BIPOC Startup Week Aims to Boost Racially Diverse Founders
Charlotte Epée-WillSuN says the Twin Cities startup scene has lacked racial diversity for years, but she long held out hope things would change. Especially after George Floyd’s murder in 2020 and subsequent calls for racial justice across the nation.
“Everybody really had inclusivity on their platter, and I was hoping that would be an instant trigger to make things better,” says Epée-WillSuN, founder of streaming platform GrooVVee and IT recruiting firm BlackBumble. “As of last year, I still didn’t see the change.”
That’s when she promised herself that she would do all she could to fix it. This year, her dreams will come to fruition in the Twin Cities’ first BIPOC Startup Week, which begins with a kickoff party Dec. 6 and continues with sessions Dec. 7-9.
Epée-WillSuN, a self-described “bicoastal” entrepreneur who splits her time between California and Minnesota, dipped into her own savings to help produce the event. She even got two national banks to sign on as sponsors: Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank and St. Cloud-based Stearns Bank. She also got buy-in from Finnovation Lab and Workbox Minneapolis, which have each offered up space to host sessions.
The data have long shown that Black citizens are poorly represented in the world of startups. According to Crunchbase’s latest annual report on venture capital investments, Black founders took home just 1% of all VC money in 2022, despite the fact that Black people make up as much as 13% of the overall U.S. population. Epée-WillSuN sees BIPOC Startup Week as a way to “break down barriers and help prepare the next generation” of racially diverse founders.
“When a teenager, 12-year-old, or 10-year-old happens to see this on TV, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, a Black lady did this.’ That, to me, is huge,” says Epée-WillSuN, who was born in Nigeria.
Similar to the long-running Twin Cities Startup Week, Epée-WillSuN’s event will have separate “tracks” with sessions for different areas of interest, including tech, health care, and construction.
An entrepreneur herself, Epée-WillSuN acknowledges that there are resources available to BIPOC founders in Minnesota. But she says some founders might not even be aware they exist. “There are some grants out there, but the visibility and access to those resources are a bit limited,” Epée-WillSuN says. “We’re using this platform to help promote them.”
Though the event is catered to Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, Epée-WillSuN says it’s open to all, including allies. All the sessions are free to attend.
If the event proves successful, Epée-WillSuN has visions of implementing similar programs in other cities. She also hopes to bring in more corporate support on future Minnesota iterations, with plans to reach out to locally based Fortune 500s as soon as this year’s event wraps up.
Rory Bidinger, chief marketing officer with sponsor Stearns Bank, says BIPOC Startup Week is an opportunity for his bank to reach out to underserved entrepreneurs. Stearns Bank will have staff on hand to talk about lending, and some employees will participate in panel discussions. For him, the event is in line with Stearns’ recent efforts to help out diverse populations, including a $10 million donation to the African Development Center back in April.
Bidinger says the bank is confident in Epée-WillSuN’s broader vision for BIPOC Startup Week. “This is just the start of what we hope to be a successful way to build educational opportunities and build connections for prospective business owners,” Bidinger says.
For her part, Epée-WillSuN is already thinking beyond this week’s event. She aims to launch a new website – BIPOCMall.org – that will be an extension of a BIPOC holiday market slated to take place at the Finnovation Lab on Saturday.
“We all can build stronger together,” Epée-WillSuN says. “We’re creating a space where immigrants and BIPOC founders feel more at ease.”
