FAQ

BlackShares is a revolutionary new platform, created specifically to build real Black economic empowerment. All revenue generated by BlackShares is shared with its members, with an additional share allocated to an investment fund for Black-owned businesses.

We start with a premium-only social and professional network for our community to use in lieu of X, Bluesky, Threads, LinkedIn, etc. This is available right now and membership fees are the first revenue stream that we're allocating as described above.

As opposed to other platforms, with BlackShares, our time, money and attention can now directly contribute to our collective economic empowerment. And, as we add new features and services to the platform, a percentage of revenue from those will likewise empower our community.

BlackShares also emphasizes and enables the cultivation of the many talents of our community for unprecedented economically empowering collaboration. The BlackShares Exchange connects influencers, creators, advisors and anyone with a needed skill or talent with Black founders. The goal is to foster collaboration in building Black-owned businesses in exchange for equity ownership and/or future revenue sharing among all collaborators.

Uptrepreneurship is a term we coined to describe the new kind of work we're enabling here at BlackShares.

Prior to now, there's been plenty of opportunity for workers to trade their time for a check—whether as an employee, contractor, or even via gig work.

But if workers want more for their time. If they want to keep earning while they're not working, there's been no real way to achieve that at scale, except to become an entreprenuer.

We've created a third way to work, wherein you don't have to launch an entire company^*, but can instead use your current skills and still have part-ownership (equity) and/or revenue sharing in not just one, but multiple companies with which you work.

That's Uptrepreneurship!

^*But, if you do want to launch a company, we believe BlackShares can dramatically improve your odds of success!

It's easy to start:

1. Join BlackShares
2. Update your personal profile to reflect your skills and experience, including whether you're a creator, coach, etc.
3. You can also indicate your upside preferences (types of businesses, whether you prefer equity, revshare or both, etc)
4. If you're a founder or business owner, create separate profiles for each business.
5. For each business where you have a need (e.g. marketing, software development, etc), create a project and the kind of upside you'd consider giving (equity, revshare, or both).
6. You can now enter the BlackShares marketplace and search for potential relationships
7. You'll also start to see suggested relationships from the BlackShares platform
8. See a business, project or member that interests you? Send a connection request, then start a dialogue!

That's it! Once you've negotiated the scope of work and the shared upside, you'll note the terms on the relationship, along with any agreements.

Absolutely!

In fact, we strongly encourage this as it maximizes the odds of having upside in a number of successful businesses. Of course, you don't want to overextend yourself and take on more work than you can accommodate at any given time.

However, bear in mind that this may also be subject to any NDAs or non-compete agreements you make with the businesses you work with. For instance, a business may request that you don't work for a similar competitor for a period.

Absolutely! We encourage members to maximize their skills, talent and experience. If that means helping other companies for upside while building your own, then go for it! It's actually smart to leverage the collective efforts of many businesses to increase your overall chances of success.

And, using BlackShares to get help on your own business will likely free up time that you can use to share your abilities with other businesses.

In fact, you may be considering starting a business, and decide that you'd rather use your skills to get upside in multiple other businesses instead.

The point is, it's up to you. You know have opportunities like never before to use your time and talents in ways that work for you, giving you a chance at more ROI than possibile until now.

Only by your imagination! Reach out, connect and negotiate the best mutually beneficial arrangements for each relationship!

Profit is more variable, harder to quantity, and less transparent / predictable. If agreements are based on profit, then the same transaction could yield different rewards at different times based on other factors that include re-investment, etc.

Revenue sharing also protects the payer because it allows them to calculate the cost of that revshare as part of their COGS and ensure that they're building in enough margin. Much easier to manage.

For these reasons, we emphasize revenue-sharing for relationships created on the platform, as well as for the revenue sharing that the BlackShares platform provides to members.

Earning revshare with BlackShares starts with referring new members!

It's easy to refer:

1. Sign in to BlackShares and click your profile picture at the top right of the site, then choose "My Account" and click the "Referrals" tab (or just click here).
2. Click the "Copy my Referral Link" button
3. Copy your referral link to your social media profiles, posts and tweets, email, etc.
4. Whenever someone follows your referral link to BlackShares and joins, you get credit for the referral.
5. Note: Wherever you see a share button on BlackShares to share a profile, post, or any other content, your referral code is automatically embedded in the shared URL. Anyone who follows the link to view the shared content, then signs up is credited as your referral. Share away!

You can track your referrals and referral earnings here.

You earn from your referrals in multiple ways:

1. A percentage (currently 10%) of your referrals' membership fees in perpetuity.
2. A percentage (currently 10%) of the revenue generated by your referrals other activity on the platform (e.g. sales, affiliate commissions, etc.) in perpetuity.
3. A percentage (currently 50%) of third-party ad revenue generated on BlackShares. This revenue share is based on your referral, as well as other activity.
4. Additional opportunities to earn, as we grow revenue categories on the platform.

So, BlackShares shares all revenue with members, and much of the share is based referring new members. Influencers and creators with large followings can earn six or seven figures in monthly recurring revenue from membership fee commissions alone.

Yes!

We track your username history and automatically ensure that old referral links containing a previous username will record referrals for you.

BTW, the same goes for your profile: profile links that contain your old username will automatically redirect to your current profile.

Monthly.

Your earnings will accrue in your BlackShares Wallet and are paid to you on a monthly basis.

Note: Earnings become eligible for payout after 60 days. This allows time for subscription cancellations to process and other transactions to settle.

BlackShares currently supports PayPal, Venmo and ACH to your bank account.

Please note that payout methods may change, at which point we'll notify you.