I am building the operating system for the Neighborhood Economy. I started my entrepreneurial journey 10 years ago in Silicon Valley, turning from a retail exec to a founder at 39.

My work sits at the intersection of economics, humanity, and community through Genesis Block, Newkirklytics, the Neighborhood Economy Index, and Newkirk Enterprises. I’m not talking about hypothetical frameworks or abstract policy theory. I’m designing and deploying real systems that make local economic activity visible, measurable, and investable, especially the micro-entrepreneurs, creators, informal workers, and neighborhood-level producers who have always powered our communities but rarely show up in the data.

I believe the future of prosperity isn’t top-down theories based on outdated economic models but rooted in local ownership, inclusive entrepreneurship, and circular capital systems that keep value circulating where people live. My work turns that belief into infrastructure. The Neighborhood Economy Index and our sector tools quantify what has long been unseen: the economic power of microbusinesses, shared kitchens, creatives, disabled entrepreneurs, local manufacturing ecosystems, and underserved communities across the U.S., the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa.

As a speaker, I bring together data, story, spirit, and strategy. I’ve lived this work for years, building entrepreneurial ecosystems, supporting founders who’ve been overlooked, creating pathways to upward mobility, and designing new economic systems that honor dignity and human possibility. My goal on every stage is simple: help leaders see the Neighborhood Economy differently, not as charity work or an “equity initiative,” but as a powerful engine of growth, resilience, and wealth creation that deserves real investment and serious strategy. It’s actually market inefficiency that needs to be corrected.

I’m here to shift the conversation from wealth extraction to community circulation, from scarcity to abundance, from invisibility to proof, from disconnected programs to systems that actually work. And I’m building alongside institutions, cities, universities, DFIs, foundations, and community leaders who believe, as I do, that the people closest to the problem are also closest to the solution; they need better tools, better data, and better support.

That is the work. That is the calling. And that is the Neighborhood Economy.