Atlanta: May 22, 2011
100 URBAN ENTREPRENEURS was in Atlanta from May 22-25 to participate in the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo, held at the city’s Marriott Marquis. It was one of the major urban-business gatherings of 2011, and we were honored to play a part.
The night before the conference began, 100UE hosted a get-together at Atlanta’s W hotel. Check out the highlights above — entrepreneurship was clearly the topic on everybody’s mind.
Our involvement in the BE conference, then, was twofold: Magnus Greaves, 100UE’s cofounder, was one of the judges at the “Never Stop Pitching!” 60-Second Pitch Competition held on the expo’s first night; and we also had a Video Pitch Booth on site into which prospective entrepreneurs could step in, make the best case for their business and — if they were especially good — come away with admission to the 100 Urban Entrepreneurs program, which includes $10,000 in startup financing and eight weeks of intensive business mentoring. (To see photos of the event, click here.)
How, exactly, do 100UE and TheCASHFLOW assist urban entrepreneurs around the country? At the start of the expo, Greaves explained (below). “Our goal is to make it straightforward and very simple,” he said. “We look at all those barriers that stop people and slow them down, and we try to remove them.”
In the end, we pulled five new businesses into the 100UE program — four of which came from the pitch competition and one from the pitch booth.
From the pitch competition:
• Jennifer Burrell, The Frock Shop, Chicago
• Brandon Butler, The Website Shop, Atlanta
• Chental-Song Bembry and Holly Glover, The Honey Bunch Kids, Monmouth Junction, New Jersey
• Douglas Wiggins, Body Quest Ice Cream, Atlanta
From the pitch booth:
• Hans Goff, Voting Works, Trenton, New Jersey
Want to pitch 100UE your business and join the more than 40 entrepreneurs who have already gained admission into our funding-and-mentoring program? Keep your eyes on 100UrbanEntrepreneurs.org for news about future pitch events and the touring video-pitch booth. And e-mail us anytime at Submissions@100UE.org.
