Hearty Collectives is a partnership between two organizations whose founders share a life-long passion for unearthing under-appreciated talent.
Michael Moore founded Black Achievers in Cincinnati in 2018. After years as a software entrepreneur, he took an IT leadership role at a large company and saw a need to connect with fellow black professionals. He brought a startup mentality to the challenge and created an organization now the nation’s largest network of black professionals.
Bob Gilbreath co-founded Hearty in Cincinnati in 2020. Bob completed the successful sale of his previous software startup weeks before COVID hit. Then he and his team decided to start up again with Hearty, a platform designed to tap member networks to share professional opportunities.
In the Fall of 2022, Michael sought a software solution to help his corporate partners connect with Black Achievers members. Bob was looking for ways to bring the Hearty software platform to a larger network.
But they almost never got together–which illustrates both the problem and our solution.
Despite both leaders living in the same, medium-sized city for over 20 years–and being part of a fairly small group of software entrepreneurs– Bob and Michael had never met.
They lived and worked in different networks, which might as well be different worlds.
Until they were brought together by Pete Blackshaw, an Ally within the startup ecosystem focused on supporting under-represented founders.
Thanks to Pete’s introduction, Bob and Michael finally met–and hit it off. Each saw synergy in the other’s organizations, along with a shared personal mission to make a positive impact on people’s lives. Their teams joined up to design the Hearty Collectives platform.
Companies have struggled for decades to create diverse, inclusive teams that represent the world we live in. When 85% of people find their jobs based on “Who they know”--mostly current employees–diverse candidates miss out on network benefits.
Hearty Collectives helps companies bridge these network gaps by bringing company leaders and diverse community members together.
We are excited to deliver on the promise of diverse, equitable, and inclusive teams.