Uptima Entrepreneur Cooperative

Since mid-March 2020, we’ve received 1,000+ applications from entrepreneurs of color, seeking support to stabilize finances, access relief funds, pivot their business models, and re-imagine what is possible in the face of disaster.  We have been able to support about half of these entrepreneurs, tripling the normal annual enrollment in our programs.

The significant demand for our programs has placed pressure on our workers, processes, and systems. The funding from this program will allow us to put in place the appropriate staffing and technology to support our growth while continuing to provide highly subsidized enrollment in our programs to entrepreneurs of color during the economic recovery.

In addition, the support from this program will help us amplify our story and impact. Because we have been so focused on providing business support to entrepreneurs of color during this challenging time, we haven’t been able to work on a communications strategy that we can leverage to generate more resources to expand our work.

I have a long history with entrepreneurship. My family came to the U.S. the year before I was born and then adopted me. With limited means, my mother took on microentrepreneurial activities, such as cleaning people’s houses, to improve our financial position. As a student, I even took on entrepreneurial activities, such as babysitting, tutoring, and graphic design and web development, which helped me pay for my tuition and books.

My parents instilled in me the value of education, and I had the opportunity to go to a great university and land a career as an investment banker. After almost a decade advising companies on mergers, acquisitions, and financings, I reconnected with my interest in education and became a founding team member of a higher education startup. There, I saw firsthand the challenges of both non-profits being under-resourced and for-profits having investors put pressure on growth. 

I noticed this challenge also existed among entrepreneurship training programs. So, I started Uptima to solve this challenge through an innovative cooperative model designed improve the sustainability of entrepreneurship programs and provide a more holistic support system for business owners.

We support the financial security of communities of color by improving economic mobility through social entrepreneurship. As entrepreneurs of color, we recognize the significant value we create in our communities. We are developing businesses that advance solutions for a socially just society. At the same time, we are acutely aware that the history of discrimination and continued widening of the racial wealth gap creates a barrier to accessing appropriate support to fully realize the potential of our ideas.

Most entrepreneurs of color do not seek training or are offered short-term options to launch our businesses and create a basic plan to show potential funders. These quick fix solutions rarely support entrepreneurs of color in developing sustainable business models and receiving funding and other resources to develop our businesses. And if we receive funding, we are not provided with ongoing support to grow our businesses, make a sustainable living, and build community wealth. As a result, many entrepreneurs of color have gaps in skills and mindsets that put our businesses, workers, and ourselves at constant risk. 

We provide robust, education and advising programs to truly support entrepreneurs of color in building resilient, thriving businesses in service to their communities.

As our economy recovers, we see an opportunity to redefine how the field addresses support for entrepreneurs of color. Business support is economic infrastructure that requires centering the experiences and needs of entrepreneurs of color and shifting the way education, advising, funding, and other resources flow to and support us in developing resilient, thriving businesses in service to our communities. 

Our programs support entrepreneurs of color throughout the journey of starting, planning, growing, funding, leading, and keeping a business in their communities. We weave together technical skills of building a social enterprise with trauma-informed personal development. We provide a safe, supportive environment for entrepreneurs of color to have open discussions with a community of peers about their challenges, receive encouragement and feedback, connect with resources to help achieve their goals, and forge new collaborations for their businesses. We partner with mission-aligned funders that center entrepreneurs of color by providing friendly capital and ongoing business advising support. Lastly, as a cooperative owned by our workers and entrepreneurs, we model and inspire other entrepreneurs of color to tap into the collective spirit of our cultures and build power through shared ownership and governance.

Our vision is a community of resilient, thriving entrepreneurs and businesses that are economically, socially, and environmentally just. Our impact is defined by the outcomes of the entrepreneurs we support. We measure the effectiveness of our programs in supporting entrepreneurs of color in creating sustainable businesses, good jobs, community wealth, and personal wellbeing. In addition, some individuals realize their business wasn’t feasible and/or being an entrepreneur isn’t for them, which we also consider to be a successful outcome as they saved time and money in figuring that out early on and have built entrepreneurial skills transferrable to traditional employment.

Over the longer term, we seek to redefine how entrepreneurship support is provided. We are a model for how entrepreneurship programs can truly center the needs of entrepreneurs of color. We hope others will realize short business programs don’t really prepare entrepreneurs for the realities of growing a business. We hope others will incorporate our best practices in working with microlenders to design friendly capital and wrap-around support. We believe with this shift in how education, advising, and capital is delivered, the promise of entrepreneurship as a means for wealth creation for communities of color will become more of a reality.