Family, Entrepreneurship, and $50,000 | Documentary

In 2021, NPR held its first-ever How I Built This Pitch Competition for early-stage entrepreneurs with ideas poised to change the world for the better. The winner, who was awarded a $50,000 grant generously provided by GoDaddy, was Toby Egbuna, founder of Chezie.com, an online platform with a mission to create more inclusive and equitable workplaces.

To commemorate his win and share Toby’s story, here is a short, ten minute documentary about Toby and his co-founder (and sister) Dumebi.

The documentary highlights their journey as young, Black entrepreneurs in a white dominated tech industry, covering the highs and lows of creating a diversity, equity and inclusion service. Most importantly, this story centers around family - how the love and support of your network and community can empower you to build an innovative business.

For this project, I worked with NPR to create a 10min documentary for the 2021 How I Built This Pitch Competition winners Toby and Dumebi Egbuna.

I acted as the lead producer: writing the interview prep questions, interviewing both Toby and Dumebi, providing editing notes to the director. I also helped choose the locations for filming, and obtain the needed permits.