43North

In 2015, 43North’s MWBE outreach was led by Outreach Liaison Jennifer Parker of Jackson Parker Communications (JPC). Working with a 43North team including members of 2014 43North winning teams KeepUp (Angel Davis and Lauren Washington) and triMirror (Jenny Tcharnaia) represented the competition at startup events and conferences across North America, including the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Summit in Atlanta; the Collision Technology Conference in Las Vegas; Startup Grind Toronto and Tech Cocktail gatherings in New York City and Washington, D.C. The integrated strategy included successfully pitching the minority winners to obtain featured news stories and a national television appearance on News One with Roland Martin.

The firm also formed a MWBE task force in order to identify Western New York organizations that support startup and develop a strategy to encourage business formation and expansion among minorities and women. The task force was formed after existing MWBE’s shared an interest in learning more about 43North and small business services available in the region. As part of the strategy for targeted community outreach, the competition hosted several minority and women networking events in WNY including a “Think Big with 43North” forum in May 2015, which was held in partnership with the National Black MBA WNY organization and NAWBO Buffalo Niagara (National Association of Women Business Owners). The “Think Big” gathering was developed to create new networking opportunities for local minority and women-owned businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs, as well as inspire other Western New Yorkers to become 43North registrants and supporters.