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India Rose is the founder of the Martha’s Vineyard Black-Owned Business Directory and the island’s first black person to develop a platform that lists Black-owned businesses such as restaurants, hair and beauty salons, private chefs, and catering. In addition, the directory includes Black-owned home renovation services and realtors.
People frequently asked her if she knew of a Black-owned landscaping company or a Black-owned restaurant on the island, so she launched the platform. Because of her consulting and event organizing job, she had gotten to know several of the island’s Black-owned businesses. According to Black Enterprise, this inspired her to launch the Martha’s Vineyard Black-Owned Business Directory.
Her platform has now become the go-to place for all things black business. The directory did well in its first year of existence (2019), and traffic to the site rose in the summer of 2020 as a result of the epidemic and the death of George Floyd.
“In 2020, with the pandemic hitting and with George Floyd and the world sort of being on fire, people were seeking it out, so the platform kind of organically exploded with traffic, with people going through the website, with allies, with people looking to intentionally support and what I noticed was people were printing from the website, and it was a scrolling site so it didn’t look great,” she said.
As her platform grew in popularity, she decided to establish the first hardcopy directory to provide even more people with access to Black-owned companies on the island. According to Black Enterprise, the actual form of the guide was made in 2021; it was originally 30 pages but was recently increased to 92.
“It really started out as a passion project for me,” Rose, a wife and mother of two, told Vinyardgazette. “I couldn’t believe how well it was received, I was so grateful.”
In November 2020, she opened Sideline, a sportswear boutique on Main Street in Vineyard Haven, before launching the business directory.
Because access to finance is the most difficult obstacle for many small businesses, especially black-owned ones, Rose founded Thriving Inc., a nonprofit that provides mini-grants to small enterprises.
