ABOUT Khadijah

Khadijah has led an impressive career, not only as a lawyer, but as an entrepreneur, innovator, and investor in the tech industry. After graduating from Spelman College, Khadijah received a MSc from the University College London and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She practiced law in Washington, D.C. for several years at premier law firm Covington & Burling, leading complex investigation workstreams, advising clients on urgent regulatory and compliance matters, and representing criminal and family law clients in court with a 100% success rate.

While still practicing law, she founded The Nile List, a digital platform for the discovery of Black-owned ecommerce brands, in 2019. Khadijah’s work with The Nile List was featured in several well-known publications, including The Grio, Forbes, CNBC, Today.com, Oprah Daily, BUST Magazine, and more.

In June 2021, Khadijah completed the acquisition of The Nile List by Sean “Diddy” Combs through Empower Global to build a social-media driven marketplace to shop the world’s best Black-owned brands. Khadijah joined Empower Global as CEO. While leading Empower Global, Khadijah oversaw the multi-million dollar development of Empower Global’s technology and spearheaded Empower Global’s team, which she grew by 20x, to build an innovative curated ecommerce company. Through her commitment to this role, she helped Empower Global build the most cutting-edge marketplace focused on Black-owned brands in existence, with thousands of products available.

As a founder, Khadijah built an investment portfolio as well, angel investing in several early-stage Black led companies such as CurlMix, Backpack Healthcare, and Ten to One Rum. She invests largely in the tech and consumer product spaces. Her investment thesis has always revolved around investing in innovative Black founders with vision who can benefit from her supportive expertise.

Upon exiting Empower Global, Khadijah also consults and coaches a wide range of entrepreneurs, focusing heavily on process building, go-to-market strategy, team building and hiring, fundraising, and operational organization. She also serves as a business coach to early-stage founders looking to scale their companies – while remaining sane and whole! Khadijah served as the interim Chief Operating Officer for The Majira Project, a business accelerator, backed by Boston Consulting Group from 2023 - 2024.

She sits on the advisory boards of Give Credit, The Plug, and Drivingo. Khadijah has served as the Chief Operating Officer for The Majira Project, a business accelerator, backed by Boston Consulting Group, for underrepresented founders. She currently leads the Center for Black Entrepreneurship’s first incubator program for Black-led startups, the LIFT Incubator. Khadijah additionally serves as a Techstars and W.E.B. Tulsa mentor, as well as Black Ambition’s first Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

A self-described community-builder, she has spent her career creating communities and platforms that uplift Black entrepreneurs. Khadijah joined with Brahm Rhodes to found Fictive Ventures in order to stand in the ever-widening gap that Black founders face when seeking funding for their innovative and world-changing ventures. Fictive Ventures just announced its historic first $5 million dollar fund, which is the first venture fund focused on both Black startup founders as well as Black investors.

She also remains a member of the New York, Washington DC, and Georgia bars. But, she is more than just her work and accomplishments. Khadijah lives life as a free Black woman who travels, shops (with the dopest Black businesses, of course), writes about the insidiousness of white supremacy, tries to keep her plants alive, and bakes (an absolutely amazing carrot cake, in case anyone was wondering). She will tell you exactly what’s on her mind at any given time, and has gotten into good trouble for it often. This website reflects her journey as a whole person who roots for everybody Black in a myriad of ways, not just through her work as an investor, consultant, executive, and an entrepreneur. Welcome!