Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters via Unsplash.
Buzzbassador is one of 24 companies chosen for the 2023 Google for Startups Black Founders Fund and will be awarded $250,000 to support its growth as one of the Fund’s recipients.
Founded by East Dallas residents Calvin Waddy and Shelby Baldwin, Buzzbassador aims to streamline brand ambassador and influencer services for businesses across the world.
“Myself and my Co-founder, Shelby Baldwin, are both underrepresented in the venture landscape — Black and female, respectively — so this support from an organization of Google’s influence is huge,” Waddy, CEO and Co-Founder of Buzzbassador said in a statement.
Buzzbassador automates the ambassador side of business for their clients — they handle commission payments, streamline ambassador applications, track ambassador sales and generate influencer-specific discount codes.
As Buzzbassador continues to grow its user base and revenue, the operational demands of managing high-volume creator payouts, tracking global transactions, and reducing friction in the payment lifecycle become increasingly critical.
For digital-first startups built around recurring revenue and performance-based compensation models, the infrastructure behind how money moves can directly influence user experience and retention. In that context, integrating smarter backend tools becomes a strategic advantage.
By embracing technologies built around Payment orchestration, startups can unify multiple payment gateways, reduce failure rates, automate dunning processes, and increase successful transaction rates without vendor lock-in. This not only streamlines financial operations but also gives scaling teams more control, better data insights, and the flexibility to adapt their payment systems as the business expands.
For companies like Buzzbassador, where seamless, timely creator compensation is foundational to the value they deliver, optimizing the way money is sent, received, and reconciled isn’t just an upgrade—it’s essential to sustainable growth.
Since the company’s beta launch in 2020, Buzzbassador has reached over $20 million in sales and reached 140,000 creators across the world.
“Buzzbassador’s acceptance into Google for Startups’ Black Founders Fund marks a pivotal milestone in our company’s journey and growth trajectory,” Waddy said in a statement. “Google’s investment and belief in our company is a testament to our team’s hard work and dedication to our mission.”
In addition to the financial support from Google, the company’s selection for the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund provides access to Google mentorship, Google Cloud credits, leadership training and access to a founder network of past and present Google for Startups recipients.
