Cake Apparel, based in New York City, is an organic clothing company dedicated to bringing together trendy fashion, social consciousness and sustainability. All Cake Organic merchandise is made from 100 percent organic cotton, bamboo and/or recycled fibers. Cake Apparel seeks to be the fashion authority in eco-friendly clothing for kids, teens and young adults.

HOW MENTORING WILL HELP: “Mentoring can be helpful in one of two ways,” Jones says. “It helps us learn from the mistakes made by other companies, and from their accomplishments and successes. Mentoring is about building upon a foundation that’s already laid, not trying to build it from the ground up. The 100 Urban Entrepreneurs mentoring program is much like a business think tank, where we can analyze and perfect our individual business infrastructures. This program rivals the best business-school programs — minus the costly tuition.”

HOW $10,000 WILL HELP: The startup financing from 100 Urban Entrepreneurs will help Cake Apparel produce its initial clothing line, update its Web site and launch its next marketing campaign.

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LORIN JONES, Cake Apparel’s 25-year-old CEO and creative director, took a circuitous route to becoming the head of an eco-friendly fashion startup: She majored in philosophy in college, then got her master’s in elementary education and spent several years teaching.

Now, though, she’s pontificating more about environmentally friendly garments — all of Cake Apparel’s clothes, aimed toward kids, teens and young adults, are made from 100 percent organic cotton, bamboo and/or recycled fibers.

“The $10,000 grant from 100UE is going to help the company tremendously,” she says. “We’ll ultimately use the money to produce our initial line, update our Web site and launch our next marketing campaign.” •