4 days ago
Getting Funded In Black Media: Who Owns The Story—and The Capital?
Rhonesha Byng, founder of Her Agenda and cofounder of BOMESI, joins Forbes to discuss the power of ownership and the urgency for Black media founders to scale on their own terms—recorded live at Forbes.
In this week's edition of the ForbesBLK newsletter, Rhonesha Byng, founder of Her Agenda and cofounder of BOMESI, unpacks the case for media as a long game, the need for infrastructure over influence, and why Black media isn't a 'niche'—it's a missed market. Click here to get on the newsletter list!
If you're in the Black media space, you've likely heard of BOMESI—the Black Owned Media Equity and Sustainability Institute—and Rhonesha Byng, a Forbes Under 30 alum who has been working at the intersection of media and equity for nearly two decades.
Earlier this week, I sat down with Byng, founder of Her Agenda and cofounder of BOMESI, for a wide-ranging conversation on power, ownership, and why Black media can't afford to wait for permission — or perfect conditions — to scale.
As a college sophomore in 2008, Byng launched Her Agenda, a digital platform created to close the gap between ambition and achievement for women. Fifteen years later, she's still betting on visibility, ownership and infrastructure — now with BOMESI, focused on confronting what many founders know too well: Black creators drive culture and consumer engagement but remain vastly underfunded by advertisers, investors and media buyers.
'Black creators know how to make a dollar out of fifteen cents,' Byng said. 'But we shouldn't have to keep proving our value while others copy our playbook.'
We also talked about what many investors still miss: media isn't a vanity sector — it's an undervalued asset class. It requires patience and doesn't fit the '10x' tech mold. But with $300 billion in annual ad spending — and less than 2% reaching Black-owned outlets — the market inefficiency is obvious.
'Whoever controls the media controls the mind,' Byng told me. 'Ownership matters. Infrastructure matters. And the audience is already here.'
Watch the full Forbes Talks interview to hear:
- How she built Her Agenda from a dorm room to a national platform.
- What defines a founder ready to scale.
- Why niche beats general.
- Why the 2025 BOMESI Summit in Detroit on June 7-8 is a marketplace for media equity.
Enjoy this week's newsletter, and keep up with me on LinkedIn.
