GREAT IDEA

Google funds will boost minority and immigrant entrepreneurs

A grant from Google will help minority and immigrant entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh bring their business ideas to fruition.

Idea Foundry, an economic development organization in Oakland, won $50,000 from the search engine giant earlier this year in the Google.org Impact Challenge.

The agency is using the money to fund a new program, Equitable Entrepreneurship, that over the next year will provide business assistance and loans to 10 fledgling firms owned by minorities and immigrants.

Among them is Aldrea ReeseBrown of Avalon, a black woman who wants to launch what she called a “money mastery” business.

In addition to providing instruction on how to budget and save money, her business would convene support groups where individuals could get feedback and input from their peers who are also trying to learn how to better manage their finances.

For the past two decades, Ms. Reese-Brown has been homeschooling her six children. With the youngest two preparing to finish high school in a couple years, “I am aiming to start a business,” she said.

She earned an MBA from Waynesburg University to help prepare for entrepreneurship and learned of the Equitable Entrepreneurship program while researching funding sources on the internet.

When she applied, she was relieved that Idea Foundry did not expect her to have a business plan already developed. “They had me do surveys to pull out of me what I wanted to do,” she said.

She and the other entrepreneurs will be enrolled in the program for three months during which they will receive intensive business support from the Idea Foundry staff, and up to $5,000 in funding.

By the end of the program, Ms. Reese-Brown’s goal is to organize a pilot group to test her financial education and support concept.

The other four participants that Idea Foundry picked for its first cohort are a China-born entrepreneur who is developing a public health initiative; an Eastern European immigrant whose business helps real estate buyers and sellers; and two other minority-owned businesses: a retail enterprise on the North Side and an office supplies firm in Homewood.

“Creating tools for them to start businesses aligns directly with our mission,” said Michael Matesic, president and chief executive of Idea Foundry.

The 16-year-old organization over a decade ago launched a diversity initiative to assist more

black entrepreneurs who had innovative businesses. But it didn’t advance far beyond the pilot stage, said Mr. Matesic, because it overlapped with work being done by Urban Innovation21, a Hill District nonprofit that assists entrepreneurs in low-income neighborhoods.

Last year, Idea Foundry began developing a program to help immigrants “because we saw the gaps in funding for small businesses that were immigrant-founded,” said Mr. Matesic.

Idea Foundry entered the Google.org Impact Challenge hoping it could boost services for both minorities and immigrants who want to start businesses. The Google.org Impact Challenge awards money to organizations that help create jobs and economic opportunity for underserved individuals.

Pittsburgh was the first city where Google held the challenge. Three nonprofits in addition to Idea Foundry also won $50,000 grants: Prototype PGH, a feminist makerspace; Pittsburgh Community Kitchen, which provides culinary training for individuals transitioning from jail, addiction, homelessness or mental health issues; and Landforce, which trains individuals formerly on public assistance to work in environmental restoration.

Landforce received an additional $50,000 from Google as the “people’s choice” winner following a public vote.

In addition to the money it won from Google, Idea Foundry is supporting the Equitable Entrepreneurship program with proceeds from the sale of one of its portfolio investments, Wombat Security Technologies.

Strip District-based Wombat was acquired earlier this year by Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm Proofpoint for $225 million.

Idea Foundry provided early stage funding for Wombat.

“We had a very successful exit [from] Wombat,” said Mr. Matesic.