We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Larry & Laia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Larry below.
Larry, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I, Larry, moved to Jacksonville in November 2023 for a real estate position. The move was delayed multiple times, but through perseverance, I finally made it. Not knowing anyone in the area, I created a small Facebook group to meet others with similar interests. Anime has always been a way for me to connect with people in my city, so I decided to try it in Jax.
I , Laia, have been a Jacksonville resident for quite some time. When I started watching anime, none of my friends would join me. Meeting Larry finally gave me a friend with a common interest.
Our combined love for anime was the perfect catalyst to grow our community into what it is today. We now offer anime inspired merchandise and the profits go directly into our group to host events, giveaways and give back to the community.
What started as a group of 10 people quickly grew to 100, and soon 100 turned into 2,600+. Our Facebook group is niche specific to black and POC anime/gaming lovers that live in Jacksonville so our business is reflective of our beautiful community.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I, Larry, am a Michigan native and I have loved anime since childhood. My favorites to watch were Pokemon and Dragonball Z.
I, Laia – on the other hand, have in recent years discovered the wonderful world of anime. Dragonball and Death Note got me hooked.
We met on Facebook on a local nerd group.
Unfortunately there is not a lot of diversity in the current nerd culture in Jax and this conversation constantly came up as a topic for us.
Months later – Black in Jax Anime was created to highlight that there are people that look like us that love anime and gaming.
We are incredibly proud of the growth and strong sense of community within Black in Jax Anime. Our merchandise, events and meetups have received a significant amount of positive feedback, and we’ve successfully built a space where members feel supported. We take member ideas into consideration when creating designs and we think that allows us to connect even more.
What sets us apart from other groups/businesses is that we push to have a drama free community and we constantly advocate for mental health.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
We both have gone through mental health challenges in our past. Dealing with depression and anxiety can be difficult to deal with, when its hard to even get up and get out bed. For us, anime has been a saving grace.
This supportive community we have created allows us to focus on positive coping methods and also help others that may be struggling or feeling alone.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
We met on a local facebook group.
I, Laia was looking for friends that enjoyed anime and Larry was eager to offer his friendship. We have been able to brainstorm and come up with ways to make our community stronger, our business better and enjoy our love for Japanese shows together.
We also have a wonderful team of people that we met on Facebook (Petra, Joseph, Douglas, Dae Dae, Riko, Jilicia, Deandre, Nigel, Tay, Nyjah, Richard, Kevin & Faith, Jasmine) that help run Black in Jax Anime Group. We are so appreciative of their help and dedication.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.blackinjax.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackinjaxanime
- Facebook: Black in Jax Anime
- Other: Tiktok: Blackinjaxanime
