FOCUS
Building Black Business
Delaware native Leonard J. Young says the inspiration for his two online ventures came from his grandfather.
A local entrepreneur’s mobile app has become a valuable tool for an overlooked market By JulieAnne Cross
W
hen Delaware marketers and event planners want to share news of particular interest to the Black community, they often turn to a local website, DelawareBlack.com. The site has delivered news, events, and Black business listings to readers since 2006, and has recently evolved. DelawareBlack.com is the creation of Leonard J. Young, of Newark, a 1994 Alexis I. duPont High School alumnus who returned to his home state after obtaining a mechanical engineering degree from Florida A&M in Tallahassee, Fla. After college, Young lived in Philadelphia and Texas. “These places had forms of Black media, whether it was radio, newspapers or magazines,” he says. “I thought, ‘Let me see if I can do something like that.’” In 2018, Young expanded his DelawareBlack.com brand by creating the National Black Guide mobile app. In January 2020, he relaunched the app, pairing it with a website to enable mobile and desktop access to the guide’s data. ► DECEMBER 2021
| OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM
23
