Shelly Omílàdé Bell (known as Omi Bell) is an American entrepreneur and startup ecosystem builder. She is the founder and CEO of the social enterprise "Black Girl Ventures".

Early life

Bell was born in Durham, North Carolina. After receiving a BS in computer science from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Bell began her career as a K-12 teacher.

Career

Bell founded MsPrint USA, a women-run custom clothes and merchandise print shop, who served clients like Amazon and Google. She also hosted poetry performances and led a community-based arts organization called Seven City Art Society, which evolved into Made By a Black Woman, a marketplace offering clothing, accessories, and home décor created and curated by women of color. In 2016, Bell founded Black Girl Vision, which started as a meetup group of 30 women before Bell rebranded the organization as Black Girl Ventures. Bell aimed to connect women founders of color to peers, investors, advisors, and mentors, while garnering support and resources from corporations and local government. She cited lack of visibility and opportunities for Black women founders as one of her primary motivations for launching Black Girl Ventures. The organization runs an annual pitch competition. Its funding sources include

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

, the

Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts. The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...

, the

Kauffman Foundation The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (Kauffman Foundation) is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, private foundation based in Kansas City, Missouri. It was founded in 1966 by Ewing Marion Kauffman, who had previously founded the drug company Mar ...

, and Google.

Personal life

Bell is based in Washington, D.C. She identifies as

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

. As an advocate for the LGBTQIA community, she is committed to creating inclusive spaces for people of all

gender identities Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

and

sexual orientations Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generally s ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Shelly Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women business executives American LGBT businesspeople People from Durham, North Carolina North Carolina A&T State University alumni 21st-century American women