When Shanice Brown founded The Barter Shop mobile app, she aimed to create a digital marketplace to support other small businesses and individuals — a microeconomy.

Founded in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the startup is doing critical work as Black businesses and tech hubs look to rebuild “Black Wall Street.”

And now, it will receive a boost.

The Barter Shop is one of 10 Black businesses selected for a new cohort of Black and Latinx-led early-stage companies, through Geekz Ventures, for its Growth pre-accelerator program next month.

“I am impressed with the cohort of early-stage founders that Geekz Ventures has assembled and proud to serve as a mentor," Danielle Nicholson, Geekz Ventures coach and founder and CEO of BuilderBloc, a legal and business advisory firm, said in a statement. “I look forward to providing these founders with the legal guidance required to build a solid foundation for future success.”

Other businesses include:

Hayti — a Black-owned app that aggregates digital content from newspapers, magazines, videos, and podcasts. It was founded by Cary Wheelous. It includes 1,000 Black podcasters and over 200 publishers.

Animteam — A collaborative editing app for 2D frame-by-frame animation founded by Victor Williamson.

visuEats — Founded by Sophronia McKenzie, visuEats is a restaurant web and mobile app that provides photo and video menus. It offers restaurants a digital menu option for customers.

InColorStock — InColorStock is a membership-based model for photographers looking to license stock content. It was founded by veteran journalist and producer Claritza Jimenez.

Lyricster — Founded by Summer "Soulstress Williams, Lyricster is a matching app and social network for music creators.

Spawnn — The platform is an AI highlight reel detection and data analysis platform for gamers founded by the University of Southern California grads Buchi Obi and Will Hollingsworth.

ALIVE Podcast Network — Helping Black creators monetize their content, the platform, founded by Angel Livas, supports podcasters in maintaining their ownership and IP.

Seed at the Table — Seed At The Table is a tech-enabled financial ecosystem operating as an LLC that provides capital, opportunity, and resources.

PrimoStats — Founded by Shayla Price, PrimoStats is a searchable database of curated marketing statistics that helps content marketers find statistics.

Networking, training, financial support among benefits

Providing access to world-class mentors and training sessions on how to scale a business, they will also gain media exposure, including opportunities to be featured UrbanGeekz, a new digital platform.

Award-winning BBC-trained journalist-turned-serial entrepreneur Kunbi Tinuoye founded Geekz Ventures. Former WeWork enablement executive Brandon Wilkins will serve as the program manager.

“What's exciting me the most is being able to witness up-and-coming, Black-founded tech startups. Black people still represent the tech space in low numbers, and I'm excited to see the innovation and growth,” Wilkins said in a statement.

Other mentors and coaches include Mandela S.H. Dixon, the former CEO of All Raise, a non-profit that supports female and non-binary investors, founders, and operators in tech.

Gary Stewart, managing director of Techstars; Kathryn O'Day, partner at Atlanta Ventures; Marguerite Pressley Davis, founder of Finance Savvy CEO; Aniyia L. Williams, principal at Omidyar Network, and Terry (Kojo) Oppong, creator manager at LinkedIn, among others, will be in attendance.

“Our mission is to empower business owners and entrepreneurs of colour to create the lives they always imagined for themselves,” Geekz Watch coach Chantel Cohen and founder of CWC Coaching & Therapy, which provides therapy and coaching services to entrepreneurs, said in a statement. “We are excited to work with Geekz Ventures. Through this partnership, our goal is to promote prosperity for underrepresented founders on a global scale.”