Hey Tea Sippers,👋
I would like to introduce a new segment called: Tea Pods ☕️
Here we will be recommending our favorite podcasts of the week for you to listen to and sip some tea too.
Today, I would like to highlight a podcast with Asya Bradley the CEO of First Boulevard Bank. First Boulevard is an all-black Neo-bank, which is thriving and has recently raised a 5 million dollar seed round from investors. In this podcast, Asya talks about:
Her founding story
Her travels to Europe and the Middle East
Why George Floyd’s death changed everything
The impact of being KYC invisible
The average dollar stays within the black community for only 6 hours
Cash Back for Buying Black can help communities re-invest
Project Tassels $1BN impacts on income
Crypto’s potential to be fairer
The importance of language and delivering the message
And More
Listen to it here:
What’s the Tea Today? 🤔
Ready for this week’s tea? ☕️ We are talking about Dogecoin’s recent surge 🚀and Spring Labs’ recent partnership with TransUnion 🤝.
There is one major news story: Unemployment reaches a pandemic low, and layoffs are increasing in the month of May, over a year since the emergence of the global pandemic. We are currently at 498,000 layoffs and that number is drastically increasing. On the bright side, we are seeing more people get fully vaccinated, and things could be more normal soon. To read more about this click here.
Anyways, short and big stories ahead, get your tea ready and start sipping. ☕️
Also, before you get reading, don't forget to join our waitlist! Thanks. 😝
Let’s Talk Crypto 📈
Elon Musk 👔
What started off as an elaborate prank has now become, one of the most popularly traded cryptocurrencies. Everyone’s talking about Elon Musk, but how about Jackson Palmer? He was at a Nascar Race when he witnessed the Doge dog and the words DogeCoin written on a Nascar Vehicle. A joke that he had once made has turned into a full-on nationwide investment. Let’s take a deeper dive into this:
What is Dogecoin? It is a cryptocurrency that can be traded just like bitcoin in a marketplace that is decentralized (not controlled by the government).
Valuation. It is currently valued at 80 Billion dollars. (Many are saying the dog is the special touch!) 🐕
How Many? There are 100 billion Dogecoins, compared to the 21 million bitcoins.
Call to Action 📞: It looks like sometimes irrelevant things become relevant, and that’s what this is.
"I don't think it solves anything," he says. "If anything, it exists as an educational tool. It's a reminder that we can't take this stuff seriously. says, Palmer.
We are seeing the emergence of a cryptocurrency that has no reason to be in the crypto space, but why complain? Dogecoin hit record highs last week and it continues to fluctuate within the market. We have one man to thank for all this success… not Jackson Palmer, or Billy Markus, but *Cough* ELON MUSK. After this tweet, we saw the volume in Dogecoin trades increase insurmountably, and who knows when it will stop. 😏
Blockchain is Growing ⛰
TransUnion Invests 💰
TransUnion is that agency you report your credit too, and they’re getting in on blockchain…? Spring Labs a 4-year company is creating a new way of evaluating a person’s creditworthiness using blockchain. Let’s see what this means:
What is Blockchain? Blockchain is the technology used behind bitcoin, making the data behind it more secure.
Problem. The traditional credit system is broken and individuals are looking for new ways to revamp it.
Raise. They rose a 29 million dollar Series A round in 2019 and now they are raising a 30 million dollar round with TransUnion as the leader! (Huge)
CEO Adam Jiwan says, “We believe we’ve built a fundamentally better mousetrap for the exchange of sensitive information, as well as a series of products and services that allow lenders and others to ideally make better identity verification, fraud prevention and underwriting decisions.”
Call to Action 📞: It seems as if blockchain is taking over and it is here to stay. We are seeing groundbreaking technology being created, and new players trying to infiltrate this space. Spring Labs is one of them, but they aren’t the only ones. Out with the old and in with the new is the phrase, and that is what is happening here. As major companies like TransUnion start to indulge in blockchain technology be aware of its rise and popularity.
Sencha “Tea” Fact of the Day 🍃:
TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus, started in the railway industry.
Extra Tea ☕️:
Chime: It’s not a bank, it’s something else…
Lili: The financial app for freelancers
Fair: Inclusive banking for all raises 20 million dollars
Debt: Credit card debt is decreasing!
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