Madeline Holly-Carothers and Ashely Creft

Madeline Holly-Carothers and Ashely Creft founded Charlotte Black Owned (CBO) with Jeffrey Carothers and Jeremy Curebeam during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak.

CLT Black Owned (CBO) is Charlotte's leading platform for the inclusion, support, and stabilization of Black-owned businesses. The social good company is the local expert in black-owned and is a connector for authentic community in the Charlotte market. CBO began in 2020 by a group of millennial friends, originally from Charlotte, who wanted to make a change in the city. While watching the city's growth over several years including the banking, hospitality and retail industries, they also saw an expanding gap in representation of Black-owned businesses. After launching in June 2020, CBO quickly gained a diverse following of over 50,000 supporters on @CLTBlackOwned, which indicated both a desire for this information by consumers and a need for the platform and its exposure by minority business owners.

Today, CBO's mission is to support and stabilize black-owned, link creatives and service providers to larger brands, and help companies interact authentically with diverse audiences. CBO aims to fill resource gaps for local Black-owned businesses in the areas of funding, financial literacy, collaboration and overall stability. This is accomplished by providing opportunities for consumers to shop local and Black, while simultaneously providing business owners opportunities to collaborate, grow and develop their brand. CBO helps creatives and entrepreneurs grow by coordinating work with larger brands, corporations, and private companies.

CLT Black Owned exists to highlight, support and increase the visibility of local Black-owned businesses and services ... in every way possible!