Black Tech Saturdays Named a Finalist for the 2026 MVCA Community Impact Award
Black Tech Saturdays has been named a finalist for the Community Impact Award at the Michigan Venture Capital Association’s 2026 Annual Awards Celebration, recognizing the organization’s continued work to strengthen connections, expand access, and build a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem across Michigan.
The Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA) announced its 2026 award winners and finalists on August 12, highlighting founders, companies, investors, and organizations making a meaningful impact across Michigan’s entrepreneurial and investment community.
Black Tech Saturdays (BTS) was selected as one of four finalists for the Community Impact Award, alongside Henry Ford + MSU Innovation Hub, Innovation Alliance, and PitchMI.
The Community Impact Award recognizes organizations, individuals, or initiatives that create meaningful and effective connections necessary to build Michigan’s entrepreneurial economy.
For BTS, the nomination reflects a mission that has been at the center of the organization since the beginning: creating spaces where entrepreneurs, technologists, creatives, founders, students, and community members can access the people, knowledge, resources, and opportunities needed to move forward.
Building More Than a Network
What began in Detroit as a community-centered gathering has continued to grow into a platform for connection, education, entrepreneurship, and opportunity.
Through Saturday programming, workshops, major events, youth initiatives, founder support, partnerships, and activations across Michigan, Black Tech Saturdays has worked to remove barriers between people and opportunity while strengthening relationships throughout the state's innovation ecosystem.
The impact goes beyond bringing people into the same room. BTS is focused on creating environments where people feel seen, supported, and equipped to take their next step, whether that means launching an idea, growing a business, learning a new skill, finding a collaborator, accessing capital, or simply discovering that there is a community ready to support them.
Being recognized by MVCA among organizations helping shape Michigan’s entrepreneurial future represents an important milestone in that work.
A Win for the Community.
This nomination belongs to the entire BTS community.
It belongs to every founder who has shared an idea, every volunteer who has helped bring an event to life, every partner who has invested in the mission, every speaker who has shared their knowledge, and every community member who has walked through the doors ready to learn, connect, build, and contribute.
As Black Tech Saturdays continues expanding its footprint and strengthening connections across Michigan, the mission remains the same: build the ecosystem by building the people within it.
The recognition is also a reminder of what becomes possible when intentional community-building is treated as an essential part of economic and entrepreneurial development.
Celebrating Michigan's Innovation Ecosystem
The 2026 MVCA Annual Awards Celebration will take place on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at Elevate at One Campus Martius.
The event will bring together members of Michigan’s venture capital, entrepreneurial, and innovation communities to celebrate the people and organizations contributing to the state's continued growth.
Black Tech Saturdays is honored to stand alongside Henry Ford + MSU Innovation Hub, Innovation Alliance, and PitchMI as finalists for the 2026 Community Impact Award.
We built this together. And we’re just getting started.
