OFFICIAL PARTNERS & PERKS
Partners & Perks is BTI’s ecosystem marketplace for trusted local brands, community-centered businesses, and aligned experiences that help our members and broader community stay connected to culture, place, and opportunity.
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This part of BTI exists to circulate visibility, relationships, and support across our ecosystem—especially through Black-owned and community-rooted partners whose offerings help make Charlotte’s tech culture feel more connected, human, and locally grounded.
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WHY IT MATTERS
Strong ecosystems are not built by tech alone. They are built by the local businesses, gathering spaces, creative partners, and community-rooted experiences that help people connect, recharge, and keep showing up. Partners & Perks helps BTI extend that ecosystem beyond a single event.
​Indigo Coffee & Tea, owned by Reba Cox, is a community-centered coffee and tea brand that aligns with BTI’s vision of culture, connection, and intentional gathering. As the Official Coffee & Tea Partner of BTI, Indigo is more than a partner location.
It functions as one of BTI’s shared gathering spaces—a place where co-working, community events, creative exchange, and relationship-building can happen in a setting that feels welcoming and rooted in Charlotte.
Through this partnership, Indigo helps BTI activate consistent third-space experiences where people can work, connect, and build community. Member discounts extend that relationship beyond a single event and reinforce BTI’s belief that opportunity grows stronger when it is tied to real places and repeated touchpoints.
Bèl Flame Candles, founded by Danielle Anyasodor-Lafontant, is the official candle partner of BTI and a meaningful part of how we bring wellness, atmosphere, and intentionality into our ecosystem. Danielle’s work centers on creating candle experiences that help people slow down, reset, reflect, and feel grounded in the spaces where they gather, build, and grow.
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For BTI, this partnership is about more than candles. It represents our belief that tech opportunity should not be separated from the human side of growth. Career shifts, entrepreneurship, learning, networking, and leadership all require focus, confidence, rest, and a sense of belonging. Bèl Flame helps bring that feeling into BTI spaces through products and activations that make our community feel seen, welcomed, and cared for.
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As a BTI partner, Bèl Flame supports culture-forward experiences that connect wellness, creativity, and innovation. Through this partnership, we are building a reminder that progress is not only about performance — it is also about making room for peace, presence, and the people behind the work.
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Do Greater Charlotte, founded by William McNeely, is a Charlotte-based nonprofit focused on building creative confidence in underserved and under-resourced communities through design, entrepreneurship, and innovative technology.
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For BTI, Do Greater is more than a partner space — it is a community home base for pathway support, creative exploration, and local ecosystem connection. Through this partnership, BTI participants have a trusted place to gather, ask questions, meet others on a similar journey, connect with mentors, and take their next step in a space built around creativity, access, and possibility.
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Do Greater helps strengthen the creative and community side of BTI’s ecosystem by giving our work a real place to live. It connects technology with imagination, learning with belonging, and opportunity with the kind of environment where people can feel supported while they build.
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​Surefire Market, founded by brothers Magloire Lubika, Joel Lutuangu, and Edric Lutuangu, is a Charlotte-based food and market concept rooted in quality meals, neighborhood connection, and community convenience. Built from a family legacy in local convenience retail, Surefire blends comfort food with a gathering space designed to bring people together.
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Surefire helps BTI connect food, place, and culture to community-building—turning shared meals and local gathering into part of how relationships are formed.
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Their partnership reflects BTI’s belief that community grows stronger when people can connect in spaces that feel welcoming, local, and rooted in shared experience.