Interview with Joy-Ann Reid on MSNBC
COMMUNITYx Founder/CEO, Chloë Cheyenne, participates in a live interview with Joy-Ann Reid on MSNBC's AM Joy.
Where it all began
In March, 1989, a young black man living in Hyde Park, Chicago was preparing to head off to work a night shift as a pest control technician. He heard a loud banging on his door and went to check it out. By the time the 23-year-old St. Xavier College student-athlete reached the front door of his mother’s townhome, the door had been ripped off of its hinges as a group of plainclothes police officers stormed the building, opening fire and hitting the man over 12 times, including on the crown of the head and in his groin.
As he lay on the ground bleeding to death, the officers realized they had the wrong address. Rather than rush this wrongfully victimized man to the hospital, they first paused to cover-up their mistake, planting drugs in his dresser, and further assaulting him before paramedics arrived.
Doctors predicted he wouldn’t make it through the night.
72 hours later, he emerged, alive, but forever altered by this egregious case of police misconduct.
Chloe Sledd was born a year later. This man was her father.
“I remember being a little girl watching him put on a bulletproof vest under his clothes before he would leave the house because he suffers from extreme PTSD from what happened to him,” she told Black Enterprise. “Every single day that my family and I interact with my dad, we have to watch him in pain because he still has a bullet fragment lodged in his spine that can never be taken out, or else he will become a paraplegic.”
A photo of COMMUNITYx Founder & CEO, Chloe Sledd (left) and her father, Andrew Sledd (right).
Chloe knows these tragic events are not rare occurrences. That is why she has dedicated her career to enacting change where it is most needed. From this problem, COMMUNITYx was born — A platform to connect like-minded activists and organizations of all kinds, allowing the power of communities to take on the challenges our society faces every day.
COMMUNITYx is the place for changemakers who are addressing social issues such as police misconduct, climate change, women’s rights, poverty, voter engagement, and more!
The Problem
This is an age of activism, but today’s activists have been constrained by platforms ill-suited to creating real change. This was echoed in a Pew Research Poll, which found that 77% of Americans feel social media distracts from larger issues, rather than assisting in achieving lasting impact.
Those who do seek to leverage these platforms must put in unnecessarily tedious hours scraping the sites for hashtags, discover pages, and follower lists across multiple platforms to find like-minded allies.
The Solution
COMMUNITYx is a platform that is built by activists, for activists, and puts organizing and connecting around vital issues at the forefront, without the distractions of other platforms.
Our algorithms don’t focus on the standard connection principles found on other sites, like attractiveness or social life, instead opting to focus on people’s shared hearts and minds. We want to understand who you are, where you are, and most importantly: What you care about. Your passions build the base of our platform.
We make a Call-To-Action infinitely more frictionless due to the organizing nature of our platform, and using our unique dataset we make protests, summits, marches, and more, much easier to share and attend. In the future, we are also working to implement petition creations, and even crowdfunding features.
The Market
62% of Gen Z’ers say they have the potential to impact the world, while just 19% say they believe the country is heading in the right direction. They are fed up and looking for outlets to do something about it.
There are more than 67 million Gen Zers in the US, and studies show that half of all Gen Zers in the US care about social impact.
We know that movements are only as strong as the number of people behind them. In discussions with our user-base, we have found that they would have to spend up to 70% of their time simply trying to connect with likeminded changemakers, while the nonprofit spend up to about $40K on online advertising.
It’s clear that there is a market in acting as the bridge between movements and individuals looking to join.
Our Traction
Since launching BETA in September 2019, we have seen over 10K connections* made on our platform, with 100% of our users uniting with allies across two or more cities, which bodes well for validating our value proposition as a strong activist network.
*A connection is when two users become connected on the CommunityX App, this statistic is based on the average of about 10 connections per user in our app as of May 2020.
In July we saw our monthly active users grow four-fold month over month, and have found early adopters in Instagram activists like Brea Baker, Sara Mora and Zellie Imani. Organizations like Freedom March NYC, Signs for Black Lives Matter, Youth vs Apocalypse, Prison From The Inside Out, Platform, and others have already begun organizing on our platform.
What We Do
COMMUNITYx is a Mobile App connecting activists, organizations, and changemakers to build the types of coalitions that make an impact.
New users tell us a little bit about themselves, selecting their top causes, and we use that data to suggest like-minded changemakers in their local community (and around the world) and facilitate their connection.
Users can post Calls-To-Action like petitions, videos, images, and crowdfunding.
The Business Model
We are laser-focused on building meaningful and transformational user communities, but we envision future revenue growth coming from three sources.
First, Cx Events that will bring in revenue through sponsorships and ticket sales. These will be Social Impact Summits that will also drive community growth.
Secondly, in-app fundraising as a premium feature. When a user or organization uses our crowdfunding feature, we will charge a 4% fee and $0.30 per transaction. As of today, this feature is built and is being tested.
Lastly, we plan on implementing in-app ads and user promoted content to drive increasingly larger swaths of revenue as the network effect grows our user base. It is important to note here that we plan to implement ads in a way that is most valuable for our user community -- by focusing specifically on impact advertising. We believe that there is a significant opportunity to be able to help brands better target their impact and cause-focused advertising directly to consumers who will resonate most with their message. This feature is currently in development and not available yet.
How We Are Different
COMMUNITYx is not just an “Instagram for Activism”. Our values, our concerns, and our algorithms are fundamentally different. Where other platforms wield algorithms in favor of transactional connections resulting in artificial followings, we are dedicated to real life connections that will empower communities.
We consider the privacy and safety of our users first. We don’t tolerate hate, the incitement of violence, or other harassment or dangerous behaviors. Users who violate our policies are suspended and removed immediately.
We also have a vital first mover advantage, and we believe that once established, users will not want to rebuild their social justice coalitions on a competing platform.
The Vision
At scale, we believe our data points (who people are, where they are, and what they care about) will allow us to influence social and political change in ways previously thought impossible.
We will be a major step forward for grassroots candidates, who can use our platform to identify possible volunteers and voters in their area to mobilize and create real change.
OUR LEADERSHIP
CEO and Founder Chloe Sledd graduated from Howard University and while there interned with The Haitian Embassy, Teach For America, and Google. Upon graduating, she worked for Google and then Emerson Collective. Her father’s story has altered her entire life and led her down this road of activism and advocacy for positive change.
Co-Founder and CTO Kourtni Marshall is a Loyola Chicago graduate. He held a tenure on the Global Leadership Team for the Black Googler Network where he helped set the direction for the organization, which has over 20 chapters. He and Chloe met while they were both working at Google in Mountain View, CA.
We have a lean team of engineers and marketers pushing toward a future where activism is as seamless in the online space as sending a Tweet or posting an Instagram.
Why Invest
In our view, COMMUNITYx has everything it needs to be the single most important digital organizing tool for activists and organizations, and we want you to be a part of it as an early investor. We believe we can help modern day society address its flaws and hope you join us on our mission to do so.
COMMUNITYx Founder/CEO, Chloë Cheyenne, participates in a live interview with Joy-Ann Reid on MSNBC's AM Joy.
“We were all really happy to be there exhibiting, let alone make the top five,” said Chloë Cheyenne, founder and CEO of COMMUNITYx, a California-based mobile app for creating and scaling social impact causes. “It was a really exciting moment for us."
Chloë Cheyenne Rogers turned her family trauma into CommunityX, a platform connecting people around causes and movements. But getting there wasn’t easy.
For the last 28 years, Chloe Cheyenne Sledd-Rogers has watched her African American father suffer from immense physical and psychological pain after being shot by Chicago police and left for dead. The near-fatal incident took place in March 1989 when undercover cops shot Andrew Sledd.
“My family was directly impacted by police brutality in 1989 when the Chicago Police Department nearly shot my dad to death in a no-knock raid. My dad still has a bullet from the CPD in his spine.
After her father was shot by Chicago Police, Chloë Cheyenne launched COMMUNITYx to build networks of change-agents.
Chloë Rogers may have just changed the art of protest as we know it.
COMMUNITYx Founder & CEO, Chloë Cheyenne, Delivers Interstitial on the Untapped Power of Social Media at Forbes 30 Under 30 in Berlin.
Company | : | COMMUNITYx, Inc. |
Corporate Address | : | 99 Vista Montana, San Jose, CA 95134 |
Offering Minimum | : | $9,999.00 |
Offering Maximum | : | $1,069,999.50 |
Minimum Investment Amount(per investor) | : | $150.00 |
Offering Type | : | Equity |
Security Name | : | Common Stock |
Minimum Number of Shares Offered | : | 6,666 |
Maximum Number of Shares Offered | : | 713,333 |
Price per Share | : | $1.50 |
Pre-Money Valuation | : | $6,202,500.00 |
COVID Relief
COVID Relief
This offering is being conducted on an expedited basis due to circumstances relating to COVID-19 and pursuant to the SEC’s temporary COVID-19 regulatory relief set out in Regulation Crowdfunding §227.201(z).
Expedited closing sooner than 21 days.
Further, in reliance on Regulation Crowdfunding §227.303(g)(2) A funding portal that is an intermediary in a transaction involving the offer or sale of securities initiated between May 4, 2020, and August 31, 2020, in reliance on section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act (15 U.S.C. 77d(a)(6)) by an issuer that is conducting an offering on an expedited basis due to circumstances relating to COVID-19 shall not be required to comply with the requirement in paragraph (e)(3)(i) of this section that a funding portal not direct a transmission of funds earlier than 21 days after the date on which the intermediary makes publicly available on its platform the information required to be provided by the issuer under §§227.201 and 227.203(a).
Voting Rights of Securities Sold in this Offering
Voting Proxy. Each Subscriber shall appoint the Chief Executive Officer of the Company (the “CEO”), or his or her successor, as the Subscriber’s true and lawful proxy and attorney, with the power to act alone and with full power of substitution, to, consistent with this instrument and on behalf of the Subscriber, (i) vote all Securities, (ii) give and receive notices and communications, (iii) execute any instrument or document that the CEO determines is necessary or appropriate in the exercise of its authority under this instrument, and (iv) take all actions necessary or appropriate in the judgment of the CEO for the accomplishment of the foregoing. The proxy and power granted by the Subscriber pursuant to this Section are coupled with an interest. Such proxy and power will be irrevocable. The proxy and power, so long as the Subscriber is an individual, will survive the death, incompetency and disability of the Subscriber and, so long as the Subscriber is an entity, will survive the merger or reorganization of the Subscriber or any other entity holding the Securities. However, the Proxy will terminate upon the closing of a firm-commitment underwritten public offering pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933 covering the offer and sale of Common Stock or the effectiveness of a registration statement under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 covering the Common Stock.
*Maximum Number of Shares Offered subject to adjustment for bonus shares. See Bonus info below.
Investment Incentives and Bonuses*
Time-Based:
Friends and Family Early Birds
Invest within the first 48 hours and get 10% bonus shares.
Super Early Bird Bonus
Invest within the first week and get 7% bonus shares.
Early Bird Bonus
Invest in the first 14 days and get 5% bonus shares.
Amount-Based:
Community Leader ($500+)
COMMUNITYx box logo t-shirt
Justice Warrior ($1,000+)
COMMUNITYx Long Sleeve (Themes Available: Police Misconduct or Climate Crisis)
Receive Bronze Investor Badge on COMMUNITYx App
The People’s Choice ($2,500+)
COMMUNITYx Long Sleeve (Themes Available: Police Misconduct or Climate Crisis)
Receive Silver Investor Badge on COMMUNITYx App
COMMUNITYx box logo t-shirt
5% bonus shares
The Changemaker ($5,000+)
COMMUNITYx Long Sleeve (Themes Available: Police Misconduct or Climate Crisis)
Receive Gold Investor Badge on COMMUNITYx App
COMMUNITYx box logo t-shirt
Zoom call with the Founders
7.5% bonus shares
Global Citizen ($10,000+)
COMMUNITYx Long Sleeve (Themes Available: Police Misconduct or Climate Crisis)
Receive Gold Investor Badge on COMMUNITYx App
COMMUNITYx box logo t-shirt
Zoom call with the Founders
Opt-in to observe 1 board call (timing will be decided by The Board)
10% bonus shares
The 10% Bonus for StartEngine Shareholders
CommunityX, Inc. will offer 10% additional bonus shares for all investments that are committed by investors that are eligible for the StartEngine Crowdfunding Inc. OWNer's bonus.
This means eligible StartEngine shareholders will receive a 10% bonus for any shares they purchase in this offering. For example, if you buy 100 shares of Common Stock at $1.50 / share, you will receive 110 shares of Common Stock, meaning you'll own 110 shares for $150. Fractional shares will not be distributed and share bonuses will be determined by rounding down to the nearest whole share.
This 10% Bonus is only valid during the investors eligibility period. Investors eligible for this bonus will also have priority if they are on a waitlist to invest and the company surpasses its maximum funding goal. They will have the first opportunity to invest should room in the offering become available if prior investments are cancelled or fail.
Investors will only receive a single bonus, which will be the highest bonus rate they are eligible for.
*All perks occur when the offering is completed.
A crowdfunding investment involves risk. You should not invest any funds in this offering unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. In making an investment decision, investors must rely on their own examination of the issuer and the terms of the offering, including the merits and risks involved. These securities have not been recommended or approved by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority. Furthermore, these authorities have not passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this document. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not pass upon the merits of any securities offered or the terms of the offering, nor does it pass upon the accuracy or completeness of any offering document or literature. These securities are offered under an exemption from registration; however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not made an independent determination that these securities are exempt from registration.
[The following is an automated notice from the StartEngine team].
Hello!
As you might know, COMMUNITYx has exceeded its minimum funding goal. When a company reaches its minimum on StartEngine, it's about to begin withdrawing funds. If you invested in COMMUNITYx be on the lookout for an email that describes more about the disbursement process.
This campaign will continue to accept investments until its indicated closing date.
Thanks for funding the future.
-StartEngine
Hi COMMUNITYx (Cx) Campaign Supporters! It's Chloë here, writing to send my utmost gratitude and thanks for engaging with us.
We've been blown away by your support in just the 13 days alone! In the several days of the campaign, we were able to raise over $40k, and as of today, our campaign is at over $67k! We couldn't have made these amazing strides without your commitments!
Aside from campaign progress, we have a couple of other updates to share, as well.
#1: COMMUNITYx is featured in this month's issue of Forbes Magazine! If you have a moment to visit your nearest bookstore, please grab a copy of the October Issue of Forbes Magazine. You will see our feature on page 67! (Forbes Cover + Cx Ad pictured below)
#2: We are actively pushing updates to the COMMUNITYx Mobile App, and encourage you to visit the App or PLAY Store to make sure that you have the latest version! Some of the updates include bug fixes, UI updates, and soon to come - a new feature release!
That's all for now! Thanks again and please be sure to share our campaign with likeminds and hearts who are interested in leveraging technology to make the world a better place!
Chloë Cheyenne Sledd
COMMUNITYx
Founder & CEO
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