Supporting the Minority Business Community Through KC.UP Events

KC.UP hosted a minority-focused entrepreneurship event this month as part of a third Friday entrepreneurship series. The events, which have featured startup entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, entrepreneur support programs and ecosystem builders from across the country, are an interest feeder for the KC.UP accelerator.

This past month’s event featured speakers: Minda Harts, Author, The Memo and Brandon Andrews, Co-founder of Gauge and Casting on ABC’s Shark Tank. The next event will be on November 15^th, featuring Jasmine Crowe, Founder & CEO of Goodr and Sergio Marrero, partner, Stat Zero. Click here to register.

Both local and national interest, including a write-up published on BlackEnterprise.com, on the accelerator has been outstanding.

In addition, a 6-Month Startup Bootcamp is underway. The monthly half-day sessions, designed to take startups from product to market, allows founders to test their hypothesis, continue to iterate on their product, begin customer development, complete competitive analysis, develop business models and start revenue generation.

Ten founders that complete the 6-Month Startup Bootcamp will be eligible to advance to the pre-accelerator with NewMe in December and Accelerator in January. The pre-Accelerator will award ten (10) $5,000 grants and the accelerator will make five (5) $50,000 investments and get the opportunity to demo at SXSW in March of 2020.