121. Earn Money on Shopping and Supporting Black Businesses ft Matthew Addai (Cashblack)

In this episode, we’re exploring Cashblack, a game-changing cashback platform supporting Black-owned businesses and fostering community growth.

We explore the platform’s origins, born from a pivotal social moment, and how it’s changing how we shop while empowering communities. You’ll hear about how Cashblack works, what makes it stand out, and the innovative strategies behind building trust with users and established brands.

Key highlights include:
• The origin story of Cashblack and how it came to life during a key social moment
• A breakdown of how Cashblack works and its unique selling points
• The power of trust-building through strategic partnerships
• The challenges Cashblack has faced on its entrepreneurial journey
• The vital role of community feedback and engagement in shaping the platform
• Exciting upcoming features and plans for expanding the Cashblack experience

This episode is packed with insights into how one platform makes a real difference and paves the way for future growth and economic empowerment.

Chapters

• 0:00 Cash Back for Black-Owned Businesses
• 11:38 Building a Community for Business Success
• 22:02 Empowering Black-Owned Businesses With Cash Back

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey guys and welcome back to the pennies to pounds podcast with your host, kia, and this is a podcast where you aim to dispel your myths, simplify difficult financial jargon and rectify your own personal problems. Happy Monday, everyone. I hope you've had an amazing week and I have got a really good episode for you today. I'm saying really good because I always say incredible, so I'm trying to switch it up little synonyms. I'm gonna say really good for good one. If you know anything about me and anything about pennies to pounds, we love any way to save money and a big thing for us is cashback, always talking about it, ways that you can spend and still make money back. So I've got a fantastic guest for you today. He's going to talk about just that and ways that you can capitalise when you come and spend your money.

Speaker 2: 0:46

So let's go straight to our guest, Guest who are you.

Speaker 1: 0:49

I'm so excited to have you here today. But before we get into it, I want to ask you how is your 2025?

Speaker 2: 0:56

going Not too bad, you know not too bad. Started off really well.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Amazing, that's amazing.

Speaker 2: 1:14

That's amazing. Oh, it's still here, still still blodding along in january yeah, never stops.

Speaker 1: 1:45

I feel you on that one, but I'm super excited to get into today's episode. So we're going to be talking about more about Cashback and Cashblack, your company, specifically. So first question I want to go right back to the beginning, the inception, the idea. What sparked the idea for Cashblack and how did you turn that initial spark into a fully fledged platform? Because many people have an idea I think we have ideas tons throughout the day but not everyone sits there and says, huh, I'm actually going to do something with that idea. So talk us through it from the beginning.

Speaker 2: 2:20

From the beginning Cool. So obviously you remember back in 2020, pandemic, global anti-racism movement, all of the statements being let out by the major brands during that summer like Black Square summer, as we all know and, yeah, I was already looking for something entrepreneurial to do. I've been off work for maybe a year or so on a bit of sabbatical, trying to teach myself how the world works and halfway through that year, with the whole pandemic, the recession and, of course, global anti-racism movement, I feel like we all got a better idea of how the world works and I'd already been researching why things were how they were, that's, the racism and its impacts on us as a people. So that there was a direct correlation between racism and the socioeconomic impacts on us as a people with regards to lack of support for black-owned businesses, and felt that the best way to try and fix these issues would be to try and find a way to incentivise the patronage in black-owned businesses by having the black-owned businesses reinvest back into the patrons.

Speaker 2: 3:19

So my two younger brothers and I boards during that whole like pandemic period, like so many people were who started businesses, we thought to ourselves about a cashback website, a cashback website for black owned businesses. Why don't we call it cash black? Hold up. Why don't we call it cash black, right and yeah. What started off as a play on words is now our tech company.

Speaker 1: 3:45

that's incredible, I think that having that idea because I think there was a lot of ideas that were born during that movement- yeah, loads, loads, loads but this is such a great one and I think the fact that it's still thriving now I think we had a lot of quick businesses jump in at that point and are no more today but the fact that it's still going and I know it's still growing from your conversation off camera there's still a lot going on.

Speaker 1: 4:07

It's amazing to see so. Like I mentioned in the beginning, we are all about helping people make the most of their money. So talk us through cash black and how does it help users get more from their everyday spending, and why might someone choose cash black over a regular cashback site?

Speaker 2: 4:25

Okay, cool. So Cash Black in general simplest explanation for it you're being rewarded for shopping, more often than not, what you're already going to be doing anyway. So it's from the affiliate commissions that we receive from the brands who we host on our platform. They pay us for driving the traffic to you, the consumer, to make purchases, and when they pay us, we share that commission that they use to pay us with yourself as a cashback reward that you can withdraw for yourself into your bank or PayPal or whatever, or donate to one of our affiliated Goodwill causes where we match those donations 100%, meaning when you give, we give.

Speaker 2: 5:02

So, yeah, ordinary cashback websites. It's a no-brainer, because if you're already going to be shopping for just everyday essentials or like luxury items, whatever, you'd be shopping around looking for what you're looking to buy and then you might think to yourself oh, let me, um, look for coupons or like discount codes or what have you not to do? Similar principle with us for cash black. Only difference is ours is more of an incentivization tool to get you to shop with black owned businesses, as we've seen over the last five years, even with the recent pushback against like d and I, as we've seen over the past couple of weeks over in america especially, which could trickle down here because, as we know, when america sneezes, uk catches a cold, but I with that. The Kleenex that we're using is going to be the pushback against all of those like anti-DNI war, on wokeism or whatever, to help to incentivize people to shop for black-owned businesses through the reward of cashback. So yeah, that's supposed to be the differentiation between normal cashback websites and ours.

Speaker 1: 6:05

I think it's great. I'm someone who regularly use cashback sites. I love it. I can't tell you the last time I made a purchase without it. I definitely bought something yesterday and use cashback. So if you're already shopping, like you say it, it's doesn't hurt to just use a cashback site. And I'm someone who signed up to all of them because wherever I'm shopping, I'm going to see where can I get money back. So I think if someone already uses one of the big ones in the UK, why not add cashback to it? And then, when you're shopping on black-owned businesses, you get some money back. All of that. Whenever I hear cashback, people say, oh, I'm not sure I If you want it, simply it's just money back for shopping.

Speaker 2: 6:40

That's what cashback is.

Speaker 1: 6:41

So why would you not just sign up to every single platform and whenever you fall on a website that is eligible for it, you go through, you shop as normal, because you're going to anyway get some money back? I think it makes so much sense. But even in saying that, I mean for me it makes tons of sense. But I know for many people money is, it can be a lot, it can feel like a lot, and I know a lot of people are very skeptical about new platforms. Very cautious, rightly so, as they should, because definitely during that same pandemic time I saw a lot of dodgy companies pop up and say hey, we can do this.

Speaker 1: 7:11

And I can see it's a scam, right, I can see that that's not legitimate. But a lot of people don't know, may have unfortunately lost some money and now probably are cautious when they see new platforms. How do you build trust of new users and what keeps them coming back once they've tried cash black for us trust building comes alongside social proof.

Speaker 2: 7:31

As you know, black people especially we are like super, super, super sensitive to social proof, like we've seen. Oh, this person liked it, so I might do as well. My friend recommended me this more. So the number, demographics it's like maybe a two to one compared to, say, like, white consumers and asian consumers. So with us, we know that in order to get the community on boards, we need to align ourselves with, like major partners. So it was okay, cool, so they're working with them. Then, yeah, this cash black thing might be legit. So we started working with likes of Amazon, ebay and Etsy from pretty much when we started to be able to onboard all of their independent Black vendors oh amazing, that's really good so like, rather than just going on Amazon to shop with certain businesses.

Speaker 2: 8:12

If you know of a Black-owned Amazon or even Etsy vendor or eBay vendor, find them on Cash Black. They'll be there and you'll be rewarded with cash back should you purchase from their Etsy, ebay or Amazon store through us and seeing those logos on the site or hearing about our partnerships with them, it helps. Similar with um. Um, in this country, deliveroo, just Eat and Uber Eats, and then in America, grubhub and DoorDash as well. Um, we host every black-owned food vendor, or we will do soon, as soon as we're just able to onboard them all Every black-owned food vendor, grocery store, takeaway provider, all on Cash Black through Cash Black, to your door.

Speaker 2: 8:52

So you go on the app or the website, find a local black-owned Caribbean restaurant or African restaurant what have you on the Apple website close to you, make a purchase from them through Deliveroo, just Eat or Uber Eats and then receive your order as normal and then receive cash back from the affiliate commissions we receive as paid for by those delivery apps. And so, yeah, linking ourselves with those major organizations. It was a no brainer because, as good as it is for us for optics sake, we know that those optics are hyper necessary just to build trust with the community, because we'd love a situation where we just launch and people would just be down with us just because it's us. But we know it's never going to be that simple. So yeah, aligning ourselves with major organizations, that really helps with the social proof because it's like, well, if I don, if I don't know, deliver, we trust them then yes, I can trust them and yeah, that's that's kind of how it works and we know that, so yeah, I think social proof is a very big thing.

Speaker 1: 9:49

I know a lot of my friends will come to me, obviously money wise. I'll say to me have you heard of like I know of them, or I think they're good, they're bad, no, no, no, no. If you've never used it, I'm not going to do it. And I always find it so interesting how many people rely on, essentially, a review from someone. That's what it is. You know, if you ask someone, have you tried this, how did you find it? If someone says it was great, then they're likely more likely to make that purchase than if you said oh lot with my friends and know a lot of people feel the same. So I think it's really good to kind of build up that yeah, that rely, that trust in your business. I was on cash black the other day. I was having a look and when I saw the delivery I said you got me you got me with the food you got me.

Speaker 1: 10:33

I'm caribbean. I say this all the time. I'm caribbean, so always if you know anyone who's caribbean, or if you don't know, and you walk into the carib Caribbean takeaway and you get your shoot chicken oxtail that takes hours and if. I'm not in the mood to spend hours by the stove I'm going to order in, so when I saw that I said yes, sir, thank you so that is incredible.

Speaker 2: 10:51

You have to thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 10:53

That's amazing. We were talking a little bit about this off camera. But to ask you here, as a founder and an entrepreneur myself, as much as we have high highs, I know that there are some low lows and there are some hurdles along the way. So can you share perhaps one major challenge that you've come up against while building cash black and how you worked through it?

Speaker 2: 11:15

one major challenge.

Speaker 2: 11:16

Okay, we're narrowing down to one for this yeah, yeah, there's been more L's than W's for real, but that's emblematic of any entrepreneurial journey, so it's not that deep Nothing I really dwell on too much. I do dwell on it quite a bit actually. I can't lie about it. Yeah, I suppose the biggest challenge would have just been literally building it. We went with a tech-first approach where we thought, all right, build the website, build the app and build the Afrobot, the Cash Black Afrobot. That's our browser extension algorithm for redirection of black-owned traffic. It's like, basically, it's a Google Chrome plugin.

Speaker 1: 11:54

So when you go onto the websites where you can earn cash back from Cash Black, it will redirect you there and let you know.

Speaker 2: 11:59

No, not just that. Well, yeah, that plus. Obviously, if you Google, for example, skincare, you might go to the likes of Boots Superdrug or the Body Shop, or you just find those in your Google results. But land on one of those websites or use the Google results and you'll see, like AfroBot, if installed, will notify you of alternative black-owned brands. That's really good, like lots of I don't know, ava, estelle or Yandy Skin, where you'll be able to be redirected to those stores to make the purchases and earn cash back on those purchases from them. So, yeah, building that, as good as it sounds, how cool it sounds. I saw your eyes light up. I was like, oh, that's a great idea.

Speaker 2: 12:33

Actually, building those ideas, that's the difficult. That's been the biggest challenge for us, because those they just we were, me and my brothers were ideas, people first and foremost, as opposed to technical founders. So my youngest brother he's the cto technical founder in that regard, but he's been at university for the last three years and my mom wouldn't let me drag him out to work on my little cashback website until he finished. Yeah, now he's finished. We're kind of putting everything together and we realized that oh, wow, we've taken us maybe six different dev teams to get to this point alone, as opposed to maybe just like building it and iterating, iterating, iterating and, most importantly, building the community with it, because they're supposed to inform our opinions of stuff.

Speaker 2: 13:13

I was somewhat arrogant when I first started this. I thought, well, I mean it's cash black. I mean surely everyone black is going to be on it. I mean we're all mean, we're all going to be just like super, like cognizant of how important an idea this is and everything, how great an idea this is and everyone's going to jump on it. Nah, not necessarily.

Speaker 2: 13:30

So I thought that if I built it, they would come. It took forever to build and now they're taking forever to come, as opposed to us doing everything kind of like together at the same time. And that's been the biggest challenge because it's yeah, it's been difficult technically building it, and now we have built it, now we're like, okay, cool, now we have to go back to get the community on boards, having to work on the market and getting our comms across, getting people excited about what we've been working on for time and everything. So, yeah, combination of actually building it and then building the community has been the two most difficult, but it's always it would have been harder had we done it properly. It would have been hard had we done it properly.

Speaker 2: 14:04

Anyway it's just harder that we didn't do it in the way we were supposed to, so it's just something we're kind of having to do backwards now. So, yeah, that's been a challenge, but it's, yeah, so very much part of the process anyway it is.

Speaker 1: 14:15

I think sometimes we feel a bit discouraged. Sometimes we had this conversation. You might feel a bit discouraged when you get L's upon L's and things just don't go the way that you want it. But that is unfortunately the journey of an entrepreneur. That's why not everyone is an entrepreneur. That's why a lot of people don't make it past their first year, because it is hard. And I think what you're building is incredible and I'm sure many of our listeners and watchers will agree with you. So we're just excited to watch Journey. I mean, it's easy for us to just sit there and watch whatever comes out, but we're here watching, we're here watching and we're supporting.

Speaker 1: 14:47

So that's it. You know, if anyone does try Cash Black and they want to kind of help out with the informing parts, you know, telling you what works and what doesn't, how could they get involved with that? Oh, we're like the.

Speaker 2: 14:58

The Cash Black app is in both the iPhone and Android store. We had a recent update. Actually, we're going to have another major one within the next few weeks, hopefully in time for maybe Q2 or so. So obviously the website has been out for a minute. Hard Launch actually 1st of October, just gone for Black History Month. Us Hard Launch is going to be 1st of February for the US Black History Month.

Speaker 2: 15:21

So the website, the app, afrobot they're available in the respective stores and, yeah, it's a continuous effort to always be building, building, building, improving, improving, improving, iterating, iterating, iterating we need the community to really inform us of this is good. We love this. We don't like that. We need this, we don't need that. All of that because we've been looking at it somewhat myopically from the same perspective for time building it, and now it's time for us to really listen to what the people want I think it's always very interesting.

Speaker 1: 15:50

Whatever you think and I've done this myself with pennies, pounds and everything that I've built is for a long time like you, I've always said well, I'm part of a tight, good demographic. I know what people want because I'm living this, so I know what kind of information they want, how they want it presented. And then, I think, about three years in, I decided randomly to create like a feedback form. I said just anyone who's?

Speaker 1: 16:09

interested. Let me know how you found. You know the podcast, the platform in its entirety, everything, yeah, and some of the feedback, some of the things that people want to see. I was just so shocked at not in a bad way, but, like you said, when you're in your own head and you think you know what's best, which you do Right A lot of the time Because you're building it, but sometimes you hear back from your consumers and you're like Interesting, you want more of this.

Speaker 1: 16:30

Or, for example, there was one event that we did. This always gets me. There's one event that we did About two years ago and and there was a lot going on. So if you've ever been to a pennies pounds live event, you will know that it is a lot. I think we had about 120 people in the building. So when I have that many bodies in one building, I'm there like a headless chicken running around. So I realized that event I couldn't host it. I usually host all of our events. I couldn't host it, so I hired a host. She was incredible, it was a great night and when I got feedback from people, everyone was like it was such a good event. I learned so much. Kia, that was incredible. But I came to listen to you and so many people said that to me and I was like, oh my gosh, I just thought for me. I thought no one's really interested whether or not it's me, so I'll get someone else. So it's always interesting to hear feedback from consumers.

Speaker 1: 17:27

No-transcript yeah, and those are the people who can really inform you. So it's always good and anyone listening, watching who uses cash black will find it amazing and also can get in touch with you if they want to kind of give feedback and help build what is going to be an incredible platform.

Speaker 1: 17:46

And what we really is an amazing platform, but I know you're building it and growing it, so we can't wait. A lot of our listeners have entrepreneurial dreams. I think everyone is sick of the nine to five grind. You'd be surprised how many people I speak to on a daily says Kia, how'd you do it, How'd you become a full-time entrepreneur? I want to do the same thing. So everyone well, a lot of my listeners have that same dream. So if we've got some advice from you, if someone wants to start their own business, especially a platform that helps others financially, what's one piece of advice that you wish that you'd known from day one?

Speaker 2: 18:25

One piece of advice that I wish I knew, just picking one. I'd say go back to what I mentioned earlier with regard to building a community. Yeah, I'd say that's the most important. Easily, easily, easily, when I think about it, because, especially if you're doing it for other people, if you're building it for other people, then have them as involved as possible, because they're going to be your literally your customers. Your business won't survive without them, and so it's almost more important to have them than it is to have the actual product. That's why a lot of like content creators are able to quickly leverage their audiences into, like, creating something, launching something and growing relatively quickly whether or not it sustains or not, that's a different story.

Speaker 2: 19:04

But in terms of actually having people actually using it, um, people actually adopting it, and that that is super, super important. It can't be underestimated, particularly with regard to how easy it is now to build a following or relative to before. Obviously, a lot of people rely now on social media to be able to accelerate their growth through, like, their own audience that they already have. So, yeah, one piece of advice build the community. It's going to be like your day ones and actually using your product or service. That is that. That is so, so, so, so important.

Speaker 1: 19:34

More important than actually building the product as far as I'm concerned it is so crucial and I think that there has been such a big drive towards community building.

Speaker 1: 19:42

I don't know if you've noticed online.

Speaker 1: 19:43

I've noticed a lot more obviously in the sense of you know, we've got more run clubs, we've got more book clubs, but I think community in general is being valued a lot more.

Speaker 1: 19:51

So, like you said, I think when you and I both started, community was cool, like, yeah, you build a following, it's cool, but it wasn't as big of a deal, whereas now it's like okay, how do we bring in the community, how do we keep people together and keep people engaged? Because, like you said, those are the ones who are going to inform how you build things and also be your silent champions. When you're not in a room, when you're not there, they're the ones who are going to spread the word about what you do because they love it that much, and I think that's a really good piece of advice before we round off. As I've mentioned throughout this episode, I am super excited when it comes to what you're building. I think cash black already is amazing, but what does the future of cash black look like? So is there any features, expansions or goals on the horizon that we can all be excited about yeah, um suppose the immediate future.

Speaker 2: 20:48

Right now, um, we're going to be focusing a bit more on afro affiliate, our sister company, which is basically our affiliate network that connects black owned brands with different content creators and media houses and essentially enables them to be able to convert their loyal customers into economically incentivized brand ambassadors, so that anyone with an affiliate link for a black owned business would be able to earn their own passive or active income supporting them, be a mega influencer or just someone in a very active whatsapp group. So again, just very much trying to empower the community to be able to generate their own revenues, their own money, by supporting the community literally paying black people to help other black people.

Speaker 2: 21:29

So yeah, that's incredible similar to cash black, what we're doing with afro affiliate, but working with the black owned brands and the content creators for that, and also connecting the different content creators black content creators, black media houses, publishers basically black affiliates with major brands who we already have those connections with, like.

Speaker 2: 21:48

I named a few of them with whom we're already working and, for example, we have loads of major brands who approach us wanting to be involved with Cash Black, and we know that well, cash Black's really for black-owned businesses. However, our sister company, afro Affiliate. We have loads of content creators with huge followings who've been tweeting about or posting stories about doing TikToks about their holidays, for instance.

Speaker 1: 22:12

That's me. I thought you were talking about me.

Speaker 2: 22:14

Travel. Content creators have been doing this out of the goodness of their heart just for the sake of doing it.

Speaker 2: 22:18

They don't know that they can monetize all of this by connecting with the major travel companies or like different influencers, for example, by connecting them with major financial institutions, like food bloggers, connecting them with the delivery apps with whom we work or the major FMCG brands with whom we work. So yeah, basically enabling the black content creators to be able to make as much money they can through like the work they're already doing. So that's on the one side of afrofiliate trying to just get the community to get more money for the things they're already doing. No brainer for us. And then, with cash black, um, we're in q1 right now. Q2 we're looking to roll out cash black brick and mortar we're excited about this one thank you very much.

Speaker 2: 23:01

Where, in essence, we'll be utilizing open banking technology to onboard the the huge, huge, huge, that plethora of black owned brands with physical locations. So not just e-commerce stores you see online, but barber shops, beauty salons, restaurants, bars, clubs, grocery stores, convenience stores, black owned businesses all onto cash black so that, for example, you as consumer, you could register your credit or debit card with Cash Black and then, through open banking, you'd be able to earn cash back rewards when you spend money at those black-owned businesses in-person locations. So you'd be earning cash back similar to how you would be doing online but offline. So both there and throughout our in-person marketplace pop-ups that we'll be looking to do throughout the year, so basically getting cash back to like shop at black owned businesses online and offline, and that's that's going to be a huge, huge, huge thing for us, because obviously there's loads of black owned businesses which exist in real life that don't in real life, in physical occasions, that don't really have an online presence. So we'll be incentivizing patronage for all of those and rewarding you for shopping with them.

Speaker 2: 24:08

So we're looking to roll that out in London with one of the bigger London boroughs within the next few months, hoping to get off the ground and then doing similar with Cash Black US. We've been back and forth to america on a few trade missions with the british consulate, particularly in la. We've had a couple conversations with the mayor of los angeles office about doing something similar out there. Um, I think inglewood was the first that was muted to be able to do it just because it's like black neighborhood, like a black ecosystem of merchants, vendors etc.

Speaker 2: 24:44

And so to be able to do it, just because it's like black neighbourhood, like a black ecosystem of merchants, vendors etc. And so we're looking to do the same thing out there once this initial London pilot is out of the way. So loads and, loads and loads.

Speaker 1: 24:53

There's a lot on the horizon for you.

Speaker 2: 24:54

There's a lot on the horizon.

Speaker 1: 24:56

It sounds like a busy schedule but it sounds like it's going to be a great year for you. Yeah, we pray it is and I'm super excited. I'm going to tell all my friends because a lot of them do hair makeup, all that. I'm going to tell them, like, guys, just sign up on there, it's going to be for my benefit.

Speaker 2: 25:09

So when I go, to them, I can get my cash back.

Speaker 1: 25:11

Yeah, definitely, you know, get everyone on there.

Speaker 2: 25:28

And, I think, company. So, yeah, we have the referral program so we're able to do the network effect that if you bring your like friends and family on board, either as a cash black member or as a store on cash black or afro affiliate, or to become a content creator working with afro affiliate, then yeah, you get rewarded for doing so.

Speaker 1: 25:34

So, yeah, I mean, all I'm hearing is that there's money around. All I'm hearing is that this is a great platform to get involved with, because, however you look at it, there is money to be made and anyone who's looking for a side hustle this year, I think we've got one of our side hustles there, not just a side hustle, we're literally paying black people to support black people.

Speaker 1: 25:52

Look at that We've got a good, good, good side hustle, you know, and if you're not, you don't fall in that demographic. You can still tell a friend to tell a friend and I think there's still a lot to be learned from your journey and everything that you're building that a lot of people can take away in one element or another. So thank you so much for gracing the Painless Pounds podcast today Before we go for everyone listening and watching, where can they find you and everything that?

Speaker 2: 26:13

you're building? Okay, cool Me, I'm only on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 26:18

I haven't even set up an Instagram, that's probably the best platform to be on.

Speaker 2: 26:20

That's probably the smartest platform to be on. That's probably the smartest platform to be on. Okay, cool, cool, cool. So, yeah me, matthew Adai, on LinkedIn I think it's linkedincom forward slash IN, forward slash, matthew Adai, or something like that. And then Cash Black Cash, black HQ across all socials Afro Affiliate Afro Affiliate across all socials Instagram, facebook, tiktok, youtube, etc. Of those and, yeah, obviously, the websites for the same name and we look forward to welcoming everyone on board amazing.

Speaker 1: 26:44

All the links will be in the podcast description so you can go ahead and click through with ease. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast and to everyone listening and watching. We'll be back again next week with another episode. Bye guys.