Derrius Quarles is a man of many modes, but he’s perhaps best known for founding Breaux Capital, an online financial platform and community for black millennial men (the name is a play on the word “bro”). Having read that 70 percent of black millennials couldn’t afford a $1000 emergency, he created an app that automates savings and co-invests the money with two friends: Ras Asan, whom he met on a summer study abroad trip to Ghana, and Brian L. Williams, a fellow graduate of Morehouse College. “We work with anything from traditional ETFs” — exchange-traded funds — “to the cannabis industry,” Mr. Quarles, 29, said.

Members can choose to become co-owners and have equity in the company, and 80 percent do, Mr. Quarles said. “It’s very different from the relationship folks might have with their bank. If I bank with Wells Fargo, it’s not like I can walk into a branch and say ‘I don’t like how this operates,’” he said, adding: “If you are a co-owner in Breaux Capital it means you decide how the company works. You are a decision maker.”

Mr. Quarles had to learn independence early, growing up in various foster care placements around Chicago, including with his aunt, strangers and at a group home. “My father was killed, murdered, on the South Side, when I was four,” he said. “He attempted to break up a fight and in doing that he put himself in harm’s way.” His mother developed a drug addiction shortly after, he said.

At 14 he was christened “The Candy Man” at school because he sold candy to raise money to be a part of varsity football, volleyball, and swimming. “I can genuinely, 100 percent say that starting a business was very intuitive for me,” Mr. Quarles said. “It was something I just knew how to do and enjoyed.” By the time he was 16 he used exemplary grades to prove he could live in an apartment for independent foster youth.