We had the good fortune of connecting with Cassandra Moore and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cassandra, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
The primary goal and focus of LGBT Commerce is to grow into an international hub that connects LGBT/Trans consumers with LGBT owned, allied, and friendly businesses in every city, state, and country around the world.

LGBT Commerce helps businesses meet their goals of diversifying their audience to include LGBT/Trans consumers, while simultaneously offering a “safe-space” shopping experience for LGBT/Trans consumers.

To achieve our goals, we’ve taken a “divide and conquer” approach. This enables us to provide discrimination-free shopping both in-person as well as online.

On the one hand, LGBT Commerce covers the in-person retail market via pop-up shopping events we call the “LGBT Business Expo”. At our Expos, we invite vendors to set up a table to display their products/services and connect them with LGBT/Trans consumers via targeted event advertisements and invitations. The goal is to establish trust and lasting connections between the businesses and their local consumers.

We currently host the LGBT Business Expo/pop-up shop in various cities and states in the United States. (Until we are able to expand to include other countries!)

On the other hand, our online marketplace, Sasha Cart, (www.sashacart.com) provides access to quality products and services while guaranteeing online shopping that will always be free of discrimination regardless of seller/buyer location.

Concurrently, the LGBT Business Expo and the Sasha Cart marketplace instill confidence in LGBT/Trans consumers that they will never encounter discrimination online, or in-person while conducting business with any of our vendors or online sellers/service providers.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My career path has been anything but direct. There have been left turns, right turns, U-turns, the whole lot!

Short backstory: I was awarded emancipation from my parents when I was 16 years old as a result of my first taste of discrimination. (Familial discrimination/disownment after coming out as a lesbian.) So I’ve been working to support myself since getting my first job at 16.

I graduated high school in Florida, then went into the Army for a short time before receiving a medical discharge, and afterward, honestly, I was pretty much at a loss regarding the path I wanted to take to reach my vision of “success”. So I chose to relocate 250 miles away from my family knowing only one person in Atlanta, GA in a bold attempt to “find my place” in the world in 2005.

Between relocating and finally finding my place in the Technology industry, I worked many “odd jobs” until I decided to further my education and pursue a degree. Around the same time, I began experimenting with being an entrepreneur and I opened my first business in 2012, A-Z Technology Solutions LLC. designed to help the students at the college I attended gain access to reliable laptop and desktop computers as well as repairs when needed at affordable costs.

When I lost my passion for computer supplying/repairing a few years later, I knew I needed to start a business that I would not lose passion for, one that would drive me to create a product or service I could use as my platform to bring positive change to the world. So I started looking at what I could do to help enrich the lives of members of the LGBT Community in 2015, which led to at least a handful of failed business ventures between 2015-2019.

Fast-forward to 2021, and looking back on it all, I realize I needed every one of those “fails” because they were invaluable learning tools and experiences that would eventually foster the creation and success of LGBT Commerce LLC. If I had to choose something to be proud or excited about, it would absolutely be the growth and expansion of LGBT Commerce since its creation in 2019, both in the real world with the LGBT Business Expo, and online with the recent release of our LGBT marketplace, SashaCart.com.

While it has not been and still is not easy, I’d have to say perseverance is definitely the key. Trying and failing at something does not mean that you should give it up. One of the thoughts I keep in the front of my mind when I’m going through growing pains or other struggles is that nothing worth having is easy to acquire or maintain.

Managing LGBT Commerce has been one of the most rewarding and challenging ventures I have ever embarked on, but I would imagine that’s to be expected when a creator has the fervent desire that I have to disrupt industries with positive and permanent change!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love Midtown Atlanta! The Suite Lounge on Luckie St. is always popping, and you never know who you may run into there! I personally feel Midtown Atl personifies Atl “as a whole” in the sense that it is ever-evolving. You can ride down Northside Drive on any given day and see a new business that was not there in the recent past. To me, that embodies progression, and opportunities abound for those bold enough to seize them. Like me! Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It was clear even in the very early stages of taking on this incredible, yet daunting endeavor, that LGBT Commerce could not and would not EVER succeed in any missions without help from a dedicated and driven team.

That said, I feel it would not be feasible nor fair to shoutout individuals as surely someone will be omitted from the laundry list of permanent, temporary, and event-staff team members. Instead, I would like to send a HUGE thanks and shoutout to:

EVERYONE who has ever contributed in any way to LGBT Commerce and Sasha Cart! This includes, but is not limited to all Business Partners, Investors, Marketing Affiliates, Developers, Photographers, Videographers, Publishers, Mentors, Volunteers, Interns, and any associated “categories” I failed to mention.

From the bottom of my heart, truly and humbly, I thank every hand that’s ever been laid on LGBT Commerce and Sasha Cart!

Website: www.sashacart.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lgbt_commerce/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kay-moore-0a9705196/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommerceLgbt

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buyLGBT/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPmN-WwfijNstMTh-JV9ZlA

Image Credits
Rony TV Productions, Deja Vu Talk Show

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