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A6 February 27, 2020 The Chronicle OPINION The Chronicle James Taylor Jr. Publisher Bridget Elam Judie Holcomb-Pack Timothy Ramsey Tevin Stinson Shayna Smith Deanna Taylor Paulette L. Moore Venture Winston grants seek to boost start-ups in the city Managing Editor Associate Editor Sports Editor/Religion Senior Reporter Advertising Manager Office Manager Administrative Assistant Our Mission The Chronicle is dedicated to serving the residents of Winston-Salem and Forsyth Coun ty by giving voice to the voiceless, speaking truth to power, standing for integrity and encouraging open communication and lively debate throughout the community LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Loftin-Bell for East Ward To The Editor: Kismet Loftin-Bell is prepared to work hand in hand with the residents of the East Ward. Kismet Loftin-Bell is a long-time, teacher, professor, business woman and a supporter of the East Ward community. Kismet Loftin-Bell has changed the lives of many for the better. As a City Council Representative for the East Ward, Kismet Loftin-Bell will continue to create op portunities and advancement for the youth, families and seniors. Kismet Loftin-Bell will be a knowledgeable, empathetic and passionate City Council Representative for all the people of the East Ward. The time is now to Ring the BELL for Kismet Loftin-Bell and the people of the East Ward. Darlene Whited Winston-Salem Support for Kismet Loftin-Bell To The Editor: It’s not often you get the chance to meet and be on first-name basis with the person that’s your voice in any form of government. If you’re lucky and get that chance, you understand the magnitude it holds and the solace it brings knowing that you are really being repre sented and not just heard. I met Kismet Loftin-Bell in 2019 as the director of the PIE association for MSEN at WSSU. She would be so bright and enthusiastic at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morn ing, talking with parents on ways to help foster and ex cel their students learning journey. She took the time to provide not only needed information, but to answer any question you might have or steer you in the direction on how to obtain service. So, when she announced she was running for City Council of the East Ward, I was elated. This was a per son that not only held true to my beliefs in education, but can also relate to the struggles of single mother hood, living in a ward that seems to not have the same development as other wards, and knew firsthand what it can take to get the East Ward back to community that believed in building up its people to promote more thriving neighborhoods. Her focus for our ward is not what’s only needed, but requests from the residents themselves. Affordable living wage housing, economic growth with better pay ing jobs coming to the area, and viable transportation systems. So, when I think of Kismet Loftin-Bell as the East Ward’s City Councilwoman, I feel proud in my choice, I feel understood and I feel like my seat has just been pulled to the table. Kendra Campbell Resident of the East Ward Winston-Salem We Welcome Your Feedback Submit letters and guest columns to letters® wschronicle.com before 5 p.m. Friday for the next Week’s publication date. Letters intended for publication should be addressed “Letters to the Editor” and include your name, address, phone number and email address. Please keep letters to 350 words or less. If you are writing a guest column, please include a photo of yourself, your name, address, phone number and email address. Please keep guest columns to 550 words or less. Letters and columns can also be mailed or dropped off at W-S Chronicle, 1300 E. Fifth St., W-S, NC, 27101; or sent via our website: www.wschronicle. com. We reserve the right to edit any item submitted for clarity or brevity and determine when and whether material will be used. We welcome your comments at our website. Also, go to our Facebook page to comment. We are at facebook.com/WSChronicle. Algenon Cash Guest Columnist Civic leaders an- nounced the launch ofVen- ture Cafe Winston-Salem in 2017 and raised capital to support the non-profit’s initial three years of opera tions. Venture Cafe’s mis sion is to broaden, connect and support the innovation community through public spaces and programs to help anyone with an idea succeed. They hope to connect individuals, com munities and organiza tions into one tightly-wo ven successful innovation ecosystem right here in the Piedmont Triad region. Originally I criticized the need for Venture Cafe, but agreed to attend a net working event after con stant urging from a per sonal friend and speaker, Ja’Net Adams. She turned out to be correct - the gath ering was not only electri fying, but created a unique safe space for entrepre neurs to connect. Eventu ally I agreed to serve on Venture Cafe’s advisory board and participated in countless panel discus sions. The largest motivation that changed my paradigm is Karen Barnes - she has an infectious vision and passion for Winston-Sa lem that can move moun tains. Barnes likes a good hug, but her energy grips you just as strongly and refuses to let go, it’s this very connection that al lows her to attract diverse leaders to her cause. Venture Cafe provides a global network to Win ston-Salem and its Thurs day gatherings have been wildly successful in con necting various commu nity members across a di verse spectrum. Through a two-year $200,000 grant from Wexford, Venture Cafe launched the AC CESS Center for Equity + Success to help minor ity-owned and women- owned business enter prises access resources, technical support, contract opportunities, and financ ing. ACCESS provides micro-funding to existing small businesses through a partnership with Piedmont Business Capital. Barnes declared, “Ven ture Cafe is now the heart beat of the entrepreneurial community and has been instrumental in developing a more collaborative eco system.” However, Barnes noticed “gaps beyond the networking events.” “Now I want to get city leaders to think differently about entrepreneurship and our start-up commu nity,” said Barnes. Always seeking to “agitate” and “shake-up” things locally, Barnes embarked on a quest to unite the “entrepreneur ial ecosystem” with more depth and a hope to make the city a start-up desti nation. Over the years, Raleigh has emerged as a powerhouse in technol ogy with its development of Research Triangle Park, and Charlotte is now a world renowned banking and financial center. “What do we want to be?” stated Barnes. “We have to better define the audience and clarify a fo cus on the future.” How ever, Barnes is clear that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but instead le verage existing assets, but she makes a point not to say “industries.” “We can’t rely on past indus tries,” said Barnes. Barnes quickly rattles off a wide range of as sets located in Winston- Salem, which could place the community in a unique position to grow the econ omy, create jobs, and lift stagnant wages. We have an underutilized airport with no commercial traf fic, so it provides a rare op portunity to research and develop aviation technolo gy. A well-known medical school opens up the possi bility for more healthcare technology. Not to men tion we have local assets that create space for us to be innovative players in virtual reality, connectiv ity and cyber security. Barnes introduced the Venture Winston grants initiative after discovering a similar program named the Arch Grants, a non- profit organization that provides $50,000 equity- free grants and pro bono support services to entre preneurs who locate their early-stage businesses in St. Louis. Barnes ulti mately hopes the initiative “will do something to dis tinguish Winston-Salem from other cities” seeking to grow start-ups. Barnes acknowledges the new initiative would be an “expansion” of Venture Cafe’s founding mission, but didn’t want to form yet another new entity with a completely new mission and risk more redundancy - which has been a longtime challenge in our small city. Barnes sought $1.5 million from the City of Winston-Salem to sup port operations for the new initiative over five years. Undoubtedly, she met quick opposition from elected city officials con cerned about sourcing the funds, local inclusion, di versity, retention, and a whole range of additional issues. Barnes, always unrelenting, enlisted the support of multiple pub lic, private and non-profit leaders to win over elected leadership. David Mounts, presi dent and CEO of Inmar, and Mark Owens, presi dent and CEO of the Win ston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, both agreed to partner with Barnes and Venture Cafe. Mounts brings deep connections in the private sector to aid fundraising and Ow ens agreed to provide critical infrastructure for the initiative through his far-reaching Chamber of Commerce. Also worth noting is the newly launched Win ston Starts housed in 500 W. Fifth will provide in cubator space and sup port pathways for chosen participants. Barnes is positioning Flywheel to be the final landing place for companies exiting the program. After much discussion, debate and some nego tiation, the Winston-Sa lem City Council agreed to provide $900,000 to jumpstart Venture Winston Grants - less than Barnes hoped for, but still a win nevertheless. The city in SOULStWe POLLS Meet Us For BREAKFAST SATURDAY FEBRUARY 22, 2020 FEBRUARY 29, 2020 Enterprise Conference center 1922 Martin Luther King Dr Winston-Salem, NC 27107 Sam 9am l'^A serted some caveats - the Forsyth County Commis sioners must also match the city dollar for dollar and the program must raise $1.75 million from the private sector. The city will source the funds to assist the new program by utiliz ing 'incentives that were awarded to Inmar to en courage them to keep their operations in Winston- Salem. Those funds went unused. None of the city money will be awarded to companies, it will be ear marked for operations, and privately raised funds will serve as the backbone for the grants program. “We are thankful for the city’s support and ex cited to be a.partner in better scaling Venture Ca fe’s efforts and the over all start-up community,” Mark Owens shared. The Chamber has a long history of working alongside the city, deep experience with managing public funds, and knowledge about fi nancial reporting and doc umentation requirements. The Chamber also possesses a deep infra structure that can enable Venture Cafe to take ad vantage of administrative staffing, national public relations, and office equip ment. In the end, the con nectivity to the Chamber will allow Venture Cafe to stretch public money fur ther, because the organiza tion won’t have to allocate funds to several operating needs. “We are good at grow ing companies in Winston- Salem and our track record proves it,” said Owens, “but we need to incu bate the next Reynolds or Hanesbrands.” The actual operating procedures for Venture Winston are still in flux - but generally organizers are closely modeling the initiative after the Arch Grants in St. Louis. Which means the ap plication process may be three steps: 1. A large, selection committee will review first round applicants and select those best fitted for staff review. In St. Louis, they often receive over 7,000 applications and provide only 20 grants. Organizers hope to use a point-based system similar to the city’s procurement criteria to se lect applicants with local companies; veteran and minority-owned firms will receive a special weight ing. 2, Staff will conduct due-diligence on appli cants clearing the first hurdle and move the most notable on to a pitch com petition. 3. Judges sourced from the community at-large will make the final deci sions about which appli cants receive a $50,000 grant. The first year may yield 12 grants with a goal to provide 20 grants annu ally. Undoubtedly the new initiative will stumble and Barnes, along with others, will learn a lot from the first rounds of grant mak ing, but the new push to recruit and grow start-ups in the city has tremendous potential. I’ve long argued the city has been stuck in an identity crisis for nearly 20 years and that’s evi denced by the loss of 14 corporate headquarters since 2000 - with no clar ity from city leadership on what’s next. Venture Cafe will not solve the festering issue simply by doling out $50,000 grants, but they may attract a company with great talent and per haps we figure out a way to retain the company, its founders and workers. Also the selection committee and commu nity judges must be well balanced, diverse and fo cused on awarding the companies with the best and brightest ideas, not only the enterprises con nected to the good ole’ boy network that has been self- appointed to maintain the gates in town. Winston-Salem lacks a well-developed capital infrastructure to properly fund late stage compa nies. So there is a risk the very start-ups that we attempt to incubate may still flee to Boston, Silicon Valley, or all points in be tween where large private equity funds exist to pro vide the lifeblood of any growing company. Hope- ftilly, Barnes and others are giving heavy consid eration to this important reality. The Arch Grants in St. Louis have successfully retained 90% of the com panies that applied, but no data exist to inform us just how long those companies stayed in the area once the one-year commitment ex pired. Barnes recognizes there is nothing preventing a company from departing the city once their obliga tion has been met. Undeniably we must be laser-focused on creat ing wraparound services to ensure host companies stay engaged, we need to assist founders with get ting immersed in the city’s culture, and proactively work to establish en hanced capital funds that can finance maturing com panies that emerge from the initiative. Algenon Cash is a na tionally recognized speak er and the managing direc tor of Wharton Gladden & Company, an investment bankingfirm. Reach him at acash@algenoncash.com.
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Feb. 27, 2020, edition 1
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