Minneapolis, MN · Est. 2020
Welcome to BlackSpace
Unapologetically. · Black. · Forward.
Our story
Built with purpose.
Rooted in community.
I created BlackSpace with a clear goal: to boost Black businesses and work towards economic fairness for the Black community.
Why BlackSpace? Why now? Like many of you, I was deeply affected by George Floyd’s tragic murder, especially since it happened close to my home.
In the wake of this tragedy, there was a surge in support for Black businesses. However, the challenge was locating them. Many people were eager to help, but didn’t know where to start. That’s when I knew I had to take action.
Drawing from my background as a senior leader in Financial Services, BlackSpace was born. It merges my passion for community involvement with my professional expertise. Will I change everything? Maybe not. But I’m dedicated to making a significant impact. Big changes often start with small steps.
BlackSpace is for all of us, and I want you to join me on this journey. So, will you?
Yours in progress,
Jessie Taylor
Founder & CEO
Our mission
To be Unapologetically Black Forward — spotlighting the brilliance, strength, and resilience of Black business owners.
We believe in providing a world-class platform to empower Black entrepreneurs and make their stories heard. We are only getting started on this journey, and we are excited to keep pushing forward. Together, we can accomplish amazing things and help lift each other up in a world that often tries to hold us back.
Our Team
The people behind BlackSpace
Jessie Taylor
I built BlackSpace as a focused push for economic progress in the Black community, sparked by seeing how hard it was for people to find Black businesses after George Floyd’s murder and guided by my experience in financial services, turning my purpose and professional background into a platform meant to create steady, meaningful change.
Cory Taylor
Chief Growth Officer
Cory, my husband and business partner, brings over a decade of automotive experience to BlackSpace, building on roles like Finance Director and General Sales Manager and applying his talent for growth, strategy, and opportunity to help sellers succeed and strengthen our marketplace for everyone, both buyers and sellers.
Our Values
What we stand for
Identity
We are passionate about empowering Black owned businesses. We are committed to uplifting our communities and dedicated to promoting financial literacy.
Vision
To amplify and celebrate the power and success of Black owned businesses, inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs and creating economic opportunities for communities of color.
Community
We champion financial success in the communities we live in and serve by donating part of our profit to organizations that promote financial literacy.
Statement of Curatorial Intent
The BlackSpace Network:
Why curation is our mandate.
This statement explains the principles that guide who we are, how we operate, and why our closed network is not just a policy — it’s a constitutional right and a moral commitment.
Our Origin and Mandate
The BlackSpace Network was founded in Minneapolis, MN in 2020, born from a period of profound social tragedy and a clear, urgent need for economic justice. We were created with a singular, powerful goal: to boost Black businesses and work towards economic fairness for the Black community. Our mandate is to be Unapologetically Black Forward.
An Expressive Marketplace Association
Unlike general-interest e-commerce platforms that function as neutral utilities, the BlackSpace Network is an expressive marketplace association. We do not merely facilitate transactions; we curate a specific cultural and economic message. Every Seller Member admitted to our Network is a contributor to a unified narrative of Black brilliance, strength, and resilience.
Our Belief
The Identity of Our Members Is Our Message
The BlackSpace Network’s expressive message is not conveyed through the products sold on our platform alone — it is conveyed through the collective identity of the people who sell them. Each Seller Member’s presence in the Network is itself a statement: that Black entrepreneurs own, control, and lead the businesses that bear their community’s name. This is a specific and irreducible claim about economic ownership and self-determination within the African Diaspora.
The admission of entities whose ownership does not reflect this heritage would fundamentally alter and significantly burden our expressive message. It would contradict the specific claim we make — that economic power within the African Diaspora is held, exercised, and celebrated by members of that community. A network of Black-owned businesses makes a statement about ownership and economic self-determination that cannot be made by a mixed network. This is why our membership criteria are inseparable from our expression.
Membership Standards
Curatorial Standards for Membership
Membership in the BlackSpace Network is a privilege, not a right. We exercise sole curatorial discretion in selecting our Seller Members to ensure our collective voice remains consistent with our mission. Our standards for membership include:
Heritage-Based Ownership: A requirement that the business is at least 51% owned and operationally led by Individuals of African Descent, as defined in our Membership Eligibility Standards.
Mission Alignment: A commitment to the advancement of Black economic heritage and the empowerment of Black entrepreneurs.
Community Impact: A dedication to promoting financial literacy and creating economic opportunities for communities of color.
Legal Foundation
The constitutional necessity of curation
Our decision to remain a network for Black-owned businesses is an exercise of our First Amendment right to expressive association. Just as the courts have recognized that private associations may control their membership to protect the integrity of their collective expression, the BlackSpace Network reserves the right to curate its membership to ensure that our collective voice remains authentic and undiluted. Forcing the inclusion of entities that do not share this specific heritage and mission would alter our message in ways we cannot accept and would undermine the very purpose for which this Network was created.
Finality
Finality of curatorial decisions
To maintain the integrity of our mission, the BlackSpace Network reserves the right to audit membership eligibility at any time. We may revoke membership if we determine, in our sole judgment, that a member no longer aligns with our curatorial standards or our expressive goals.
Putting it together
Our Mission in Context — A Commitment to Review
The BlackSpace Network’s membership standards reflect the present state of documented economic inequality affecting Black entrepreneurs in the United States. Our expressive mission is, in part, remedial — born from specific historical and ongoing economic conditions that we were created to address.
BlackSpace commits to publishing an annual Network Advocacy & Impact Report documenting the economic conditions that motivate this mission, including data on Black entrepreneurship access to capital, market representation, and wealth formation. We further commit to reviewing our membership criteria in connection with each annual report, and to considering whether changing economic conditions — specifically, evidence of measurable, sustained progress toward economic equity for Black entrepreneurs at scale — would warrant modification of the Network’s curatorial standards.
This commitment reflects BlackSpace’s good-faith acknowledgment that our expressive mission is proportional and responsive to documented conditions, not a permanent categorical posture disconnected from the realities it was designed to address.
Ready to be part of something bigger?
Shop Black owned businesses or open your store on our marketplace.