What is Blistey?
Blistey is an app and online business directory and travel app for Blk, Asian, Latinx, and Indigenous businesses. Blistey was launched last July to encourage people of color and their allies to engage and patronize businesses in their communities and cities globally.
Blistey connects the founder's knowledge of urban planning with his desire to connect BIPOC entrepreneurs with their community and companies. The app can be used to find these businesses locally and while traveling.
The current industry landscape
Currently, companies market diversity as something one engages with only during each community's heritage month. If these communities are using the Blistey app throughout the year in the same way, it will put diversity in their hands. It is the Yelp for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people but geared to their needs and valuable when one travels.
The creation of the company
Franklin Forbes, CEO of Blistey, decided to use his skillsets in urban design and planning to connect people to diversity in their city and make their lives easier and more authentic with the Blistey app. Users can browse through listings on the app while traveling and have an easier way to feel connected to their community and find a way to support business people from similar backgrounds.
Blistey can be used in twenty-one cities and growing; twelve are located in the United States and nine internationally. There are over 2,300 listings currently part of their listings globally. Blistey now have approximately 4000 users a month on their website, around 45,000 views a month on Pinterest, 1,000 on their app, and over 4,200 followers on Instagram.
About the team
Blistey is run by a team of eight remarkable women of color. So often, the tables are reversed, and most of the management in startups are men. So that reflects the ways Blistey wants to challenge the status quo in business, particularly in tech.
Check them out: https://blistey.com/