Kathryn Finney is an entrepreneur, investor, speaker, mentor, author, and pioneer. Kathryn has achieved many firsts. She started one of the first fashion blogs called the Budget Fashionista; MSN called it one of the hundred most useful sites on the web.
Kathryn Finney is Founder and CEO of Genius Guild – a business creation platform that invests in Black entrepreneurs building scalable businesses that serve black communities and beyond; she also serves as a General Partner of the Greenhouse Fund – a $10M pre-seed venture fund that invests in market-based innovations that end racism.
Prior to her time as CEO and General Partner, Kathryn served as the CEO and founder of digitalundivided, Budget Fashionista, and The Doonie Fund. Kathryn is in the process of finalizing a new book which is slated to debut in the Summer of 2022 under Penguin Random House’s Portfolio imprint. Her latest project is Build The Damn Thing – a podcast where she shares a narrative of her journey and storied career as an entrepreneur, inclusion champion, and investor.
A Yale-trained Epidemiologist, Kathryn has received numerous honors and awards, such as the Grace Hopper Social Impact ABIE Award, which recognizes those who have made a positive impact on women, technology, and society. Working Mother’s 50 Most Powerful Mothers, Marie Claire’s 10 Women to Watch, Entrepreneur Magazine‘s Women to Watch, and the Ebony 100 Black Entrepreneurs 40 under 40 lists.
She has served as an Obama White House Champion of Change and was a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). Kathryn received an Honorary Doctorate from Mount Holyoke College and was inducted into both the African American Alumni Hall of Fame at Rutgers University and Spelman College’s “Game Changers Academy.”
