Morgan DeBaun

Morgan DeBaun (born 1990) is an African American serial entrepreneur and corporate advisor. She is the Founder and CEO of Blavity Inc., a digital media company for Black culture and millennials.

Early life and education DeBaun was born in St. Louis, Missouri. While living in a predominantly white suburban neighborhood, her family surrounded her with positive black role models. They sent her to a magnet school in the city for middle school so she could be around more children like herself. For high school, she attended the Catholic all-girls Rosati-Kain Academy in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, commuting from the suburb of Chesterfield.

Career DeBaun began her career working on product management and business development at Intuit. She kept her full time job at Intuit but was spending all her nights and weekends working on Blavity. She ultimately left Intuit and committed to Blavity full time due to her dissatisfaction with the media coverage of Michael Brown's death.

DeBaun cofounded Blavity with Aaron Samuels and Jeff Nelson in 2014.

The news site has grown into a digital ecosystem with a monthly reach of over 100 million people and over 100 corporate partners per year. Their portfolio of brands includes Blavity News, AfroTech, Travel Noire, Shadow and Act, 21Ninety and Lunchtable. Their conferences include Summit21 for Black women creators and AfroTech, the largest tech conference connecting a global community of 20,000+ Black tech innovators through a series of digital and in-person events.

DeBaun is one of few African-American female founders that have raised more than $1 million in venture capital. As of June 2021, DeBaun has raised $12 million for Blavity, Inc.

DeBaun also acts as an advisor to influential global brands and companies including Disney, American Airlines, CES, and Pantora Bridal and often partners Blavity with big brands to help them authentically reach Black audiences. DeBaun also advises entrepreneurs and start up founders in her WorkSmart Program.

Awards and recognition 2016 – Forbes 30 Under 30 list of "young people transforming the future of media"

2016 – The Root 100 list of the 100 most influential African Americans

2016 – MVMT50 Top 10 Innovators of the Year

2018 – Forbes' America's Top 50 Women In Tech.

2019 - Culture Creators Innovators & Leaders Technology Award

2020 - Dot.LA Rising Entrepreneur