Black Founder

An empowering, inspiring, instructive, and essential blueprint for success from the award-winning entrepreneur who USA Today named one of the 21 most influential Blacks in technology and is the co-founder and former CEO of the nation’s first mobile theatrical subscription company, MoviePass, and founder of the Urbanworld Film Festival. Bracingly honest, as well as entertaining, this inspiring business memoir includes outrageous anecdotes featuring the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Eddie Murphy.

From the award-winning entrepreneur USA Today named one of the 21 most influential Blacks in technology comes an empowering, bracingly honest, entertaining blueprint for success in life and work—including the true story of what really happened to MoviePass, the nation’s groundbreaking first-ever theatrical subscription service—straight from the co-founder and former CEO himself…
 
Stacy Spikes knows what’s it like to be an outsider. He certainly knew he didn’t fit the mold of a successful future tech entrepreneur. But he marshaled his resilience and ultimately set out to shatter that mold—along with the glass ceiling that came with it. Finding his footing in the tech world was an education in the complexities of being an outsider—but as Stacy came to see, rather than a hindrance, it afforded him a unique position of power.
 
Beginning as a film studio gopher, Spikes quickly rose through the industry ranks, being named one of the Hollywood Reporter’s 30 Under 30. Still, he was an outsider looking in. So he set out to make his own dreams a reality. Defying expectations, Spikes effectively disrupted the status quo and reinvented himself from junior executive to CEO Tech Founder. What ensued was an escalating adventure with bigger stages, bigger risks, and a roller-coaster ride of exhilarating ascent—unpredictable collapse—and a story book return. 
 
Now Spikes shares his challenges, pitfalls, and keys to personal and professional fulfillment. He shows how the seemingly impossible can be overcome by having faith in oneself and creating from a place of confidence. Taking readers inside the battles of the boardroom and beyond, Black Founder is a business memoir that will inspire every outsider who has a dream.