Author Archive
Posted on April 13, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton
Business – Equity Crowdfunding Made Simple – infographic
Equity Crowdfunding – crowdfunder.com While attending the 2012 NCAA Final Four in New Orleans with Buick, Hajj Flemings and myself wanted to visit the Lower 9th Ward to reflect on life, community and New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Just five miles down the road there was an entire community that was dealing with life after one of the nation’s worst national disasters Hurricane Katrina that took place seven years ago. Buick captured our thoughts as we visited the area. We felt strongly about telling this story from an outsiders perspective on the weekend of college basketball’s biggest stage. Because telling this story draws the connection between those who are fortunate and those less fortunate; while communicating the importance of giving back when given the opportunity. During our trip to New Orleans and working with Buick, we also spent time at Dr. Martin Luther King Charter school participating in the Samaritan’s Feet shoe donation that included the “Barefoot Movement”. Samaritans Feet is a non-profit, humanitarian aid organization with a community over 70,000 volunteers. Their mission is to make a difference in the lives of young people by washing their feet, providing them with a new pair of shoes, and inspiring them with a message of hope. Other activities we took part in along with enjoying the final four games includes: Buick’s Bracket Town, co-hosting the first ever Buick Final Four Social Media Meetup and meeting basketball legends: “The Big O” Oscar Robinson, Howard Garfinkel, Bill Raftery, Shaquille ‘Shaq’ O’Neal and Coach Mike Krzyzewski. Check out some of the photos form our 2012 NCAA Final Four trip so far. A big thanks to Tom Shea @tomshea for recording the video. Over the past few years I’ve been lucky enough to participate in a few major events. In 2010 I attended the Oscars with Kodak where I saw Steve Jobs and nearly feel out the bleachers yelling at him. Later in 2010 I worked with Ford to cover the Mustang 1000 lap challenge at Bristol Motor Speedway where I drove on the track and rode with NASCAR driver David Ragan. In 2011 lived in a house with seven other entrepreneurs in Mountain View, CA, where CNN filmed us for Black In America 4 that was watched by millions of viewers. Those experiences along with realizing that I think I have check into with foursquare more startups since 2009 than anyone else, I’m a lucky/blessed guy. While all those experiences have been great it’s also been a lot of work. Still, with that being said my next major experience to add to the list will be attending the NCAA Final Four in New Orleans with Buick. Yes, the big dance! I’m extremely excited about the opportunity and can mark another item off the bucket list. Not only will I’ll be attending the games but attending dinners, special community events and meeting some high profile individuals. Also I’ll be driving a shinny new 2012 Buick Verano! The one I’ll be driving will be red. Expect to see updates here on SocialWayne.com, photos via instagram (WayneSutton) to Facebook, twitter, and look for Google+ updates too. I can’t thank Buick enough. Myself along with one of my business partners Hajj Flemings will be attending with Buick. You can also follow the twitter hashtags #BuickNCAA, #BracketTown, #NOLA, #NCAA, #FinalFour for updates too. Discloser: PS. Suicide For the black/African-American community suicide is hardly a thought for most as there’s enough black on black crime doing it’s damage. But recently with the deaths of Don Cornelius and Whitney Houston it has been in the news. Still some African-Americans are looking for someone to blame as the cause of the person to commit suicide vs looking at life, stress, pressure in general. What’s even worse is if it’s a celebrity, funerals have become big money publicity stunts for media and other parties involved. It’s a damn shame. Think about Michael Jackson’s funeral even though he didn’t kill himself and no I didn’t watch his funeral activities or Whitney Houston’s. In Don Cornelius and the other 30,000 a year suicide cases that happen a lot of people ask why? Why would someone want to commit suicide. Then there’s the religious side of things for the faith based community. That a person is going to hell or won’t’ be let in the pearly gates if they do and that starts another debate. Regardless of why people commit suicide we know that stress and/or something in their life has cause a reaction to create a need to want to end it all. One of those reactions is the goal of success. Success Race I want people to look and treat me and others as humans as the same as the next person but despite how much accomplishments one or few African Americans have made we still have a long way to go. You may not think so or may think everything is ok but as the saying goes. You’ll never know what it’s like unless you …….. Sidebar: Social Media. Back to Suicide For now life continues as I deal with striving for success, breaking down racial barriers and using social media for the great good in the next chapter of my life. Disclaimer: As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. For the past two years for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph. For 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 29 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?” For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 16, I would like to introduce to some and present to others: Twitter: @nukuku Website/Blog: www.blackfounders.com Born in South, moved to SF to be a lawyer. I fell in love with Startups all by accident. I fell into Black Founders in a similar way. What most people do not know about me is that prior to law school I was a teacher. I also come from a household filled with educators. I love the fact that BF is creating quality educational events that help blacks succeed. I love the fact that we are giving a broad group of people tools to help them move forward. I want to leave a legacy that matters. I want to know that the world is better because I have been here. Both my legal work, Black Founders and my future non-profit motivate me. You can follow the status of 29 Days of Diversity 2012 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.
via
Posted on April 2, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton
Video: Community, Basketball Legends and the Lower 9th Ward During the 2012 NCAA Final Four in New Orleans
Bill Raftery
legend Howard Garfinkel
Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Posted on March 28, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton
I’m On The Road To The 2012 NCAA Final Four In New Orleans with Buick
This is not a sponsored post but I’ll be receiving some free access to events and hotel stay while working with Buick.
Today I’m in CA, tomorrow I’ll be officially on the road to the Final Four!
Posted on February 24, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton
Suicide in Success, Race and Social Media
Suicide is one of those topics that is not talked about enough like AIDS, HIV, and other serious issues that should be discussed more openly instead how to get more twitter followers or increasing your klout score. Suicide in tech and social media has been a topic more recently in the past year with the deaths of Ilya Zhitomirskiy, co-founder of at the age of 22 and Trey Pennington which both sent shock waves to their colleagues and those who they had a relationship with online.
Success means something different to a lot of people. For many it’s money, or having material items or to be portrayed to have reached a status quo. For others it’s reaching a set of goals as to launching a company, completing task and/or being happy. But with the pressure of success and failures on the way to success it can create mountains of emotional turmoil that can lead for many, drinking, drugs, or other crazy activities to find an outlet to get away from everything. People are human, not robots and somewhere along the way it seems that we have forgotten about that and the line of judging others because you have a twitter, facebook, google+ or a blog gives everyone the right to judge others that can cause pressure that could lead to suicide. Just like how one status message can lead to job opportunity or a funding round it could also lead to someone’s death bed. You never know what mindset someone is in or what they’re going through.
Race, race, race. It’s a never ending topic. Honestly I’m tired of talking about race but as a black man trying to make a name for myself and others in a primary white male industry it’s tough. Now it’s not just the industry but it’s my area of residence. I’m now in San Francisco and you all know it’s far from North Carolina. Some of the stories I’ve been told over the past five days have been mind blowing along with some of the reactions I’ve seen. A guy told me the other day that he used to work in Cupertino and he could go 30 days without seeing another black person. Stories like that along with being looked at like you’re about to rob a bank just cause you walking down the street or being talked to like you just saw your first computer last week. It’s insulting and sad. I’m not crying racist, it’s just the culture and if people don’t see or are not familiar with an intelligent black/brown person they’re first reaction is to think about what they know and what they see. That in San Francisco is a lot of homeless black people. It is what it is and it sucks.
It’s crazy and stupid to see trending topics on twitter cause the riot police has been called because people are going crazy for a pair of shoes. Now I know everyone of those individuals are not black but majority are. What the hell are we doing people… my people? It’s 2012! If the shoes cost $250.00 and if 2,000 people take the $250 and put together that’s $500,000. That’s more than enough to fund or help get started 10 or more startups that could create jobs in the community. More on that in another rant post. I guess the same can be said for iPhone and other gadgets too.
Well… I don’t being like called a social media guy! But that’s my own fault. As an early adopter I used to call myself a social media strategist back in 2006 before 99% of the internet knew what twitter was and the sharks came. Guess I did a good job at marketing myself that but at the end of the day I’m an entrepreneur. Regardless what social media has done as the term has become main stream along with the platforms it has giving people a voice an outlet to say what’s on their mind at anytime. IMHO many shouldn’t say anything at all but we have the freedom of speech in America. Still as things continue to go from bad to worse kids are being bullied online, adults attacked verbally and the news media outlets covering it all just for a good story and ratings. It’s not going to change, only get worse. Like I’ve said years ago and in this post. Think before you post online and everyone is human. Put yourself in anyone shoes before you start attacking or judging. Music artist, actors, kids, family members, black, white, brown or whatever we’re all human.
Honestly, suicide is something I think about almost everyday. I’ve thought about it over the years. I think about it as an outlet to get away from life pressures from family expectations, online expectations, regrets and pain from the past or just wanting to reach goals now. I think about everything I wish I would have done different from instead of spending hours on twitter to learning how to code in 2006. From business deals and relationships. From making scarifies and moving hoping to make it big so one day my son will have a better life. From worrying about society and what other people will say. From just being tired. Despite what people may see online or I share, life is not a box of chocolate. Like I said on the CNN documentary, I won’t’ success so bad it hurts. As for me, what I consider success is not just money although that does help. It’s reaching a goal to be in a position where I can make a difference in the world to have impact to change hearts, minds and lives for the greater good of mankind. That drives me. I know it won’t come overnight and just like past years where I thought about suicide I would have a milestone saying, let’s see how this works or get to that point and go from there.
Yep, I having a bad day but all will be well. Keep moving forward and if you’re thinking about suicide please find an outlet and someone to talk to immediately.
Posted on February 16, 2012 - by Wayne Sutton
Day 16: People of color impacting the social web – Nnena Ukuku – #29DaysofDiversity
Nnena Ukuku
Bio
I was close friends with two black entrepreneurs. We discovered that many black entrepenuers did not know that there was someone like them. Initially, when we started Black Founders it was with a goal to connect entrepreneurs of color. Very quickly we discover that there was a need for more than just connection but also education.What motivates you to become successful?
Subscribe
About
Wayne Sutton helps individuals, startups and businesses succeed in understanding how to communicate on the social web via web development, user experience, brand strategy and marketing (Mobile and Social).
Wayne Sutton is an Entrepreneur, Advisor and Partner of NewMe Accelerator.
Ph: 919-816-2230
@: wayne@socialwayne.comSubmit
