As Venture Café Providence considers how best to amplify voices of color in Rhode Island, the nonprofit startup organization is turning to the thing it does best: thoughtful programming designed to boost founders, funders and connecters in the startup ecosystem.
That work is beginning this week with Virtual Venture Café, the online version of the organization's Thursday Gatherings, which Venture Café has been running since the state shut down events nearly four months ago. Thursday's session is the first in a new series called "Innovation Is For Everyone," a play on one of Venture Café's mottos.
"We really reflected on what we were doing, especially in support of business owners of color and those from traditionally underrepresented populations," said Amy Erickson, events and operations manager at Venture Café Providence. "These were the groups we want to support."
The session will be run in three parts, with talks focusing respectively on diversity in commerce, prioritizing diversity in investing and the disproportionate effect of Covid-19 on Black-owned businesses.
During the third talk, Bruce Katz of Drexel University's Nowak Metro Finance Lab will provide suggestions on how best to support those businesses' growth and development, which Erickson says will also provide a baseline for how Venture Café Providence builds out the rest of the series. Venture Café will be running the series indefinitely, although Erickson and her team have not yet decided how frequently its sessions will take place.
"The programming will focus on underrepresented groups like Black and Indigenous people of color, but it will also look at the trans population, gays and lesbians in entrepreneurship, groups that don't always get talked about," Erickson said. "We can be an entry point into a broader network that can provide resources."
The series is part of a recommitment to diversity and inclusion by Venture Café and District Hall Providence, sister organizations that fall under the umbrella of Venture Café New England, which the organization outlined in a statement last month. The recommitment originally included a plan to build a crowdsourced directory of businesses led by minorities and allies, but Venture Café took a step back from that project after feedback from members of the Providence community.
The new series also comes as District Hall Providence gets ready to reopen its physical space at 225 Dyer St. Next week, the first-floor lounge, which is free and open to the public, will welcome visitors again—just 15 at a time to start—as will rentable meeting rooms, by appointment only. All visitors must wear face masks. (See the full guidelines here.)
Programming will remain virtual at least until the end of the summer, although Venture Café Providence will likely have at least one outdoor event on its plaza before September.
Executive director Tuni Schartner said that reopening is a fulfillment of Venture Café's obligation to the community, given that part of its mission is to provide a physical space for entrepreneurs to mingle and work—and that such a space provides opportunities for spontaneous meetings, a crucial element of networking, especially for people who need access to new networks.
"What are those underserved communities, and how can we serve them?" Schartner said. "We are a constant work in progress, but fortunately, our team is all in the same boat, rowing in the same direction."
