11/29/2017 | Ironwood Insight
Mentoring Small Businesses at the Inner City Capital Connections National Conference
On November 17th, Ironwood Capital was invited to participate in the 12th Annual Inner City Capital Connections National Conference. It’s been my pleasure to have been part of events sponsored by Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) for several years and to have encouraged members of the Ironwood team to participate as well.
ICCC is a free national program designed to accelerate small business growth and access to capital through educational seminars, intensive coaching sessions and mentor connections. Companies targeted for participation are for-profit corporations, partnerships or proprietorships with $2 million or more in sales and are headquartered in or have 51% or more of their physical operations in an economically distressed urban area of the United States or have 40% or more of their employees residing in an economically distressed urban area of the U.S. Since its inception in 2005, ICCC has served over 1,100 small businesses representing 231 communities. ICCC alumni have created more than 12,000 jobs and have raised $1.4 billion in capital!
My role at this year’s conference was as a judge on the panel modeled after the television show, Shark Tank. It was exciting to view and discuss business ideas with finalists and offer suggestions on how to improve the great businesses into which they had already put so much energy. I enjoyed hearing the input from other judges as well.
Trevor Russo, a director at Ironwood, participated in the evening’s session where he met one-on-one with entrepreneurs in a round-robin format providing feedback on their respective business plans and advice on capital raising.
Congratulations to Hyacinth Vassell, long-time director of the Inner City Capital Connections program, on a successful event. I’m proud Ironwood continues to participate in this valuable program.
