Kevin Hart’s plant-based nutrition company has received new funding. In 2022, Hart founded VitaHustle, a plant-based nutrition company that offers an all-in-one protein wellness shake. VitaHustle’s tagline is “Daily Nutrition Simplified” and promises its customers that its offerings will support wellness, gut health, energy, and weight management. The company’s product contains 20 grams of plant protein. It is made with ashwagandha, multivitamins, adaptogens, probiotics, and digestive enzymes, according to its website. It comes in a variety of flavors, including vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and cookies-and-cream.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by G A B R I E L L E (@theplayavistamom) “Kevin Hart passionately believes that everyone should have the right to eat right. VitaHustle presents The One, a targeted blend of 86 premium superfoods that unlock your peak mental and physical performance. It’s all built up to this. We put in years of work,” he said in a video...

A lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding grants through the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access (LCM) program. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the LCM program was funded during Joe Biden’s presidency through the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan Act. Starting in 2023, it has provided nearly $300 million in federal aid to tribes, farmers’ associations, and universities and was created to serve “ underserved producers by increasing land, capital, and market access.” According to a press release shared with AFROTECH™, it funded community-based, locally led projects that provided support such as down payment assistance, low-interest loans, beginning farmer training, cover crop seeds, equipment, technical guidance, infrastructure, procurement agreements, and succession planning support. Under the Trump administration, many grants through the program were canceled. Farm Service Agency Associate Administrator Steven...

Kevin Hart remains optimistic about Hartbeat’s future. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Hartbeat — a global, multiplatform entertainment company — was founded by Hart, who was appointed CEO in 2025. Hartbeat laid off nearly 25% of its workforce in November 2024 and an additional dozen employees in December 2025. This included Eric Eddings and Lesley Gwam, who had been with the company since 2023 and were to produce audio shows and other projects, as well as Hartbeat’s TV division heads, Tiffany Brown and Mike Stein, according to information from TMZ and Bloomberg. “My executive team is still there. My team of creatives are still there. Did I reduce? Yes. My company was too f-cking big,” he said on “The Breakfast Club.” “I don’t need 80 people to operate how we’re operating now. Downsize. Save the money. Save the f-cking money. I got offices in New York, Atlanta. Why do I need all that? Why am I watching other businesses get smarter? Why is Netflix laying off people but Hartbeat’s...

Slutty Vegan Founder Pinky Cole has made changes to her bankruptcy filing. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, she filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 12, owing $1.2 million to the U.S. Small Business Administration and $192,000 to the Georgia Department of Revenue. At the time of the filing, she did not have an attorney, but now she has brought on Jamie Christy of Schreeder, Wheeler & Flint, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. On May 19, amendments were made to the bankruptcy filing to include debts totaling more than $80,000 in credit card debt and unpaid bills from a real estate agency, a restaurant supplier, several medical providers, and roadway toll authorities, per the outlet. According to the filing, that brings her total debt to $4 million, an increase from a previous amount of $3.6 million. The bankruptcy filing follows Cole reclaiming ownership of her company, which raised a $25 million Series A in 2022, bringing its valuation to $100 million that year. At its...

The Obama Presidential Center is expected to provide an economic boost to Chicago. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the 19-acre campus is an $800 million museum and public gathering space honoring the legacy of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. It will open its doors on Juneteenth in Chicago’s South Side. In an Instagram post, Obama described the center as a “hub for change” and recognized it would be a place for “ leaders and people from all over the world to come together, get inspired, and take what they learn back to their own communities.”   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Barack Obama (@barackobama) The center is expected to attract 700,000 visitors annually , according to ABC7 Chicago. “We’ve been waiting for it for such a long time, so it’s exciting to see it come to fruition, and we are just looking forward to meeting all the new guests from all around the world,” said Sheinette Williams with Hyatt Place, Chicago South, University...

For years, Black women have been told that education, adaptability, and professionalism would create economic stability. But new labor data suggests that even being highly educated and deeply embedded in the workforce is not enough to shield them from economic instability when systems shift. According to analysis published by the Feminist Majority Foundation, Black women’s unemployment had climbed to 6.4% in April 2025, well above the national unemployment rate reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, white women’s unemployment remained significantly lower at 3.8%. Now in 2026 those numbers have reached 7.3% and 3.7%, respectively. How AI And DEI Rollbacks Are Impacting The Workforce The numbers arrive at a moment when companies are aggressively integrating AI into workplace operations while simultaneously scaling back Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. Together, those shifts are creating a labor market where Black women...

A directory that helps people connect patients to Black doctors is being sued. Find A Black Doctor is an online directory founded by Dina D. Strachan, a graduate of Harvard University and Yale School of Medicine, and a board-certified dermatologist. According to its website, its directory features U.S.-based Black physicians and dentists in active clinical practice. It is driven by a mission to provide patients in the Black community with access, education, and resources to improve health outcomes. According to a statement on Find A Black Doctor’s website, “Having access to Black doctors has been shown to improve health outcomes — particularly for Black men.” The American Medical Association reports that African Americans make up approximately 13% of the U.S. population, but are only 5% of practicing physicians. “This underrepresentation adds a challenge to potential patients seeking a physician of this kind. Just like women have been shown to prefer access to female physicians,...

Kountry Wayne didn’t originally plan to pursue comedy, but his gift led to an empire that brought him millions of dollars. The Georgia native admitted that when he entered the content and entertainment space, business was always his priority “from day one,” he said on the “Earn Your Leisure” podcast. He acknowledged comedy “was just a gift” that he knew “how to monetize.” Wayne began recording comedic videos as far back as 2014. He went viral in October 2014, and by March 2015, he had 1 million followers and was touring as a comedian. He claims he was making “like a million dollars a year at the time” on the podcast. He stopped sharing video content on social media by 2017. However, COVID-19 halted his live bookings, and he turned back to social media to share content. Facebook was one of the early platforms that paid him for uploading videos. His first video led to a $70 payment from the company. “When the pandemic came, I got back to it on Facebook cause I had built that Facebook...

MacKenzie Scott has built a reputation for her generosity, reportedly donating roughly $7.2 billion in 2025 alone — including well over $1 billion to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Despite her significant contributions and ongoing philanthropic work, Scott’s name was notably absent from the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s latest ranking of top donors. According to the International Business Times (IBM), limited public disclosure around her philanthropy played a key role in her omission. Scott, her representatives, and Yield Giving — the organization that oversees her donations — declined to provide sufficient information about donor-advised funds to meet the publication’s inclusion criteria, the outlet notes. “MacKenzie Scott is among the notable absences on the Philanthropy 50 list,” The Chronicle said, per IBM. “While it is possible she made gifts to her donor-advised funds that would have earned her a spot on the Philanthropy 50, she and her representatives...

Chris Rock reveals how much money he missed out on with the film “Shrek.” Rock is a South Carolina native raised in Brooklyn, New York. He dropped out of high school, earned a GED, studied broadcast journalism for a year at a community college, and worked various jobs to sustain himself, including as a busboy at Red Lobster, according to Oprah. He held on to his aspirations for a career in comedy. “By the time I was 7 or 8, I wanted to be a comedy writer. When I’d see the credits roll after a comedy show, I’d say to myself, ‘I’m going to write for one of these shows one day,'” he said, per Oprah. While in line for a ticket to comedian Eddie Murphy’s stand-up show at Radio City Music Hall in 1985, he stumbled upon a newspaper ad promoting an open-mic session at comedy club Catch a Rising Star. He auditioned and performed there as part of his entry into comedy. Rock credited Murphy as the first to inspire him “to be in front of the camera as a comedian” during a conversation with...

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is disputing claims surrounding the controversial “buy, borrow, die” tax strategy often associated with ultrawealthy investors and founders seeking to minimize taxes. During an interview on CNBC on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, Bezos called the strategy a myth. “There’s no truth to this ‘buy, borrow, die’ thing,” Bezos said. “I don’t even know where this comes from.” What Is The ‘Buy, Borrow, Die’ Tax Strategy? A 2019 study by economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman found that, for the first time in modern history, the wealthiest Americans may be paying a lower effective tax rate than middle- and working-class households, AFROTECH™ previously reported. In 2018, the study noted the average effective tax rate paid by the top 400 richest U.S. families was reportedly 23%, compared with 24.2% paid by the bottom half of households. The strategy “Buy, borrow, die” refers to a wealth-preservation tactic that allows wealthy individuals to avoid triggering capital...

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, has a stark prediction for the future of white-collar work: AI could begin replacing large numbers of professionals, from law school and MBA graduates to less-credentialed office workers. Suleyman told the Financial Times in February 2026 that AI systems would soon achieve “human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks.” “White-collar work, where you’re sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person — most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12-18 months,” he said. Suleyman pointed to the rapid growth of computing power as a warning sign for the labor market. As AI models continue to scale, he argued, they could outperform many human coders and knowledge workers on complex tasks. CEOs Raise Concerns About AI’s Impact On The Job Market Suleyman’s predictions echo a growing chorus of executives warning about AI’s potential impact on...

Wells Fargo has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging discrimination in loan approvals. Banking Dive reports that a lawsuit combining multiple cases, filed by Wells Fargo shareholders in federal court in Northern California, accuses the bank giant of approving fewer than 50% of refinancing applications for Black borrowers in 2020. The banker was also accused of conducting fake job interviews with nonwhite candidates in order to meet diversity goals, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. Shareholders argue that the bank’s board of directors breached its fiduciary duties regarding Wells Fargo’s regarding the bank’s discriminatory hiring and lending practices, according to a press release shared by the office of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, which served as court-appointed co-lead counsel and was represented by lawyers Mark Molumphy, Tyson Redenbarger, Gia Jung, and Elle Lewis. Wells Fargo has agreed to a $110 million settlement. Of that amount, $100 million will be put toward a Borrower...

Football was never the end goal for two-time Super Bowl champion Justin Tuck. In an interview with Adam Glyn, who describes himself as a New York City-based comedian and street journalist, Tuck revealed that sports were always meant to be the path to a great education, then to a great career. In 2001, he earned a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. He became the team captain and graduated in 2005 as the program’s all-time leader in sacks, earning a management degree, according to his LinkedIn profile. “Sports for me was a conduit or a gateway to get a great education for free. My mom and dad couldn’t afford to send me to the University of Notre Dame… It was always the plan to go and do something from a career standpoint, that was very different than athletics,” he said. Tuck went on to the NFL, drafted in the third round as the No. 74 overall pick in 2005 by the New York Giants. He spent the majority of his 11-year career with the team, then...

Canadian-born streamer Agent 00 has forged his own lane. At 12 years old, he begged his mother to buy him a Kodak camera, he said in a YouTube video. He started taking pictures of his loved ones, took part in video competitions, and even began editing Call of Duty montages. He also started uploading NFL videos to a clip channel. One video in particular of Marshawn Terrell Lynch racked up 70,000 views, he said. That avenue came to a halt due to a copyright strike, he said during a live interview at the University of California, Berkeley, for the Microsoft Windows Campus Creator Tour. “Then I had to find my own hustle,” he explained. He started editing videos for others, providing commentary, and then sharing gaming content on YouTube, with NBA 2K putting him on the map. “I played The Last of Us. I was really good at that. I had some good videos there. Anything from like Watch Dogs, Call of Duty, you know, and stuff like that. Eventually, I landed on NBA 2K,” he said during the live...