Dixwell Pitch Night Gives Biz Dreams A Kick ​“Start”

Ben Wrobel had just finished the beginning of his pitch, about the need for solutions to public policy programs that come from people’s lived experiences. The audience at NXTHVN on Henry Street in Dixwell was listening. ​“So why am I here today?” he said. ​“Well, last month I quit my job.” 

Before he could continue, there was a hearty round of applause. It was support for his willingness to take a risk, on an idea that might lead to some good.

Wrobel presented his idea Thursday night at Start in New Haven, a venture founded by Caroline Smith and Miles Lasater billed as ​“a community pitch night where individuals can pitch ideas for new events, civic improvements, startups, and other projects to a community audience — with the goal of providing energy, support, and resources to turn the ideas into a reality.” Or, as Lasater put it by way of introduction, it was about ​“helping someone else get something off the ground.”

The evening featured six presenters. Each of them had five minutes to present their project to the audience. Audience members could then ask one or two questions. After that, the presenters and audience could mix and mingle, and maybe make something happen.

“Tonight is not a competition. Tonight is not a Shark Tank. We’re not tearing down. We’re building up,” Lasater said. He encouraged the audience to think about how they could help the presenters, as investors or customers, or maybe just by getting the word out.

“New Haven has been and always will be a city of builders and innovators,” Smith said. ​“You’re going to meet some of those builders tonight.”

First up was Bill Frisch of East Rock Breads, specializing in sourdough breads. He began by describing New Haven as a ​“first-class culinary city” that was somehow short on bakeries. ​“I’m looking for a small, artisan bakery, and the key word here is ​‘small,’ ” he said. He moved to New Haven six months ago but has been working in bakeries for a decade, and ​“I’ve always noticed this trend that, as business starts growing, people do a lot more wholesale of the breads,” and ​“quality tends to go down.” By ​“keeping it small, keeping it in the neighborhood,” he could focus on ​“having the best grain, making the most beautiful sourdough breads.… I think that’s only possible in a really small space.”

Frisch said he has started renting a 1,000-square-foot storefront at 942 State St. (formerly Premium Wash and Fold Laundromat) and has started renovations. He imagined the front would be for display, but the back would be the bakery, which people could see in operation, and maybe ​“wafting that fresh bread smell. That’s my dream.… I want to be that little hole-in-the-wall destination for breads in the city.”

In the meantime he’s been selling sourdough bagels, taking orders through Instagram. When he opens his bakery, he plans to bake baguettes, croissants, and other items. He has about $45,000 in startup funds already, which should be enough to buy the equipment he needs, but to hire employees and expand hours, he would need, at first, additional funds.

In the meantime, he said, ​“keep buying bagels,” he said. ​“It’s really helped a lot in keeping this project going.”

The first question from the audience: ​“Did you bring any samples?”

The second presenter was Demeka Anderson of Wash and Go, a mobile hair salon. A licensed cosmetologist specializing in natural hair care for 12 years, Anderson established Wash and Go as an LLC in April 2020. During the early stages of the pandemic, ​“six feet of distance made it impossible for me to do my job.” 

She started by introducing a line of services and products at festivals and online. She’s currently renting a space at 148 Henry St. but would like to ​“get on the move instead of stationary.” She’s ​“looking to get an RV, equipped with a luxury salon inside, offering natural hair care services” and plant-based ​“beauty products that I develop myself.” In May she will be offering a ​“mentorship program for young entrepreneurs, especially beauty professionals.” 

Once her mobile salon is built, ​“if I get a call for an appointment, I will go to them,” she said. Mileage would be the only additional charge. ​“If it’s a pop-up or something going on the community, just let me know the date and I’ll make my way to show up.”

Ben Wrobel, the third presenter, had something more abstract to pitch: a different approach to problem solving. So many issues facing New Haven seemed like ​“wicked problems” — from the fact that ​“food insecurity in Connecticut last year doubled” to the onset of climate change. They were ​“difficult to define,” with ​“many stakeholders,” and no easy answer. They were also, he said, ​“human-centered,” requiring ​“human-centered design thinking and solutions.”

As an alternative or supplement to the generally ​“top-down” approaches of governments, universities, and other institutions, Wrobel offered to highlight some of the ideas from a book he co-wrote with author Meg Massey — Letting Go: How Philanthropists and Impact Investors Can Do the Most Good by Giving Up Control — and pointing to examples where decisions are made from the bottom up. One such example was the Haymarket People’s Fund, which, since 1974, has been allocating grants through a network of community organizers.

“I’m fascinated by participatory problem solving. How do we shift decision-making power to people with lived experience, people who are proximate to the problem?” It could take many forms, in foundations, universities, governments, and other local institutions. Wrobel was hoping to shed light on these efforts through a publication highlighting the work of 30 leaders across Connecticut who were doing more participatory kind of work, then hosting a summit and other meetings to see how those ideas could be implemented to create better public policy.

Architect Ming Thompson sought to build ​“a community around design” by creating a new flagship event in the Elm City, New Haven Design Week. ​“All around us is incredible design — architecture, furniture design, industrial design, graphic design. There’s not a way for all those people to gather in community, and more importantly, to share their ideas with the people of the city.”

New Haven Design Week would ​“celebrate and promote both historical and contemporary design that’s happening in our city.” Done right, a Design Week could promote tourism to the city. ​“It’s a way to develop art and the economy,” she said, focusing on ​“positive, community-based programming that happens in all the neighborhoods of New Haven, not just downtown.” Kids’ programming could take the form of workshops, walking tours, a ​“pop-up playhouse building project, poster competitions,” and other ways to ​“stimulate kids’ imagination and creativity.” For adults, there could be ​“studio tours, building tours, lectures by groundbreaking designs here in New Haven, tours of furniture collections, exhibitions of furniture and graphic design, or a show house, where furniture designers take over an empty building and populate it with locally made furniture.”

Design Week could both strengthen the Elm City’s design community and, Thompson said, show ​“what New Haven is to the outside world.”

Doug Hausladen, executive director of the New Haven Parking Authority, next had an idea for X2X, a nonprofit rideshare for New Haven akin to Ride Austin, which, before the pandemic, was an alternative to Uber and Lyft that paid its drivers better wages and kept money local. X2X would be a ​“member cooperative for mobility, for delivery, and for food.”

“Right now 30 percent of every restaurant check goes to San Francisco, driving up inequality on the West Coast,” he said. ​“Our Uber and Lyft drivers are making under minimum wage in Connecticut.… These are almost unconscionable thoughts that we would never necessarily participate in as an economy, but … there’s no other option. You are backed into a corner.”

X2X would be ​“owned by the members. Think of restauranteurs that are partners. Think of delivery drivers that are partners. Think about profit sharing” and ​“sustainability.”

“We could do that here in New Haven,” he said. ​“We think here at the Parking Authority that we can do a better job of cutting costs and putting those dollars back into the pockets of drivers, and back into the pockets of restauranteurs, and hopefully back into the pockets of customers as well, having a better experience.” Long-term, it was also about ​“creating a sustainable future that we all want to be a part of.” He was seeking seed revenue to launch an app, create the cooperative, and help people ​“think outside of parking.”

Finally, Eric Sanford and his kids Skyler and Eryc, Jr. were there to pitch Fruit of Thee Earth, their family-run business with wife and mother Jocelyn that helps ​“families maintain and strive for a healthy lifestyle.” Eric, who has lived in New Haven for 30 years, ran down sobering figures about health in the Black community — that men and women were 50 to 70 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease than their white counterparts, and that 59 percent of Black adults have hypertension as well as higher rates of obesity and diabetes.

Eric and Jocelyn started what Eric called a ​“live it” culture five years ago. A grant from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven allowed them to hold a ​“food, family and fun festival” at Lighthouse Point that got 150 attendees. Through the pandemic, ​“we continued to talk to people” and help them find ways to eat healthfully and joyfully. Skyler and Eryc are athletes, Eric said, and good food helps them ​“keep their mind, their body, and their spirit up.”

Fruit of Thee Earth is already selling a variety of health products; now the Sanfords are looking to grow, specifically in building out a ​“mobile, food and beverage, healing-on-wheels truck,” purveying smoothies, salads, cold-pressed juices, salads, and supplements, as well as offering services like reiki, massage, and acupuncture. They were looking for new customers, as well as a ​“financial team” and someone to help with the books. They have a truck that they’ve gutted and renovated and looking to buy equipment. All of this, Sanford said, was to support ​“family and community.”

After the presentations the large meeting room at NXTHVN filled with conversation. Presenters talked to curious members of the audience, and people in the audience began making connections with one another. For Smith and Lasater, that was all part of the plan.

The idea for Start in New Haven began with an ​“expansive definition of innovation,” Smith said, from startups to civic art and food events. It was also meant as an ​“opportunity for people to meet each other, to connect.” 

“How do we build a community where someone can take a little bit risk, have a little courage, and put an idea out there?” she continued. ​“Maybe it happens, and maybe … someone just leaves an event feeling like things are happening in New Haven, or the person who’s presenting has little more confidence in themselves.… All of those things feel really valuable.”

This was the second installment for Start in New Haven, and Smith, Lasater, and a few others got down to six presenters from a pool of about 20 proposals sent to them through the Start in New Haven website. They judged them based on what stage of development the project was in, how much they thought the project would benefit from a presentation, and how civic-minded it was. Smith said she and Lasater would already like to do it again.

The first Start in New Haven was held in November and yielded success for Clovia McIntosh and her product idea, TubeeTub, a safe, small, portable bathtub for infants and toddlers to reduce injuries in the bathtub. 

The New Haven-based company came to Start in New Haven with a prototype. ​“I had a little Barbie doll standing in it,” McIntosh said with a laugh. She pitched it, and got customers. ​“It definitely helped get me a lot of signups,” McIntosh said. ​“People came over to interact with it.” And ​“it literally kickstarted my email list.”

TubeeTub now have investment and have gotten press. McIntosh is currently in talks with two manufacturers, one in China and one closer to home. ​“Obviously it would be cheaper” to make it in China, ​“but the goal is to make it in Connecticut,” to maintain quality control, reduce shipping times, ​“make it as sustainable as possible,” and ​“make it a safe product that kids love.” Tubee is setting its sights on a pilot launch by the end of the year.

In retrospect, looking back on the presentation in November, ​“it really helped a lot,” McIntosh said.