Neighborhood Start Fund was founded by Lupe Fiasco and Di-Ann Eisnor to turn ideas into start-ups. We need more diverse entrepreneurs bringing fresh ideas and new innovations to life. So, we’ve created a neighborhood-specific fund to support entrepreneurs and start-ups from underserved areas and of course so the best new ideas won’t go wasted. We provide access, network, workshops, mentoring and of course funding.
Our first neighborhood is Brownsville Brooklyn. We’ve just opened the idea competition and the first live pitch event will be November 13, 2015. We will be housed at the Dream Big Foundation’s new entrepreneurship center and cafe opening in January 2015.We want to turn every neighborhood fund into a local micro-economic engine. Proceeds of every successful exit from Brownsville is reinvested into other Brownsville start-ups! And the same goes for each new neighborhood we enter. Our goal is the first $100MM+ business from our neighborhoods!
Source: Start.Fund
Brownsville residents will be able to submit ideas to the Neighbourhood Start Fund until October 30th. Finalist will then compete to get $5,000 to create a prototypes. They also have a chance to get mentors, workshops and free technology development for their prototypes. Brownsville residents can apply HERE.
“I’m already so happy with the ideas that are coming out,” Eisnor told me after hearing the last pitch. “There’s something interesting in each of them, and they were viable.” Her and Fiasco’s ambitions are not small—the goal is to create a $100 million company out of the fund. They hope to be in about a dozen neighborhoods by the end of 2016. “Brownsville is just the beginning,” says Fiasco.
Full Story: Fast Company
