Village Capital Pathways

Village Capital and UBS Want to Level the Playing Field for Entrepreneurs, Everywhere

Village Capital Pathways helped underrepresented founders of high-growth companies in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Atlanta become investment ready and supported the pipeline of diverse startups in these dynamic ecosystems.

Through partnerships with local entrepreneur organizations, we selected a cohort of founders in each city to provide hands-on training, mentorship and connections to local capital.

We fostered the potential of local founders with this new program through:

Providing Training on our Venture Investment Readiness Awareness Level (VIRAL) Curriculum

Early-stage companies were selected through the VC Pathways program and trained on our VIRAL curriculum. This curriculum educates companies on how to set and surpass specific milestones designed to position them to be competitive when raising capital. Over the course of three months, we supported selected startups through tailored engagement with local partners and investors, UBS, and collaboration within the cohort of selected companies.

Facilitating Connections to Local Entrepreneur Support Organizations and Angel Investors

Startups often rely on friends and family money as their first source of capital to build their high-growth companies. But not all founders have access to networks with capital. VC Pathways works to address this issue by connecting the selected founders to potential sources of early capital through:

• Dedicated support from Ecosystem Allies-established entrepreneurship support organizations that act as the main point of contact for each company and facilitate hands-on programming to meet the needs of the cohort.
• Formal and informal interactions with angel investors and mentors who are interested in working with early-stage companies through one-on-one meetings, business development sessions and opportunities to highlight their milestone achievements.
• Startup Heat Map, a roadmap for monetary and in-kind resources in each city for every funding level.

Providing Tangible Business Support

We also provided resources for building a business, including:

• Amazon Web Services: 2 years of AWS credits (up to $5000)
• Kiva Zip: Eligible for up to $10,000 interest-free Kiva Zip Loan
• Hubspot for Startups: 90% scholarship on all paid HubSpot software for 12 months
• Up to $2,000 in grant funding rewarded for hitting VIRAL program milestones
• Connections and expert advice from UBS executives and network

Program Details

Who was the program for?

We recruited African American, Latinx and/or female founders of high-growth companies in Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta.

Eligible companies were tech-enabled with an established Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and had a pre-seed or seed stage venture with less than $500,000 in revenue to date or in raised funding. Priority was given to companies within the five sectors that Village Capital invests – agriculture, energy, education, fintech and health. Additionally, founders must’ve been available to participate in all local programming events.

What were the program dates?

Key program dates listed below:

Philadelphia Program

Application Deadline – Friday, December 22, 2017

Launch Training –  January 22 – 23, 2018 5:30 – 8:30pm (both evenings)

Ending Programming – Week of April 16, 2018

  

Atlanta Program

Application Deadline – Friday, January 5, 2018

Launch Training – January 29-30, 2018 5:30 – 8:30pm (both evenings)

Ending Programming – Week of April 23, 2018

 

Chicago Program

Application Deadline – Friday, January 19, 2018

Launch Training – February 12 – 13, 2018 5:30 – 8:30pm (both evenings)

Ending Programming – Week of May 7, 2018

 

Please preview our report to learn more about what we learned from this program.

Questions? E-mail Emily Edwards at [email protected]