The Black In Tech – startup validation event, in partnership with WEPOWER at TechArtista downtown was lit! Black In Tech is creating a space for the St. Louis black community to enter and participate in tech and entrepreneurship regardless of expertise, stage or profession — organizers say — in order to make friends, improve skills and develop and launch new businesses in the St. Louis ecosystem.

The event was organized by host Edwin Williams of ZenHammer , emcee’d by Jonathan Allen of Entrepreneur Quarterly and had keynote speakers Samuel Cummings III of DataPlant and Will Bubenik of curbcutOS.

“Will and Sam did amazing jobs explaining how to validate your ideas, going through customer discovery, and approaches to building out your MVP,” Williams said. “After, we had a great time networking and I believe several new collaborations were born at Trust (the bar at TechArtista).”

Caught Schmoozing:

  1. Edwin Williams, ZenHammer; Janelle Turner, information professional
  2. Will Bubenik, curbcutOS; Erin Mattoon, data scientist; Rebecca Garcia, entrepreneur
  3. Jonathan Allen, Entrepreneur Quarterly; Collin Elliott, artist-designer
  4. Ramon Crayton, data scientist; Destini Clark, designer
  5. Byron Strong, 2Day’s Special; Jeffrey Reed, Transperferct
  6. Lamar Woods, SoHeart; Shellcee Sharp, BMO