While Corporate Promises Fade, Aurora James Continues To Build Real Pathways For Black Entrepreneurs – Essence

If there’s one thing you need to know about Aurora James, she’s going to make it happen by any means necessary.

And in this season of life, that necessary is taking golf lessons.

You may be wondering to yourself, did she suddenly discover a love for the sport? Well, not quite. But in reality, it’s because that’s where deals get made, where relationships turn into opportunities and where the kind of casual conversations happen that can change the trajectory of a business. And Black women? We don’t get invited to those outings. So what is James doing, she’s pulling up… with clubs in hand.

“Networking is still an old boy’s club,” James says. “As Black women, we are so rarely invited into the rooms where the most meaningful relationships, deals, and opportunities take shape. Not to mention the golf outings that no one invites us to join.”

So she’s learning to play. Because if you can’t get the invitation, you find another way in (i.e. bring your own damn seat to the table).

It’s the same energy James brought when she launched the Fifteen Percent Pledge back in 2020, calling on major retailers to commit 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned brands. Four years later, she’s still pushing—this time through a new partnership with SheaMoisture that’s expanding the brand’s Dartmouth Fellowship program. The fellowship has been around for a decade, quietly doing the work by sending women entrepreneurs to Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, covering the full cost, giving them access to the kind of business education and networks that can actually change the trajectory of their businesses. Over 100 women have gone through it, seeing revenue growth average 14.3% and profit margins go up by about 6%. 

This December, they’re bringing 20 more women to New Hampshire for a week-long intensive. Half will come through open applications (deadline’s October 10, if you’re interested). The other half? Handpicked by James and the Fifteen Percent Pledge team.

“I started the Pledge with a call to action for companies to make long term, sustained investments in Black founders – because at this point, we all know that writing one check or launching one collaboration is not going to move the needle toward equity,” James says. She sounds tired of having to say it, honestly. But she does anyway. “It’s a joy to partner with SheaMoisture, because they get it – diversity is in their DNA. This brand has been supporting Black consumers and entrepreneurs since day one.”

Which matters right now, because let’s be real—a lot of companies are backing away from their 2020 commitments. The ones who were performative about it are gone. But James says the partners who were serious? They’re doubling down.

“It’s hard not to feel like we’re backtracking right now,” she admits. “But the good news is, our strongest partners at the Pledge – who have always been in it for the right reasons – are doubling down on their commitments to equity. Because they understand it’s a smart business proposition.”

She’s not wrong. Creating opportunities for Black founders doesn’t take anything away from anyone else. But try telling that to people who’ve built entire careers on gatekeeping.

That’s part of why this Dartmouth partnership is so critical during these times (especially when over 300K Black women have been removed from the workforce — not all by choice). Though business education matters, during this time it’s more about the network you build when you’re in a room with 19 other women who get it, and are also trying to scale their businesses against the same obstacles.

James knows those obstacles intimately. Before the Fifteen Percent Pledge, she built Brother Vellies, her luxury accessories brand. She’s been in those investor meetings. She’s had to figure out funding without the “friends and family” round that white founders tap into, that unfortunately many of us don’t have. I mean, yes, we have friends and family. But that kind of capital needed to get a business off the ground? No, not when so many are living paycheck to paycheck or scraping to get by when it’s just expensive to go outside and breathe.

“Black founders so often don’t have access to raising the initial ‘friends and family’ capital round that many white founders raise — so we have to provide that support for each other,” she explains. It’s why the Pledge started a podcast literally called “Friends & Family.” Because if the traditional system won’t open up, you build your own.

The Dartmouth Fellowship is another version of that because it’s an opportunity to create access where it doesn’t naturally exist. And James is clear about what success looks like. It’s not about the photo op or the press release announcing the partnership (though we know those things are nice too).

“We really hope to see founders walk away from the Dartmouth experience with tools and lessons to scale their businesses sustainably,” she says. “If these women head home from this experience and create a ripple effect of wealth, innovation, and opportunity in their communities, that’s how we know the work is working.”

For women thinking about applying to the fellowship, James has advice that probably runs counter to what you’ve heard: stop asking for so much advice.

“I like to say that you don’t always need to ask for advice, because what you hear may just be that person projecting onto you,” she says. “As women, and especially women of color, we second guess ourselves so much. But really, a lot of the time you need to just go with your gut. If you have a great idea, don’t let someone else talk you out of it. Shoot your shot.”

Trust yourself. It’s simple advice, but it also feels different coming from someone who’s spent years building platforms where none existed and who’s pushed corporations to move beyond performative diversity theater.

This December, 20 women will spend a week at Dartmouth learning how to scale their businesses. They’ll get the business strategy training, the operational tools, the post-program support through platforms like Luminary. But maybe more importantly, they’ll get something harder to quantify: a network of women who are building in the same direction, access to rooms they weren’t getting invited to before, and proof that there are still companies willing to put real money and resources behind Black women entrepreneurs.

Not because it looks good. Because it works. And if that sounds like you? Apply.