Houston White. Photograph By Nina Robinson
Houston White opened his barbershop, Houston White Men s Room, in north Minneapolis in late 2008. It became a hub for the Camden neighborhood s Black community, prompting White to create a sister business: Houston White Apparel & Accessories, a fashion line for Black excellence. When the dual shocks of Covid-19 and George Floyd s killing hit Minneapolis, White s business ground to a halt, giving him a chance to reimagine Black-owned business in his city. He emerged with a vision and a plan, which he calls Camdentown. As told to Cameron Albert-Deitch
When you think of Black barbershops, you think of a mom-and-pop hole in the wall.
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After building audiences on social media, many influencers, reporters, and media companies have chosen text messaging as the next frontier to interact with fans.
A slew of new startups and established players have emerged to serve them, including Community, Subtext, SimpleTexting (a division of MessageMedia), and Mailchimp, which announced it was acquiring a text-marketing startup called Chatitive on Monday.
Insider spoke with executives in the text-marketing industry and their customers to learn why members of the media industry are blasting out texts.
In April, TikTok creator and movie star Addison Rae Easterling tweeted out her phone number to her more than one million followers.