By Laura Lorek, Publisher of Silicon Hills News

One of AfroTech’s most impactful events took place Tuesday night at the Paramount Theater in downtown Austin featuring a special screening of Descendant, hosted by kinkofa, a black genealogy website.

Descendant, a new documentary from Participant, Netflix, and the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions tells a story that has been left out of history books. The story centers on the descendants of Africatown and the search for the Clotilda, one of the last recorded ships to illegally bring enslaved Africans to the U.S.

A Congressional Act made it illegal in 1808 for Americans to engage in the slave trade. But the film reports that Timothy Meaher, a wealthy Mobile shipyard owner, who built the Clotilda, bet that he could outwit authorities and bring slaves to Alabama in 1860. He hired Captain William Foster to sail the ship to Africa to buy 110 Africans and bring them back to Mobile.

Filmmaker Margaret Brown documents the search for and historic discovery of the Clotilda. Journalist Ben Raines discovered the shipwreck in 2019, 159 years after it was intentionally set ablaze and sunk to cover up the crime. The film notes that no one from the Meaher family would comment.

The movie blends history and modern-day activism by the people of Africatown seamlessly. It features film footage shot by Nora Neale Hurston, an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker, of Cudjoe “Kazoola” Lewis, one of the last survivors of the Clotilda.

In the movie, Africatown residents read excerpts from Hurston’s book “Barracoon, The Story of the Last Black Cargo.” The book was published in 2018, 87 years after Neale Hurston wrote it. And it details Lewis’ story of being captured in Africa, enslaved, and brought to America on board the Clotilda.

In Descendant, Emmett Lewis, 32, a descendant of Cudjoe, speaks about the importance of telling his family’s story.

Lewis and other descendants of the Clotilda founded Africatown just north of Mobile, in a town formerly known as Magazine Point. After they were freed following the Civil War, they bought the land. The community became part of the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

Today, descendants of Africatown are still fighting for economic and environmental justice. The townsite was home to a now-shuttered International Paper mill. Residents sued the company for releasing hazardous chemicals into the air and water. Several residents have gotten cancer. According to the movie, residents received $200 each from the lawsuit. Africatown residents are still fighting against active industrial chemical plants, quarries, and other businesses that pollute.

At the event, Joey Womack, founder and CEO of Goodie Nation, interviewed his father, Joe Womack, an Africatown native and retired Marine Corp. Major.  Womack, 72, is featured in Descendant as one of Africatown’s community organizers. He runs Clean, Health, Educated, Safe & Sustainable, or C.H.E.S.S, a nonprofit organization.

Womack grew up in Africatown with International Paper and Scott Paper mills operating nearby. He recalled ash falling from the sky and onto his sandwich and into his drink. He said a lot of his peers are no longer here because they grew up in a toxic environment. He’s still fighting against environmental pollution in Africatown. A decade ago, he worked to organize a fight against a Canadian tar-sands storage facility and pipeline.

“I tell people all the time pollution is just another word for poison,” Womack said. “You are releasing poison into the air, you are poisoning me, you actually want to poison me in my community. No, you can’t come here. You have to use words like that.”

The most important weapons against polluting industry, land grabbers, and others seeking to do harm to Africatown is the stories, Womack said.

“Keep telling the stories,” Womack said. “The tremendous stories are the truth you don’t have to fabricate it, you don’t have to dress it up, the story is here and there’s one thing that we have that the other two generations didn’t have, and it’s called the Internet. You put stuff on the Internet and then it goes all over the world.”

Descendant recounts 1860 was when the enslavement of Africatown began but enslavement still exists today, Womack said.

“Enslavement is not just whips and stuff, but it’s mental,” Womack said.

The story of Descendant still continues today, Womack said. The story is still being written, he said.

“And we’re asking the world to be a part of this story,” Womack said.

At its height, Africatown had about 12,000 people, but now it’s down to 2,000 people, but the land is still there, Womack said. A lot of houses have been torn down, but a lot of structures still exist. Womack thinks they can get the community back to 5,000 to 6,000 people by putting in housing and repairing houses that are in disrepair.

Womack envisions Africatown’s Museum on the Clotilda and its descendants having as big a tourism impact as Montgomery’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, dedicated to the victims of lynching in the United States. The economic impact from tourism for the city of Montgomery in the first 12 months of the museum being open was $1 billion, Womack said.

Beyond the film, the message from organizers was a plea to preserve black history. Participant, the filmmaker, recently partnered with kinkofa to launch DescendantFilm.com, an impact hub that features their platform, Rememory, a mobile and web-based application to document and archive family stories. Tameshia Rudd-Ridge and Jourdan Brunson, co-founders of kinkofa created kinkofa and Rememory to preserve the stories of black people.

Stories like Descendant are often left out of American history books, which is why it’s important to preserve family history through an app like Rememory, Brunson said during a panel discussion following the film.

Participant is a connector with partners like Womack’s C.H.E.S.S. to elevate their work which will help what’s happening in Africatown, Michael Kelly, vice president of Participant, said in a panel discussion following the film.

Netflix gives the film an opportunity to have a wider reach, Kelly said.

“When you get a platform such as Netflix, what you have the ability to do is allow a story like this to be elevated literally around the world,” Kelly said. “And people don’t even have to leave their homes to be able to watch it.

Descendant is now streaming on Netflix.

DESCENDANT | Official Trailer | Netflix

Descendant tells the story of the Clotilda – the last known ship to smuggle stolen Africans to America – the unthinkable cover-up, and the impact of that crime on generations of descendants living in Africatown. Once the past is revealed, can the future be reclaimed? #Descendant Descendant is only on Netflix, October 21st.

Smile a lot and wear a great outfit, those are a few pieces of advice given to women pitching their tech startups to investors.

But even that doesn’t seem to work. Women founders actually raised less money last year than in 2020 with female founders securing just 2 percent of venture capital in the U.S. in 2021, the smallest share since 2016, according to Bloomberg News.

To say things are not great for female founders in Texas or across the United States today is an understatement.

The landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the constitution does not confer a right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health organization set women back years in their fight for equality.

Couple that with the fact that Texas bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy unless you have a life-threatening medical emergency. Texas law does not provide exceptions for cases that involve rape or incest.

Despite all the obstacles, the first day of Austin Startup Week at Capital Factory focused on women in technology and showed how resilient and innovative female founders in Austin are.

For example, Eunice Ajim, the founding partner at Ajim Capital, launched an early-stage fund and angel community to provide startups in Africa with pre-seed to seed funding, with check sizes of $25,000 to $150,000.

Lesley Robinson, director of the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute, said she sees UT students interested in social, political, and environmental and impact startups.

“We’re seeing a lot more social impact, environmental entrepreneurs, and I like that trend,” Robinson said during an afternoon panel discussion titled “Who Runs the World.”

Ajim said women need to see their differences as advantages.

“When you get in a room and you are different people pay attention,” Ajim said.

She wears a great outfit in a room with a bunch of people wearing suits and that stands out.

“Use it to your advantage,” she said.

Bet on yourself every time, said Cat Dizon, Active Capital Co-Founder, and Chief Operating Officer.

Women pitching to investors need to come in with passion and determination, Dizon said.

“If it’s not a real problem, and you’re not really passionate about it, It comes through in everything that you do and that you say,” she said.

The largest black technology conference, AfroTech Conference, kicks off Sunday at the Austin Convention Center.

It marks a return to in-person events after two years of the AfroTech Conference held virtually due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The conference features fireside chats with technology leaders and music performances.

“We are continuing to tackle the diversity gap in Big Tech and AfroTech Conference serves as the destination for those fueling more inclusivity in the industry. As we return in person, our mission remains the same: to further build the Black Silicon Valley by helping fast-growing businesses effectively hire Black professionals and close the wealth gap,” Morgan DeBaun, CEO and Founder of Blavity, which puts on the conference, said in a news statement. “We are thrilled to announce our largest lineup of diverse industry speakers and brand partners looking to engage in meaningful discussions about tech disruption and Black innovation. I am excited for the ideas, funding, and career advancement that will come out of this experience and can’t wait to enhance the celebration with our first-ever music festival of Afro-Latinx and Black artists.” 

More than 100 speakers will participate in this year’s AfroTech Conference, which will cover such timely topics as: Securing the Bag: Navigating Tech from Cradle to Career; Climbing to the Top of the Tech Ladder for Engineers and Managers; Web3, Crypto and the Black Economy: Unlocking Inclusive Access with a New Wave of Commerce; Inclusive Product Design: What It Is and Why It Matters, and more. 

The 2022 conference takes place from Nov. 13^th to Nov. 17^th at the Austin Convention Center.

On Sunday, AfroTech’s official welcome and kickoff take place at 3:30 p.m. with DeBaun and Will Lucas in a fireside chat with a performance by Zaytoven.

Other highlights include:

• NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace will speak in partnership with DoorDash to discuss strategies to thrive while being the First, being the Only, and being Different in your industry, company, or boardroom. 
• Rapper and businessman Chamillionaire will take the stage with Silicon Valley Bank to share his journey from rap star to successful founder and investor. He will discuss his entrepreneurial ventures, investment philosophy, and how he’s working to make the tech ecosystem more inclusive and accessible to the Black community. 
• Mark Cuban, Governor of the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team of the National Basketball Association, Co-Founder of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, and Investor on ABC’s Shark Tank, Haywood L. Perry III and Ansley Carlisle of Mark Cuban Companies will share insights from their journeys to entrepreneurship and how they support emerging founders and investors today. 
• Creative director, activist, and fashion designer Aurora James will be joined on stage by Blavity CEO and Founder Morgan DeBaun to discuss how to hold corporations accountable. 

In another sign things in the Austin startup world are beginning to return to normal following the COVID-19 Pandemic, Austin Startup Week returns to in-person events next week.

The 12^th annual Austin Startup Week takes place at Capital Factory downtown Monday through Friday next week. Register here.

“Austin Startup Week has always been about connecting the city’s entrepreneurs and tech community,” Austin Startup Week co-founder Jacqueline Hughes said in a statement. “After two years of virtual events because of COVID-19, we are so excited to be able to unite the people who make growth and innovation possible together in one place.”

Austin Startup Week is free to all registered participants. It features a series of talks, panel discussions, workshops, startup showcases, coffee meetups, lunches, happy hours, parties, and a startup crawl on Friday that requires a paid ticket.

Organizers anticipate 6,000 Austinites and visitors will attend throughout the five days.

This year’s event will feature 12 learning tracks with educational sessions. Featured sessions will include:

• The Future is FemTech: Founders and health leaders will address how tech can advance health equity and protect patient rights.
• Raising Your Seed Round: How startups can begin their fundraising journey.
• How to Engineer a PR Strategy that Actually Works: A guide to credibility for emerging brands.
• The Future of The Digital Economy, A Web3 Forecast: Influential web3 executives will discuss the next innovations being built using blockchain technology.

Industry leaders including IOOGO, McKesson, American Express, BCBSTX | C1 Innovation Lab, DuploCloud, SixLab by Studio X, Fross Zelnick, American Airlines, Chloe Capital, Perkins Coie, and Tech Girl will be on hand for sessions, panels, and networking events highlighting the latest trends in business and technology.

For more information or to register visit Austin Startup Week.

Argo AI, the self-driving startup that launched Robo taxies in Austin, is laying off 78 employees in Austin.

The company filed a report with the Texas Workforce Commission, reporting 68 employees would be laid off at Argo’s 7^th Street location and 10 employees at its Congress location. Argo AI had engineering and development operations and fleet operations in Austin, according to its website.

In 2019, Ford announced plans to expand its self-driving vehicle testing to Austin in collaboration with Argo AI. It was only the third market for Ford to test in along with Miami-Dade County and Washington, D.C.

TechCrunch reported on Oct. 26^th that Argo was shutting down its operations. The announcement came after Ford announced a write-down of its $2.7 billion investment in Argo following its third-quarter earnings report, according to Ward Automotive.

“The folding of Pittsburgh-based Argo AI, which was valued at $7.25 billion just two years ago, according to the website Pitchbook.com, throws a broom-handle in the spokes of the whole notion of fully automated vehicles – an idea industry players have been touting for five years,” according to Ward Automotive.

In September of last year, Walmart announced that it teamed up with Ford Motor Co. and Argo AI to launch an autonomous vehicle delivery service in Austin, Miami, and Washington, D.C.

On Sept. 29^th, Lyft reported that it was offering customers autonomous vehicle rides in Austin, the first commercial autonomous service available in the city. It was working with Argo AI to provide the service.

Parenting is hard and parents often need help.

Now an Austin-based startup, Happypillar has come up with a mental health aid for parents. Happypillar’s founders created a digital therapeutic app that teaches parents how to interact with their young children during playtime.

The Happypillar app only requires five minutes a day and provides instant feedback to parents on how they are positively or negatively interacting with their children by listening to the conversation. This allows parents to change their behavior, which may result in more positive behavior from their children.

Happypillar, founded in February of 2022, launched its app last summer and is currently in beta testing. And it is already receiving accolades. The company announced that Happypillar has won Best App in the 2022 National Parenting Product Awards, which is an annual awards ceremony showcasing the best products for families.

“We’re not necessarily a replacement for therapy, we can be used in addition to regular therapy,” said Sam Gardner, CEO, and co-founder.

Gardner has more than a decade of experience providing go-to-market services to Fortune 50 companies. She built customer success teams at a16z and Accel-backed startups including Rasa and Sauce Labs. She is also the mother to a one-year-old son and a four-year-old son.

Happypillar is going to be widely available in the marketplace before the end of the year, Gardner said.

Happypillar provides low-cost mental health support to parents. The app is based on a subscription model and costs $99 for a whole year or $20 a month.

“We leverage machine learning and licensed clinical play therapists to provide parent coaching and real-time personalized feedback,” Mady Mantha, CTO and co-founder, said in a news release.

Mantha previously worked at Rasa and Sirius. She is a strategic advisor to Fortune 10 companies on their machine learning initiatives. She also led a successful exit with consumer app, FeedYou.

Happypillar focuses on teaching parents how to talk and interact with their children during playtime which can result in “significantly improved behavior, reduced caregiver frustration, and a happier, calmer family,” according to the company.

The need for mental health services in the United States is already big and growing, according to a report by the Brookings Institute in December 2021.

“Health and mental health providers, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, are warning that U.S. children and adolescents are facing a mental health state of emergency,” according to the report. “Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of many behavioral health conditions affecting children and youth had been escalating. In 2018, suicide was the second leading cause of death for youth 10-24. The proportion of all emergency department visits for kids related to mental health increased substantially in 2020.”

To exacerbate the problem, mental health services are often not covered by traditional medical plans. Treatment can be expensive and out of pocket for parents. And low-income families often cannot afford to pay for mental health services.

That’s where Happypillar saw an opportunity to provide low-cost help to parents of young children.

 “This is an amazing app. The app is teaching parents and monitors what they are doing (awesome technology). I like that the program is evidence-based and there is clear research behind the program,” according to the NAPPA’s evaluation team. 

“It’s an honor to be recognized by NAPPA,” Gardner said. “Being a parent today is demanding. Families need access to affordable and actionable support. This award is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of our team.”

Happypillar raised over $570K in a pre-seed round, including investments from Rana el Kaliouby (CEO, Affectiva and GP, AI Operators Fund), Rob May (CTO, Dianthus, and GP, AI Operators Fund).

Earlier this year, Happypillar raised $469,839 in a successful equity-based crowdfunding campaign on WeFunder from 127 investors. HappyPiller used that money to build the beta version of its app and take it to market.

The money came from interested parents and therapists who are now part of the Happypillar community, Gardner said. WeFunder allows anyone to invest in a company for as little as $100.

Happypillar has three full-time employees. In addition to Gardner and Mantha, Ben Quachtran is the founding engineer at Happypillar. He previously worked at Rasa and Disney. He provided strategic planning and engineering services to Fortune 50 companies.

The company is fully remote and is working to raise its seed-stage round of funding, Gardner said.

Jasper, an AI content platform based in Austin, announced last week that the company raised a $125 million Series A funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation.

The company harnesses artificial intelligence to help businesses and individuals create content. Its technology has been used in companies to help with blog posts and write and illustrate children’s books and help non-native speakers communicate more effectively.

Insight Partners led the round joined by Coatue, Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP, Foundation Capital, Founders Circle Capital, HubSpot Ventures, and others.

The company plans to use the funds raised on product development, customer service, and distribution expansion. Jasper has a new browser extension, released for Chrome. In addition, the company recently released Jasper Art, text-to-image generation, and its newest innovation in the browser extension.

“With the extension, content creators who find themselves stuck can call up Jasper with a single click or keystroke and get contextual recommendations for original content whenever writer’s block strikes,” according to a news release. “The extension can be found at Jasper.ai and works across Google Docs, Gmail, Notion, HubSpot, Shopify, social media platforms, content management systems, and many more content destinations.”

“Generative AI represents a major breakthrough in creative potential, but it’s still inaccessible and intimidating to many,” Chief Executive Officer Dave Rogenmoser said in a news release. “Jasper is working to bring AI to the masses and teach people how to leverage it responsibly so that businesses and individuals can better convey their ideas. We’re grateful to our investors for believing in that potential as firmly as we do.”

Since launching in January of 2021, Jasper now supports more than 70,000 paying subscribers ranging from individual creatives to teams at large enterprises.

Texas Attorney General has sued Google over its use of biometric data collections in Texas.

Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges that Google unlawfully captured and used the biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent.

The lawsuit alleges Google “collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, from Texans through its products and services like Google Photos, Google Assistant, and Nest Hub Max.”

The lawsuit alleges Google violated the state’s Capture or use of Biometric Identifier Act.

“Google’s indiscriminate collection of the personal information of Texans, including very sensitive information like biometric identifiers, will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Paxton said in a news statement. “I will continue to fight Big Tech to ensure the privacy and security of all Texans.” 

Previously, Paxton filed lawsuits against Google for violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act and for deceptively tracking users’ location without their consent.  

José Castañeda, a Google spokesman, said in a statement to the New York Times that Paxton “is once again mischaracterizing our products in another breathless lawsuit.” He added, “We will set the record straight in court.”

The lawsuit can be found here.