Accelerate 500 dba 1863Ventures

The Majira Project is a 16-week, cohort-based accelerator program where small businesses either led by and/or serving Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities are provided curated technical assistance targeted at helping the company get to its next stage of growth. At the start of the program, participants are matched with a consulting team skilled in the specific business or technical areas for which they need assistance and a coach to provide mentorship throughout the program. Consultants, coaches, and the Majira team all work together to provide connections to any additional resources that will accelerate growth. Majira has developed a network of individual and corporate partners like the Boston Consulting Group with expertise across a wide variety of areas who are motivated to provide technical assistance to underrepresented founders and their businesses. Participants receive trajectory-changing deliverables, volunteers receive a unique and meaningful experience that expands their understanding of the challenges of underrepresented founders, and corporate partners increase their employee engagement and satisfaction. While the coaches, speakers and mentors come from a mix of backgrounds, Majira intentionally ensures a significant proportion come from Black, Latinx, and Indigeous entrepreneurial backgrounds so participants are able to connect with role models who share the struggles of entrepreneurship unique to their backgrounds. The program takes no fee or equity from the participants and is completely virtual - allowing for individuals across the nation to connect via Zoom, Spatial.Chat, and other virtual platforms. After formal program completion, participants join the alumni community and are eligible for follow-on support.

Black, Latinx, and Indigenous entrepreneurs and those seeking to service underserved communities face disproportionate challenges to growing a successful business in the United States. They have poorer access to the human, intellectual, social, and financial capital needed to grow a successful business than their white counterparts. In 2020, Black and Latinx founders collectively received 2.6% of all venture capital funding and continue to disproportionately be denied business loans more often than their white counterparts. 72% of those who do receive funding, receive less than they need. A primary result of this undercapitalization is being unable to access and retain the human and intellectual capital needed to sustain growth. Furthermore, disparities exist in the traditional entrepreneurial support ecosystem: based on our research, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous founders collectively represented fewer than 15% of those accepted into top accelerators (e.g.,Techstars, YCombinator, etc.) despite an overrepresentation of entrepreneurs in both the Black and Latinx communities. Finally, while opportunities for guidance abound for launching a business, there is a gap in support for small businesses who have gained initial traction, but struggle to achieve the escape velocity to surpass the $1M and $2M ARR marks. These collective barriers have lead to few Black, Latinx, and Indigenous entrepreneurs with businesses that have achieved the degree of scaled success that enables systemic change - generational wealth for their families, capital to invest back into their communities, and status as leaders & role models to pave the way for future entrepreneurs from their communities.

The founding mission of the Majira Project is strongly aligned with the Challenge - Majira seeks to spur growth of small business led by entrepreneurs from and/or serving Black, Latinx, or Indigenous communities through the provision of intellectual, human, social, and financial capital.  96% of the companies Majira works with are led or co-led by Black, Latinx, or Indigenous founders and 68% are led or co-led by women. Furthermore, our program is specifically targeted to supporting growth to scale of small businesses. Majira’s program is uniquely tailored to help small businesses unlock their next stage of growth by applying the strategic thought-partnership and resources typically available to only the largest and most successful organizations in the world to the small businesses’ specific challenges. These resources are hugely impactful in growing, developing, and sustaining these small businesses; for example, one small business came out of the program making 80% of their prior year’s revenue in the first quarter alone while another received a playbook for the replication and expansion of their organization in additional markets over the next 5 years. Furthermore, access to financial capital is a large common need and Majira has provided a range of assistance from facilitating investor introductions to providing  guidance and review around term sheets to helping ensure entrepreneurs receive their PPP loan. Majira’s curated model excels at providing access to the particular resources the entrepreneur needs to achieve scale.

The Majira Project’s target population are Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities as these are the communities with major wealth disparities in America - the median household income is $41K and $51K for Black Americans and Hispanic Americans, respectively compared to $70K for white Americans. Our program targets entrepreneurs from or serving Black, Latinx, or Indigenous communities in America as we see entrepreneurship and thriving businesses as a key pathway to wealth creation in the quest to achieve economic justice for these communities. 96% of the companies we work with are led by Black and/or Latinx founders and the remainder specifically target underserved communities in their provision of goods and services.

Many of our entrepreneurs have had to overcome these wealth disparities in order to launch their businesses. Unlike their white counterparts, they are far less likely to have the social capital needed to raise a typical “friends and family” round used to launch ventures. Furthermore, they commonly face racial discrimination from investors, partners, and others as they seek to grow their business. The Majira Project not only bridges the resource gap, but also creates a community of entrepreneurs who have faced similar challenges. By accelerating small business success, Majira helps build generational wealth by spurring wealth creation for founders’ families and communities through economic development and leadership demonstrating that entrepreneurship is a viable career option for the younger generation.

From the beginning, the Majira Project has been shaped by the needs and feedback expressed by our entrepreneurs. Our focus on curated, tactical help was in response to entrepreneurs mentioning multiple programs providing the same educational content and being burnt out from an incessant focus on pitching. Even in our sixth cohort cycle, we continue to solicit and incorporate feedback from participants to ensure and improve the value we provide entrepreneurs.

The accelerator currently operates in Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania, and the Greater Washington D.C. region (including Virginia & Maryland) as well as the following non-Truist target geographies of California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. As the program is delivered virtually and takes a regional approach, it has been able to occasionally work with businesses outside of these states, including ones in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Colorado. In the coming years, we plan to expand to additional regions including Florida and other states in the US South.

1863 Venture’s mission encompasses both helping launch and sustain small businesses - its overall goal is to reduce barriers and risks for black and brown founders across the nation.

The Majira Project is focused on sustaining small businesses. Its mission is community development through entrepreneurship - providing access to consulting, coaching, connections, and capital to entrepreneurs from or serving Black, Latinx, or Indigenous communities to enable small business growth.

Our goal is to increase the number of businesses from/serving  the Black, Latinx, & Indigenous community in America achieving profit & scale. We believe that in order for small businesses to achieve growth and scale, they need consulting, coaching, connections, and capital. By providing these resources, the small businesses will see an increase in annual revenue, jobs created, and ability to secure the funding they need to sustain their business in the short and intermediate term. As we increase and strengthen connections with investors and as these businesses hit growth milestones of $1M and $2M annual recurring revenue (ARR), and/or achieve “unicorn” status, their successes will establish more founders as role models in their communities, inspiring future entrepreneurs and combating the perception that there is a “pipeline problem” for black and brown founders. From our initial pilot data, we’ve seen a median increase of $500K in ARR and addition of 5 full-time hires for companies in their first year out of our program. 

Secondarily, we see change occurring through the corporate volunteers who engage in our program. As our volunteers are themselves already or future leaders in their industries, their participation and exposure in this program will help educate and create high-powered advocates who will promote access across business sectors. For example, our founding partner - the Boston Consulting Group - began with the Majira Project in 2016 and has now expanded their racial equity in business programs to include a college fellows program focused on cultivating underrepresented talent and a program to promote supplier diversity both internally and among their clients.

To date, we have and continue to serve 87 alumni companies and 166 entrepreneurs with collectively over 1000 employees across 11 regional areas. Next year, we plan to accept a cohort of 36 additional companies across 14 regional areas. In the next 5 years we anticipate having 273 total companies in our alumni portfolio with 546 founders and over 3000 employees across 17+ regional areas. 

The Majira Project started in Boston seeking to bridge the gap between the well-established and resourced startup hub and small businesses from historically marginalized neighborhoods excluded from the ecosystem. Key stakeholders and players include the local universities (MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, Babson & more), major corporations, VC-Angel networks like New England Venture Capital Association, the accelerator incubator network supported by local government (ex: Greentown Labs and MassChallenge), and the startup hubs of Kendall Square, the Harvard i-Lab, and the attempted Nubian Square/Roxbury Innovation Center. Due to the pandemic, the program went virtual in 2020 and started expanding nationally first to five cities, and now to 11. We have since been actively pursuing deeper relationships with the respective ecosystem players.

Our program is not curriculum-based, but is project-based and entrepreneur-led. This means that after a company is selected to enter the program, they are matched with a team co-located in their region who will work on one or more projects of the entrepreneurs’ choosing. While our staff provides guidance and advice around where the resources may be most impactful, the projects and prioritization are all driven by the entrepreneur and their company’s needs. 

Our program takes no fee or equity for our services and many of our applicants are referred to us through word-of-mouth from other entrepreneurs and other partner organizations. Given the abundance of entrepreneurship programs of varying quality and value and due to our mission, we intentionally chose not to charge for our program. Furthermore, we make an effort to meet with any entrepreneur from our target communities even those we are not able to admit into the formal program and, where applicable, provide connections or referrals to other resources. For the entrepreneurs who we formally admit and focus our work on, our core values guide all of our interactions - in particular, our caring, holistic, and honest approach earn us the trust and confidence of entrepreneurs often sifting through who their true allies and supporters are.

Our goal is to impact over 400 founders in at least 17 regional areas across the United States by expanding our operations from the current 11 regional areas. We have already replicated our program from Boston to 11 other regional areas and plan to continue. While our program has been executed successfully in new locations, we aim to develop our presence in the various ecosystems of these new locations by partnering with local organizations and participating or initiating local events to deepen our understanding of each regional community as we have done in Boston.

Beyond expanding, we will also be focused on deepening the impact we’re able to make by expanding the types of technical assistance we’re able to provide and establishing a way to provide funding directly to the small businesses we work with. For example, two of the top most common challenges we hear from our small businesses are fundraising and bringing in diverse talent. We plan to forge partnerships with headhunters and organizations focused on sourcing diverse talent and to establish an Impact Fund that will be able to provide various forms of funding beyond equity and debt to the small businesses that come through our program.

Kerry Bowie, founder and Executive Director of the Majira Project, has years of experience operating in economic and social justice and supporting vulnerable communities. His extensive network, which spans both highly resourced entrepreneurship communities like MIT and vulnerable communities, is a testament to his ability to form strong relationships with people from varied backgrounds and find shared ground with them. Due to Kerry’s dedication, passion, and network, the Majira Project has grown through word of mouth from six companies in Boston to over a hundred applicants nationally for the 31 spots in the latest cohort. Furthermore, as our flagship partner and a top 3 strategy firm, BCG brings unparalleled resources both in terms of their people and access to data and connections. The program’s consulting teams bring the same knowledge, expertise, and practices employed by Fortune 500 companies to these startups and small businesses and are enlivened by the opportunity to make meaningful, positive impact in their communities.

We are excited about the opportunity to mature and scale the impact of our solution alongside other missionally-aligned organizations. We believe a partnership with the Truist Foundation and MIT Solve could be helpful to us for a number of reasons. First, the connections to resource partners to help us secure the necessary resources to achieve our goals will be most immediately impactful. Secondly, the peer network and learning and development will help us consider how to scale wisely and build a strong team in the process. While our team has a strong background in entrepreneurship, business, and social impact which help us serve our entrepreneurs well, we have less experience around the specific challenges of operating a nonprofit and would benefit from learning best-practices to build capacity as we grow. 

Financial: we need to raise funds both to sustain the operations of our program in the short-term and to stand up an accompanying Impact Fund which will sustain our operations in the long-term. Our team is relatively inexperienced in nonprofit fundraising and can benefit from resources, partners, and connections. 

Public Relations & Product/Service Distribution: Our program began where our leaders were already deeply embedded in the local ecosystem and through word of mouth. As we begin to deploy our services nationally, we need help developing a national brand presence that will raise awareness of our program to entrepreneurs, corporate partners, and funders in all our regions. Furthermore, as we work to deepen our connections in local ecosystems, any connections to partners in each region would be helpful.

Monitoring & Evaluation/Technology: Our impact metric tracking and calculations are all relatively manual currently. We need guidance on more automated and efficient systems for tracking and reporting on our impact and funding to support the technology needed to implement those systems. In order to scale, we also need to automate a few of our operational processes, but need funding and guidance to implement the systems to do so.

We're looking for partners that could serve the following categories: 

Program partners: industry-leading corporations invested in diversity, equity, and inclusion and able to devote in-kind services to startups and small businesses through our program. 

Funders, sponsors & investors: organizations who are missionally aligned and desire to impact historically marginalized communities through entrepreneurship who will help fund our work and/or invest in our companies.

Collaborators: other entrepreneurial ecosystem organizations who are invested in our mission and desire to work together to strengthen the overall ecosystem through cross-promoting programs, sharing resources, and refer entrepreneurs