Black Wealth Watch: Crowned Skin Lands $500K On ‘Shark Tank,’ Ticketmaster Hit With Monopoly Ruling, And The Latest On Uncle Nearest – Essence

Welcome to Black Wealth Watch, where we round up the biggest stories in Black business and economic news each week, the wins, the setbacks, the deals getting done, and the conversations we should be having about money, power, and who actually gets a seat at the table.

This week had a little bit of everything, so buckle up, baddies. A Chicago founder walked out of Shark Tank with his money, his vision, and a fellow South Sider in his corner, a federal jury finally confirmed what every concertgoer already knew about Ticketmaster (spoiler alert: it’s a scam, y’all!), a $55,000-a-year school in Chicago thinks algorithms should replace teachers, there’s been more difficult news out of the Uncle Nearest camp, and Whoopi Goldberg is now deciding she would rather own the publishing house than just fill its shelves. TGIF!

Crowned Skin Founder Darrell Spencer Lands $500K Investment From Fellow Chicagoan Rashaun Williams On ‘Shark Tank’

The South Side of Chicago had a good week. Darrell Spencer, a 29 year old entrepreneur who fully bootstrapped his business, walked into Shark Tank with a men’s grooming brand that had already done more than $30 million in lifetime revenue and was clearing seven figures monthly. 

For those who love to stay glistening and moisturized, it’s a brand you definitely need to know about. Their body butters and oil colognes are formulated with shea butter, jojoba oil, and mango butter, and Spencer’s argument is that the men’s personal care category has been coasting on the same tired products for too long and Black men especially deserve better. He asked for $500K for 5% equity and took the deal from Rashaun Williams, $500K for 10% equity and a $1 royalty per unit until $1 million is recouped. Williams, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago and whose early Coinbase bet returned roughly $20 million when the company went public, understood exactly what Spencer was building before Spencer finished his pitch. We love to see it.

An AI School With No Teachers Is Opening In Chicago This Fall 

Okay maybe Chicago isn’t having as good of a week as I said above. The dummification of America continues, and they are the next city to get its first school with no teachers and a $55,000 tuition bill. Alpha Schools is opening in Lakeshore East this fall, and the model is exactly as it sounds. Students arrive each morning, spend two hours on core subjects through AI-driven software, and spend the rest of the day in workshops led by adult guides who are not teachers. The network already operates at 22 campuses across the country and reports that its students outperform 99% of their peers on national standardized tests and move through material at more than twice the standard pace, though Northwestern researchers caution that nobody has studied what happens to kids who never had a traditional classroom to begin with. Chicago has over 600 public schools that have been fighting for adequate funding for years, serving kids whose families never had the luxury of opting out of the system. A $55,000-a-year school powered by algorithms is not an answer to that problem, and nobody working in education policy should frame it as one.

Jury Rules Live Nation And Ticketmaster Overcharged Customers, Operating As Monopoly

After years of fighting for Beyoncé tickets, it turns out we were not being dramatic about Ticketmaster. After four days of deliberations, a federal jury in Manhattan ruled that Live Nation and its subsidiary have been running an illegal monopoly over the live entertainment industry, controlling 86% of the ticketing market at major concert venues and using that grip to freeze out competitors, pressure venues into exclusive contracts, and overcharge buyers by $1.72 per ticket across 22 states. A judge will now decide on damages and remedies, which could range from fee caps to a full breakup of the company, though Live Nation has already said it plans to appeal. Nothing is changing on your next ticket purchase sadly, but at least a federal jury just put what we all already knew on record. Next step? Supreme Court, perhaps?

Uncle Nearest Faces Potential Shutdown

The Uncle Nearest situation took a turn this week and not a good one. On April 10, the court-appointed receiver overseeing the brand informed a federal court that the company is insolvent and could be forced to shut down within 30 days without continued financial support from lender Farm Credit Mid-America, which has already injected $3.8 million in cash just to keep operations running. The receiver inherited years of unfiled federal tax returns and financial records in such disarray that basic reporting was impossible, on top of a company that had defaulted on more than $108 million in loans. The legacy of Nearest Green, the enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel his craft and whom Fawn Weaver founded this brand to honor, was never going to be undone by a receivership filing, but losing the brand built around him would be a major loss for Black business ownership in this country.

Whoopi Goldberg Launches WhoopInk Publishing Imprint

After more than a dozen books of her own, Whoopi Goldberg is now the one signing the checks. She launched WhoopInk this week, a publishing imprint through Blackstone built around discovering new writers, giving established authors a new home. Goldberg will allegedly be hands-on throughout the entire process, and though the imprint business is crowded right now, very few people launching one have actually lived the stories they are claiming to champion.