CHARLOTTE, N.C. --  A group of women met in person for the first time Thursday afternoon. Sammie Kolk and blogger Molly Hill have been talking with EMichelle Paul for a few days on social media.

What You Need To Know


  • Melanin Enterprise is an app started in Charlotte that helps people find black-owned businesses

  • The app creator says she has seen a huge increase in downloads since the start of protests for George Floyd.

  • Two social media influencers are helping get the word out.

Paul is the founder of an app called Melanin Enterprise. It helps people find black-owned businesses.

“It’s just amazing the amount of support these two ladies brought forth in less than 24 hours,” Paul said.

Kolk and Hill both have more than 20,000 followers on Instagram. They’re what you call "local social media influencers."

The two women didn’t even know Paul one week ago, but once they found out about the app they wanted to help and shared it on their social media accounts.

“There are a lot of grand gestures happening right now, but I think for ongoing change it starts in your community,” Hill said.

Kolk is a makeup artist and said the recent protests for George Floyd were a wake up call.

“It’s me taking an action to promote black-owned businesses in Charlotte to my audience, and others who aren’t even following me, so they are able to find and support it,” Kolk said. “Doing something like this is just a stepping stone to bringing everyone together.”

Paul said she has seen a huge increase of activity on her app. Since the start of June, which is just a few days, more people have downloaded the app than all of March and April combined.

“My phone was going off the hook, off the radar, and I had no idea why,” Paul said.

The social media sharing has also helped black-owned businesses find out about the app. Ryan Stowe owns a law firm in Salisbury, North Carolina and signed up last week.

“Joining that app has literally been an entire community,” Stowe said. “Every now and then we may get shouts out on Instagram and things of that nature, so I have gotten some DMs from that. It has increased my following, so I think it certainly has been helpful.”

As people start to visit black owned-businesses, Paul hopes it’s not just an exchange of money. She hopes there are also some real conversations among people of all races.

“Ask them what has been your experience with the police and I can guarantee you that eight times out of 10 they will have some sort of experience that has traumatized them,” Paul said.

It gives others an understanding they may have not had before.

“The city of Charlotte is coming together, and we are finding ourselves being united in a way that could be an example for the rest of the world,” Paul said.

The app Melanin Enterprise is free to download and join.