Impact Entrepreneurs Pitch Ventures at SEG’s Impact Business Showcase
For Immediate Release
July 14, 2023
Impact Entrepreneurs Pitch Ventures at SEG’s Impact Business Showcase
Edesia’s Executive Director and Newport Mayor Address Impact Accelerator Graduates and Call for Sustained Focus Across Rhode Island on Social Enterprise and Inclusive Entrepreneurship
PROVIDENCE, RI – Last night, Social Enterprise Greenhouse (SEG), the state’s leading network of business support for social impact entrepreneurs, celebrated the nine graduates of the latest Impact Accelerator cohort with a marquee pitch event that included remarks from Edesia Executive Director Maria Kasparia, Newport Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong, and Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Liz Tanner. The nine recent Impact Accelerator graduates pitched their ventures to potential investors and the public, and more than three dozen impact entrepreneurs from other SEG programs staffed demonstration tables to highlight their ventures and growth.
The Impact Accelerator is one of SEG’s four entrepreneurial programs and bolsters established, revenue-generating ventures. This cohort of Impact Accelerator graduates included an innovative delivery model for mental health treatment, a zero-waste oral care company, and an individualized-affordable healthcare initiative.
“If Rhode Island’s and Southern New England’s economies are going to truly thrive, we need to ensure that we are fully supporting entrepreneurs and business owners who are focused on making a social impact,” said Social Enterprise Greenhouse CEO Julie Owens. “Our Impact Accelerator graduates are creating jobs, building wealth, and investing in local communities. As importantly, they’re laying a foundation for broader growth and future entrepreneurs.”
Graduates also heard from Maria Kasparian, executive director of Edesia. Edesia is a model of best practice for social impact ventures. Founded by Navyn Salem as a non-profit, social enterprise, Edesia makes life-saving, ready-to-use foods that address a crisis of global malnutrition. The Rhode Island-based venture has nourished more than 20 million children in more than 60 countries and has partnered with UNICEF, WFP, USAID.
“Social impact enterprises – whether they are non-profit or for-profit – are critical players in making our world a better place. I applaud all this cohort’s graduates for being visionaries and for dedicating yourselves to such important mission-driven work,” said Maria Kasparian, Executive Director of Edesia. “Edesia has grown bigger and had more impact than I ever could have imagined back in 2009 when it was just Navyn and I working out of her house. Now we make 1.2 million packets of Plumpy’Nut a day and can reach 5 million kids with lifesaving treatments every year.”
Since its start, SEG has grown a portfolio of more than 600 businesses and nonprofits creating positive social impact through improvements in access to educational opportunities, training and employment, healthcare, financial services, healthy food, basic human needs, affordable housing, and a safe and healthy environment.
The Impact Accelerator is one of four tentpole programs SEG offers, each focusing on specific areas depending on the need, and skill level of the participant. The Accelerator provides support and resources to high-potential social ventures that have already generated revenue and helps guide entrepreneurs who are ready to take their venture to the next level. As part of its mission SEG seeks to accelerate impact by providing inclusive support and networks for entrepreneurs and businesses committed to positive societal and economic change, with the goal of creating a more just, equitable, and resilient economy achieved through social purpose business.
“Creating an economy rooted in inclusivity and equity ensures that everyone has a level playing field to innovate and excel. In doing this, we’re laying a strong foundation for long-term success and prosperity,” said Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Liz Tanner. “By breaking down barriers and encouraging diversity in our business sector, we unlock an enormous reservoir of talent and ideas. The new SEG Program graduates are catalysts, driving our communities and economy towards a brighter future.”
Through strategic partnerships across Newport, outreach efforts, and technical assistance, SEG places budding social entrepreneurs into its core programs that are offered virtually. In 2022, SEG served over 20 social entrepreneurs in Newport/ Aquidneck Island to ensure they have access to the resources, tools, and networks they need to be successful.
SEG was one of the first incubation and accelerator organizations in the country to focus on social impact as a pathway to create opportunities, especially for those entrepreneurs and businesses that traditionally face barriers to access. Since launching, the Accelerator has provided 244 social entrepreneurs with the tools, networks, and resources to grow their business and impact. Additionally SEG has loaned $430,000 in growth capital to Rhode Island social enterprises through their loan fund, improving the lives of over 5 million people.
Following remarks from the keynote speakers, these nine companies presented pitch presentations of their business ventures:
Santiago Tejeda Palacios (he/him)
Singular Care was born to challenge the use of plastic products, it was made for the generation that’s only known to use plastic. We’re on a mission to create quality products that live for a lifetime and not in landfills. After all, we have a single planet — why have more than a single toothbrush?
Elizabeth Welch (she/they)
Anyhow Studio is a community ceramics studio that offers classes such as Intro to the Wheel, and After Intro: Keeping the Dream Alive. We offer monthly memberships that provide studio access and mentorship to early-career artists, and we are the only ceramics studio in Providence that provides pay-as-you-go drop-in hours as well as public access to our equipment. Additionally, Anyhow includes studio space for two full-time working artists: myself and studio manager Mary Drake.
Edmund Addai (he/him)
Stack House is a brunch, fried chicken, and southern cuisine restaurant who specializes in quick service authentic homestyle southern cuisine and fried chicken. Their goal is to provide southern inspired homestyle cuisine to the New England region and beyond!
Carmen Pierre Canel (she/her)
We envision a world where moms, and society at large, no longer categorize self-care as a selfish luxury where only a few have access. Instead, we see moms engaging in self-care as a means of mental, physical, emotional and psychological healthcare that will encourage self- and family-preservation. We champion self-care as an opportunity to thrive as a person as well as a mother.
Kristen Jahne (she/her)
La Belle Peche is an artisanal, small batch coffee roaster and specializes in single origin coffee beans sourced from Fair Trade Farms from around the world. We also are expanding our offerings to include tea blends using locally grown, organic ingredients and handcrafted merchandise from local artists.
Ariel Broccoli (she/her)
The Opening is a hand crafted mental health space designed to transform the delivery of mental health treatment perceptually, logistically and financially. Our practice provides a sense of safety for our clients by cultivating an atmosphere that encourages possibilities not traditionally offered. We have started a community that nurtures ownership of one’s well-being. This results in a supportive ecosystem that encourages tailored mental healthcare, reduces harmful stigma and promotes a sense of belonging.
Racquel Knight (she/her)
We empower children as we provide school facilities, learning materials, educational technology, and other classroom necessities to deprived schoolchildren to enhance their lives allowing for a better future holistically.
Emily Berstein, BCPA, CHW (she/her)
The goal of Navigate Health is to make sure that every individual can understand and afford their healthcare journey, no matter how complicated it may be, with a vision to create a safe, trusted and unbiased space for all individuals to come for answers to their healthcare questions.
Mark Cutler (he/him)
The Same Thing Project is a “community songwriting” workshop for people from all walks of life. Musicians, artists, students, teachers, retired folks, neurodiverse, differently-abled, blue and white-collar workers participate every week in writing a song. The Same Thing Project provides a place where you don’t have to be skilled at a musical instrument in order to be musical. It’s a space where you can be part of an open, nonjudgmental, and encouraging creative community. Connection is created and isolation is reduced.
Awards were also presented to the following recipients:
Kelly Impact Award, ($20,000) Heiny Maldonado, La Fuerza Laboral
“It is very gratifying for us to receive this recognition. Thanks, Kelly Ramirez and SEG, for working together with us and always thinking of how to impact families, the community and for doing exceptional community changes with us. Thank you.”
Citizens Bank ($5,000) – Edmund Addai, The Stackhouse
“My SEG experience has been tremendous. I feel like they gave me the tools to build on the foundation that we established since we started our business, and they gave us a blueprint as to how we can grow our business for the future. It was great connecting with all my fellow cohorts, especially all our mentors, Meg, Stephanie–they’ve been a huge help. I’m so happy to be a part of the SEG family, and I’m looking forward to the future and continuing to grow with the network.”
Leap Ahead Prize ($1,000) – Emily Bernstein, Navigant Health
“This has been such a great experience. I could never have gotten as far as I have without my coach, David Morales who’s been incredible. All of our teachers and the volunteers, I’ve taken advantage of everything I possibly could, and it’s been so helpful. I’m really, really grateful to SEG and plan on not going very far, and taking advantage for as long as I can and really utilizing all the things that they have to offer. I’m just so grateful for this award, that will be really helpful and go a long way. To know that I have SEG’s confidence and to know that this organization is behind me is huge.”
Equity award (Hub scholarship) , Carmen Pierre Canel, The Mommy’s Day Out
“The experience [at SEG] has been amazing. The amount of resources that I’ve been able to receive and the coaching is unmet. Being an entrepreneur has a lot of highs and lows. If it had not been for the support of SEG, I don’t think I would have been standing here today and made it through the process. So I’m really grateful for them.”
Professional photos of the event available upon request.
About Social Enterprise Greenhouse:
Social Enterprise Greenhouse (SEG) accelerates impact by providing inclusive support and networks for entrepreneurs and businesses committed to positive societal and economic change. SEG fosters an ecosystem of diverse stakeholders who work to enable a more just, equitable, and resilient economy. SEG is based in Rhode Island and operates statewide virtually and from sites in Providence, Newport, and Pawtucket/Central Falls. Its network of 2,000+ enterprises and 200+ business and community leaders contributes time, expertise, and funding to grow Rhode Island’s social impact ecosystem. To learn more, visit www.segreenhouse.org.
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Media Contact (For SEG)
Mike Raia, Half Street Strategic Consulting401.340.9425 | mikeraia@halfstreetgroup.com