More Black and Hispanic Entrepreneurs Are Open for Business

Stephon Sanders is a soft-spoken 16-year-old Black student in Tampa, Florida who loves playing basketball and video games like Fortnite and Apex Legends and can often be found wearing an athletic jacket and basketball shorts. He's also the founder and chief executive officer of a mobile entertainment business, Street Gamez, that can amp up any party with a 32-foot, $55,000 trailer full of video game consoles for up to 28 players. He plans to add a $45,000 mobile gaming bus, staffed by a second crew, and move beyond the Tampa area to serve North and South Carolina. Sanders' single mother, Tiffany-Autumn Bell, 35, cashed out much of her savings and gave up nearly all of her already scarce free time to support her then-13-year-old son's dream of launching a mobile entertainment video business. To Bell, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and has her own full-time job as an IT project manager, helping Sanders become an entrepreneur was about making sure his life and career options were not limited by his race.