Lupe Fiasco and Google Executive Launched $1 Million Entrepreneur Search
The Neighbourhood Start Fund begins in Brownsville, New York on November 13.
Lupe Fiasco and Di-Ann Eisnor, an angel investor and Google Waze executive, have set up an one million dollar search for entrepreneurs in underserved, marginalized neighbourhoods. The initiative is called Neighbourhood Start Fund and kicks off in Brownsville, New York this November 13. As Fast Company describes, Lupe and Eisnor first met at the Henry Crown Institute, finding out about their mutual passion for discovering talent as well as their concerns about inequality in America, poor neighborhoods, and the lack of diversity in the innovation economy. The pair joined forces with Liveperson CEO Robert LoCasio and the Dream Big Foundation’s Pernell Brice to actively start looking for entrepreneurial talent in the struggling Brooklyin neighbourhood. Residents will be able to pitch their ideas this November 13 for a chance to win $5,000 to build prototypes, along with “access to mentorship and free technology services.” The profits from the start up selected by the Neighbourhood Start Fund will proceed to Brownsville itself and boost the local economy. “
It’s very important to me that this is not philanthropy, that we have real economic engines and real wealth coming to these neighborhoods,” Eisnor says. “If one success comes out of this, then other investors will take it seriously. We want to be the on-ramp to something more sustainable.”
Read the full article at Fast Company.
Source: The FADER
