Laura Glesby Photo
The State House crowd.
Marina Marmolejo and Yusuf Ransome have a pitch for how to help end youth homelessness — with the their new app, called DreamKit.
They and five other teams of entrepreneurs made pitches about their newly hatched businesses and organizations at State House, the performance venue at 310 State St. The six teams were all part of the Collab Spring 2019 Accelerator Cohort, a ten-week mentorship program for up-and coming enterprisers, complete with mentorship, childcare, transportation, interpretation services, and a $1,000 stipend. Wednesday was the program’s Pitch Day, where the entrepreneurs begin the process of taking what they’ve learned to market.
Besides the homeless apps, the new enterprises’ offerings range from “wearable art” to lactation rooms.
“We try to support entrepreneurs at the very tender, early stages of their ideas,” Collab co-founder Caroline Smith said. “Pitch day is one of my favorite events because at its core, it’s confidence building. A lot of people come in thinking that the word ‘entrepreneur’ doesn’t apply to them.”
Marmolejo and Ransome’s app connects homeless youth to available resources in the area. It also includes a networking component, allowing youth to connect with potential employers, mentors, and friends. As users utilize resources at local organizations like Columbus House or DESK, they can use the app to log these services, creating a record over time that Marmolejo likened to a “resume.”
Youth who opt in would be able to make their track record of meetings and appointments visible, which Marmolejo said would testify to their responsibility and dispel presumptions that homeless youth are “lazy.”
Data about the combinations of resources that homeless youth use is scarce, Marmolejo later added. The app would also help contribute to this currently-lacking knowledge base.
Logging an appointment or interaction at an organization could earn users points. Marmolejo said she hopes these points will function as a kind of currency, exchangeable at local businesses for essentials like food, haircuts, and clothing. Marmolejo and Ransome are in the process of working with behavioral economists to figure out the logistics of this system.
The team currently has $16,000 worth of funding, and has applied for federal and municipal grants of $500,000 to $1 million in order to back up these points.
Marmolejo anticipates that some potential users of the app will be wary of the app’s progress-tracking component. The DreamKit team is cognizant about “not making them feel like a number,” she said. The app will ask for consent before sharing users’ data.
Some users might use the app to meet basic needs like food and shelter, Marmolejo said. Others might have a part time job and might be looking for networking opportunities, or a community. “We really want to meet youth where they’re at,” she said.
Terone Montgomery with Pitch Day attendees.
Terone Montgomery’s startup, Threads by Tea, produces “wearable art” — handcrafted clothing designed to meet the specific needs of each customer. Each article of clothing is tailored not only to fit customers but also to reflect their individual styles.
“Do I look like I like to go shopping?” Montgomery asked the crowd, to a spurt of laughter. “Well, I don’t. Either I’m not inspired by what I see, or I can’t find anything in my size.”
With Collab’s help, he started a business that eliminated that need while feeding his passion for creative clothing.
Montgomery has sold 70 pieces so far, including commissions from Russell Dance Studio and the Westville Art Fashion Show. Eventually, he said, he hopes to obtain a workshop and open an online store.
He described the process of ordering an article of clothing from Threads by Tea: “First, tell me how you want to feel. Then, tell me how you want to look.”
Della Leapman shows what her lactation rooms will look like.
Architect Della Leapman said she wants her business to create a similar sense of empowerment. When Leapman became a mother, she found it difficult to find a space to pump breast milk when she returned to work — even in an industry devoted to thoughtfully-designed spaces.
“I have experience pumping in every possible place you can imagine,” she said.
After this experience, she decided to found a company, Nestl, that builds rooms specifically designed for lactation in workplaces.
In her pitch, Leapman said that parents who breastfeed and work often find themselves “pumping milk in storage closets, IT rooms, the back of their cars, and bathroom stalls.”
The rooms contain refrigerators and ample storage space. Some versions also have sinks. They double as “wellness spaces,” Leapman said, noting that the rooms can be used for meditation or prayer. “It’s basically built to be the most tranquil, calm environment,” she added.
She noted that the market for lactation rooms was growing, particularly after a New York City law passed in 2018 that required employers to provide designated rooms for breastfeeding parents. She anticipated that more cities and states, including Connecticut, would follow suit.
After the presentation, Leapman said that her lactation room design was informed by a stigma around breastfeeding in the workplace. “My goal is to celebrate it as part of an office space and not just push it off to the corner.”
Jumai-Shefau Dabre-Rufus presents on her business.
Other members of the Collab Spring 2019 Cohort include Aneetrai Rowland, who pitched Emergent Access Services, an app that aims to reduce overcrowding and long wait times in Emergency Rooms; Jumai-Shefau Dabre-Rufus, who pitched Zen Zilla Yoga & Wellness, a curriculum that combines mindfulness meditation with black music; and Melissa Stoll, who presented on Stoll Enterprises, an event-planning company specializing in athletic competitions.