Sumaya Kazi
The CulturalConnect
www.theculturalconnect.com
San Francisco
Age: 24
Sumaya Kazi is the co-founder of The CulturalConnect, an online media publishing company with a collection of four interlocking Web sites and e-magazines aimed at spotlighting and connecting young minority professionals with each other and to the nonprofit world: The DesiConnect caters to South Asians, then there's The AsiaConnect, The MidEastConnect, and The LatinConnect. Each of the sites' content consists largely of profiles and interviews of young minority professionals who are working corporate and nonprofit jobs. The sites' most popular feature is "The ConnectionPoint," a tool that allows the reader to network with featured professionals. Next up? The AfricanaConnect, which will be launched in January, 2007.
The CulturalConnect's staff are all under 30 and work remotely, meaning there's no office overhead. Though she won't disclose revenues, Kazi says the site, which had more than 560,000 page views in September and spends no money on advertising, is profitable, relying mainly on banner advertising. And The CulturalConnect venture is just a spare-time gig for her. Kazi's also the youngest manager in her marketing department at Sun Microsystems.
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