Youth Business Spain: alianzas, mentoría y financiación para el emprendimiento juvenil

The lack of technology and app solutions for social problems is beginning to change thanks to the help of a growing group of technology accelerators (also called incubators) aimed at tech companies focused on social impact, rather than traditional profit-focused start-ups. Incubators like Blue Ridge Labs, Fast Forward, and Financial Solutions Lab offer capital, connections, and mentorship.

Tras recolectar masivamente residuos en Anconcito y Santa Rosa, un nuevo proyecto en la Universidad Casa Grande procesa cabos de pesca para crear productos sostenibles y reinsertarlos en el mercado.

Para sobrellevar una crisis económica, millones de venezolanos reccurieron a un mundo de fantasía—Runescape—y convertió el videojuego en un trabajo a tiempo completo. Mensualmente, personas han podido ganar hasta cuatro veces más de lo que hubieran podido ganar en otros trabajos en Venezuela.

“UNDSCVRD SF," funded by the SOMA Community Stabilization Fund and produced by the nonprofit Kultivate Labs, is a night market held once a month from July to November that features a range of Filipino vendors. There were over 35,000 attendees in 2019 and it generated $300,000 in sales. It also serves as a testing ground to select businesses for Kultivate Labs’ SEED Accelerator Program and grantees for the SOMA Fund. The former provides bootcamps and one-on-one support for Filipino-owned businesses that are located in, or would like to be located in, a permanent space within the SOMA cultural district.

Firebrand Artisan Breads hires people with high barriers to employment, such as people experiencing homelessness or who were formerly incarcerated. The higher-than-minimum-wage starting salary, paid time off, and insurance benefits provide sustainable and secure employment to people whose life circumstances make it harder to get a job. In order to raise capital while maintaining their employment model, the owner worked with lawyers to become a perpetual purpose trust, an alternative ownership model that allows the company to sell shares to private investors while ensuring their principles remain in place.

A handful of entrepreneurial individuals in Kansas have found success in starting businesses during the pandemic by leveraging customer needs and pandemic relief funding. Although this business plan isn't "foolproof," in Kansas and nationwide, the number of entrepreneurs who filed applications increased significantly compared to previous periods.

CNote has provided a source of funding for federally certified Community Development Financial Institutions by pooling cash from foundations, bigger banks, philanthropists, and donor-advised funds to counter the lack of available cash flow experienced by CDFIs, which are lenders but not banks. Federal COVID-19 funding set aside $30 billion specifically for CDFIs that overwhelmingly lend to women- and minority-owned businesses, which face persistent racial and gender biases and are unable to successfully tap into lending and grants such as the Paycheck Protection Program through traditional lenders.

Founded in Pittsburgh, Honeycomb Credit expands to Philadelphia as a way to offer small businesses help with microfinance challenges. The company hosts a platform that allows businesses to create fundraising profiles; community members can watch a video about the business and decide to invest and receive monthly payouts from their contribution.

A company called Bitwise in Fresno, California thinks beyond financial gain and factors social background and economic justice into their developer training programs. Bitwise offers a coding school as well as a custom software business that hires graduates from their training program to help with commercial projects.

A membership organization called Pipeline Angels helps women and nonbinary femme entrepreneurs find investors and start their own businesses. Pipeline Angels addresses the investment disparities between businesses owned by men and women.