Blog | City Startup Labs

City Startup Labs’ Kick-off

On Friday, January 17th, the City Startup Labs pilot kicked-off the first of 4 modules. The Cultivation Module was designed to provide the students with a deep dive into who they are and why they are, where they are. This segment of the program took place over three days, was facilitated by ...

Q&A with Henry Rock

December 13, 2013 By Glenn Burkins, QCityMetro When last we spoke with Henry Rock, the New York transplant was looking to start an “entrepreneurs academy” in conjunction with the Urban League of Central Carolinas. Since then, he has gotten some financial backing. The goal of the program is to ...

Rockefeller Grant to CSL

“The Rockefeller Foundation is happy to support organizations like City Startup Labs that seek to spur entrepreneurship in communities of color, which are so often under-represented in the current entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Claudia Juech, Rockefeller Foundation managing director for ...

FastTrac Leading to Start-ups and Job Creation Across the Nation

Posted by: Mark Marich on February 09, 2011 Source: Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship Kauffman FastTrac programs in New York and Michigan are leading to new business starts – and the jobs that come along with them. Following an intense entrepreneurial education program initiated by ...

Kauffman Supports CSL

The City Startup Labs’ Entrepreneurs Academy is using training programs provided by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for its core curricula. These include: The Icehouse Entrepreneurship Program and the FastTrac New Venture Program. Foundation Overview The Ewing Marion Kauffman ...

TEDxCharlotteED ~ Creating a New Class of Entrepreneurs

(Click image to see video) “Re-imagine young black men as a new class of entrepreneurs, capable of great things – helping in our country’s economic recovery.” Learning on Purpose

Hope for US Economy: Young Black Men as Entrepreneurs

The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com Lawrence Carpenter knew he always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but he was in the wrong business – the business of selling drugs. After his second stint in prison, it became clear to him: “I made mistakes in my life, and I didn’t want to ...

A Must Read – “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander

Newsweek What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than with the language we use to justify it. In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, ...

Principles and Best Practices of Successful Business Incubation

In 1996, NBIA’s board of directors developed a set of industry guidelines to help incubator managers better serve their clients. Since that time, NBIA research has consistently shown that incubation programs that adhere to the principles and best practices of successful business incubation ...

Venturing Beyond the Gates

Facilitating Successful Reentry with Entrepreneurship Promoting self-employment among people coming home from prison will be challenging; it will require creativity, perseverance and the ability of professionals across fields to break down cultural barriers to build productive relationships. As ...

From Chained to Unchained

From Chained to Unchained: A New Paradigm to Employment – Self-employment. When most ex-offenders contemplate returning home, one of the first things they consider is getting a job. However, according to a Princeton University Study, “Discrimination in Low Wage Labor Markets,” which ...

A Class of 1000 New Entrepreneurs

City Startup Labs, Inc. was launched in April 2012 as a non-profit in New York. It’s designed to create a new class of distinctive entrepreneurs from within inner-cities America. City Startup Labs is primarily targeting young men of color who are ex-offenders, former gang members and ...

Fall Newsletter ~ Rustling the Leaves

Rustling the Leaves – City Startup Labs in service to Charlotte his has been a most extraordinary year, without a doubt the most significant in our existence. City Startup Labs came out of the 2020 on a positive note, having been able to service a select group of participants through our ...

Michael Jordan & Jordan Brand Announce Grant to City Startup Labs

At the heart of the Black Community Commitment, announced by Michael Jordan and Jordan Brand in 2020, is a desire to take action where it is needed most. This vision has been supported by a robust partnership strategy, with grants contributing to the areas of social justice, economic ...

City Startup Labs is a NGAAP Charlotte Grantee

Working To Make Equity Real Achieving funding equity for identifiably Black organizations has been elusive. Nevertheless, NGAAP believes we can forge a new path in philanthropy, together. The work will require bold stances, collective action, heightened accountability, and, of course, ...