A New Era for HBCU Student Creatives: A Look Inside Daze Inc.
On most campuses, “community” is a buzzword. For Daze Inc., it’s the entire business model.
Founded by roommates Myles Matthews and Sekou Jackson while they were students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Daze Inc. started with the goal to give young creatives the resources, education, and connections they wished they’d had.
Today, the company houses two core pillars — College Daze and After Daze — plus a growing ecosystem of cohorts, events, and programs that stretch from Greensboro to New York, Richmond, Charlotte, and beyond.
Daze Inc. describes itself as a lifestyle brand, but in practice, it’s a franchise for student-powered agencies, production crews, and event companies that give young people financial resources, education, and connections to freely create. What began as post-COVID campus parties and T-shirts at North Carolina A&T has evolved into an infrastructure that schools often lack: marketing, culture-building, and a bridge between student talent and the wider world.
College Daze is the original engine. Built on a “boarding school” model, it organizes student leaders into tracks like health and wellness, business, legal advocacy, and archiving. Through programs like Creative Daze, students learn how to build campaigns and pitch them; Spring Fling turns that training into a national HBCU competition where teams create weeklong campaigns, and the winners are published in a magazine-style directory sent to studios and agencies.
That pipeline has already helped students touch projects with brands like Nike, land internships, and turn a Red Bull–sponsored HBCU rager into news coverage and work for a local Black skate collective.
If College Daze is about proving yourself on campus, After Daze is about surviving and thriving once the diploma hits.
Aimed at post-grads in cities like New York, D.C., and Charlotte, After Daze hosts events that double as support systems, “rent parties” that address money stress, gatherings that fight the loneliness of young adulthood, and content that breaks down portfolios, resumes, and job-hunting in plain language.
Regionally, leaders like Khamari Pineda, Chancellor for the Virginia area, are turning that model into local change. Virginia Daze has linked campuses from VCU to Virginia State, reintroducing radical ideas like safe, joyful parties and “recess” hours where students just play.
A recent event hosted by Eidolon Studios, in partnership with College Daze at Richmond’s Branch Museum, brought together artists, creatives, and designers for a conversation on legacy, art, and community — proof that Daze Inc.’s real product isn’t nightlife or merch, but belonging.