Breaking Barriers to Business

Partnering with place-based leaders from our current networks in local government and business support organizations (managing entities), this project aims to:

• Address the gaps in access to capital
• Shift private and public policies and practices
• Provide critical technical assistance for entrepreneurs of color. 

We will help map key entrepreneurial ecosystem domains, identify gaps, provide financial support and technical business expertise, and foster peer learning for participating cities.

Living Cities has been a trusted partner for local government leaders for over a decade, providing technical support to cohorts of cities while simultaneously strengthening relationships with community organizations, entrepreneurs and fund managers of color, philanthropic institutions and research organizations. We are positioned to leverage these partnerships and our decades of work with cross-sector leaders, to co-develop and amplify solutions, both inside and outside government, for the systemic barriers facing business owners of color.

• Track record of designing and implementing initiatives focused on learning what it takes to create better outcomes for entrepreneurs of color in U.S. cities
• Expertise in operationalizing racial equity competencies and co-creating strategies with an array of cross-sector partners, including public servants, community organizations, philanthropic leaders and capital decision makers
• Deep experience managing dynamic, multi-city cohorts and multi-day learning communities with the purpose of capturing knowledge and accelerating adoption
• Capacity to consolidate and curate resulting learnings and collaborate with Truist to inform future interventions in local entrepreneurial ecosystems

Main Street America's vision is that everyone has access to an inclusive and resilient Main Street – a place that has a thriving local economy, is distinctive and rich in character, and features welcoming spaces and diverse businesses for residents and visitors alike. MSA seeks to tackle this work using their time-tested framework, the Main Street Approach, which builds the capacity of local place-based management organizations who have supported new and existing businesses and the entrepreneurs that run them. A robust local entrepreneurial ecosystem recognizes a location’s physical environment as a critical factor for ensuring small business success, particularly for entrepreneurs of color.

• Specialized focus on supporting Main Street small businesses
• Strong expertise in entrepreneurship and knowledge of small business needs and strategies in both urban and rural areas
• Deep experience providing high-touch coaching to place-based organizations and strong commitment to working in communities over 2-5 years
• Track record of conducting research on entrepreneurial ecosystems and partnering with the institutions like Brookings Institute to produce knowledge products like 2020’s report on downtown commercial corridor revitalization.