Forward Cities work to culminate in first Black Founders’ Night at The Hub
April 6, 2021
A team of representatives from various Launch Dayton partners has been working on ways to better reach and engage the region’s Black founders through the Forward Cities Ohio Learning Collaborative, funded by Huntington Bank.
This work will culminate this week with the first Black Founders’ Night at The Hub.
The E3 Ohio engagement bought together five of Ohio’s mid-sized cities — Akron, Canton, Dayton, Toledo, and Youngstown. Reps from each city spent nine months evaluating their community’s equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The goal of Black Founders’ Night at The Hub is to remove barriers, build relationships, and increase exposure for Black business owners and neighborhood-based businesses to Dayton’s downtown startup ecosystem.
Team Dayton comprised the following individuals:
Belinda Matthews Stenson, Dayton Chamber of Commerce — Minority Business Partnership;
Elizabeth Sherwood, Huntington Bank;
Karlos L. Marshall, Greater West Dayton Incubator, (Project Lead & Co-Chair);
KeAnna Daniels, Parallax Advanced Research;
Kim Frazier, Entrepreneurs’ Center;
LeKeisha Grant, Small Business Development Center (Co-Chair);
Scott Murphy, Downtown Dayton Partnership;
Senay Semere, Minority Business Assistance Center;
Sheila Mixon, Women’s Business Enterprise Council Ohio River Valley;
Steve Naas, County Corp — BizCap.
