Darien Dash wasted no time pursuing his entrepreneurial dreams when he founded his first company shortly after graduating high school. In the mid 1990’s, Dash worked with his cousin to create Roc-A-Bloc Records. The production company went on to work with Jay-Z at the start of his career and within two years, Roc-A-Block had generated over $100,000. Dash, however chose to discontinue his involvement with his first business in order to pursue his education. He attended the University of Southern California until his graduation in 1994. He then went on to create his second company, DME Interactive Holdings. Read more on his facebook
During his senior year at university, Darien Dash decided that he wanted to help close the digital divide, which sees ethnic minorities with less ability to access the internet. He worked a job with a cable company where he experienced this divide first-hand when the company refused to provide cable boxes to African American and Hispanic homes. Because of this refusal, Dash left the company and founded DME Interactive Holdings with the goal of providing more technology and internet access to African Americans and Hispanics. In 1999, Darien Dash’s company became the first publicly traded business that was owned by an African American.
When Darien Dash founded DME Interactive Holdings, he was very much aware of the rapid growth of the internet and the upcoming transition to more credit card use and digital services. This knowledge was the inspiration for Dash to close the gap between minorities’ access to internet and ultimately led to his work with the Clinton Administration. Dash testified to a subdivision of Congress where he suggested using celebrities to capture the interest of those who did not own a computer. Today, Darien Dash continues to work in the technology industry and collaborates with churches, congress and schools without profit.
Website: http://dariendash.com/