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Career Success Month: Kathryn Finney on "Build The Damn Thing"

Presented by Maryland Libraries Together

Maryland Public Libraries present the inaugural Career Success Month, Jan 17 - Feb 17, 2023. Hosted by libraries throughout Maryland, Career Success Month provides library customers with guidance from experts on a wide spectrum of business to job advancement topics and help navigate everyday life while pursuing career goals.

For a complete list of classes and workshops and to register, please click here.

Keynote Speaker: Kathryn Finney - Build The Damn Thing

Kathryn Finney is a serial entrepreneur and investor. She is the Founder and Managing General Partner of Genius Guild, a Chicago-based venture fund that invests in scalable businesses led by Black founders using innovation to build and promote healthy communities. A Yale-trained epidemiologist, Kathryn founded dig​italundivided after selling her media company, The Budget Fashionista, making her one of the first Black women to successfully exit a startup. 

Her new book, "Build The Damn Thing: How to Start a Successful Business if You're Not a Rich White Guy", launched in June 2022, made the Wall Street Journal bestsellers list in its first week of release.

​Kathryn Finney will be in conversation with Laura Bacon, the founder of The 3rd, and a lifelong community organizer, educator, and activist. Laura’s community leadership in

Howard Coun​​ty earned her recognition as Howard County’s World Language Teacher of the Year in 2016. The 3rd is a revolutionary nonprofit supporting WOC entrepreneurs through access, education, and community. Her methodology for building co-creative communities moved Laura to create Maude, a community-building consulting firm that offers concept plans, consulting, and coaching.​