The new platform aims to be the home of all Black digital life and to share most of its revenue with members and Black founders

Vince Martin, Founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Upsides Network LLC, has launched a new platform called BlackShares, a drop-in replacement for networks like BlueSky and LinkedIn, intended specifically for the Black community. The vision is to have every member of the Black community migrate from other platforms to the platform for all of their social and professional networking.

BlackShares then allocates the majority of platform revenue—including membership fees—back to members as dividends, and to an investment fund for Black startup founders. As such, the company states that simply using this new platform starts a powerful cycle of Black economic empowerment. The platform also seeks to connect the Black community in unprecedented ways to create new collaboration and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Founder, Vince Martin (@BlackSharesArchitect), indicates that the platform is based on an idea he’s had for several years, but that now is the time to launch it. “When I looked around at the effort to push our community back with this assault on DEI, combined with the recent hostile sociopolitical shift, it emphasized that we’re on our own as a community. We’ve tried working within the existing political framework. We’ve tried to break through within the existing economy. Now, it’s time for us to use all of our community’s considerable resources to create a new economy that works for us.”

According to the company, the fact that the Black community wields $1.8 trillion in spending power is a unique opportunity, and focusing that power is part of the plan. But, there’s also an attention economy worth hundreds of billions of dollars, which consists of the time, content and engagement spent online across various platforms. The company believes that when this is factored in, the actual economic value of the Black community is far more than $1.8 trillion.
That’s the near-term opportunity that was being overlooked, and that BlackShares is moving to capture.

“Recently, our community has been boycotting these retailers, and that can have some effect, given our spending power. But, what about these social and professional platforms that make billions off of our presence, engagement, and content?” says Martin. “We can boycott those and switch to the BlackShares platform overnight. Not only will that instantly stop feeding the machine that’s harming us, but we can finally harness our real value, translated to real dollars that we pump directly back into our community.”

Another important aspect of the platform is collaboration. The platform’s professional features focus on entrepreneurship and connecting founders with the skills, advisors, and influencers they need to build thriving businesses. Founders are encouraged to reward their collaborators via revenue sharing and equity, which spreads more wealth across the community.

Adds Martin, “We are absolutely blessed as a community with talent, creativity, perseverance, and an almost uncanny ability to influence culture. We are intelligent, charismatic, and capable. All we need is to come together and collaborate. And, with each new successful company built on the platform, we’re creating mo

re opportunities to buy Black.

The company has more plans for future platform services, and will likewise share the majority of revenue generated by those. Says the founder, “Simply using this new platform starts the cycle of Black economic empowerment, but it doesn’t end there. We’re out to create a new economy and empower our members to do the same.”

About
BlackShares is a Black-owned social and professional platform that is building Black Economic Empowerment and sharing the upside with its members. The company pays the majority of its revenue out to members as dividends and referral commissions, as well as via an investment fund for Black founders. Visit the website at BlackShares.com