an event-based company that “connects the culture to the corporate”, connecting recent grads and young professionals to positions at companies like, LinkedIn, Mozilla, and Tinder.
When Ras isn’t building companies, or teaching clients how to pitch their company or hone their business model, he’s a certified herbalist studying Traditional Islamic Medicine and Herbs.
