Persistence and grit are two things that any successful startup founder possesses. For Abi Olukeye and Desmond Wiggan, those qualities paid off in a big way.
Olukeye's startup Smart Girls HQ and Wiggan's startup BatteryXchange, co-founded by Aubrey Yeboah, were recently announced as recipients of NC IDEA's $50,000 seed grants.
The eight total grant recipients from across North Carolina were announced on May 14. The seed grants are awarded twice per year to innovative startups with a proven concept. The most recent batch of winners was chosen from a group of 174 applicants, after a competitive three-month selection process.
Smart Girls HQ was founded in 2018 to help bridge the gender and resource gap for young girls in science, technology, engineering and math fields.
BatteryXchange was founded in 2019 as a rental platform that provides portable batteries to cell phone users.
"I think being validated with a grant by NC IDEA who is, in my opinion, one of the biggest and most impactful entrepreneurial organizations within the region is great," Wiggan said. "This will open the door for us as we grow, but it's also been a journey."
This wasn't the first go-round for either founder.
Wiggan said this was his third time applying for the grant and the first time making it to the final pitch round.
"It's truly a testament to the persistence, faith and resilience that is needed within entrepreneurship," he said.
Olukeye said this was the first time she'd applied for the seed grant. However, she had applied for NC IDEA's $10,000 micro grant twice before. She was selected as a recipient in the spring 2020 round.
"Because of my micro experience, I did intentionally wait to apply to seed this spring rather than last fall, so that we had more progress to share and could give ourselves the best shot at winning," she said.
Wiggan said the BatteryXchange team plans to use the funds to install more battery kiosks around Charlotte, build out the sales team and focus on additional work to help scale the company.
Olukeye said she plans to use the funds similarly. The grant, she said, will allow Smart Girls HQ to continue to build and scale the STEM activity kit into a subscription product. It will also be on a national-level sales and marketing push, as well as look for additions to the team.
"The timing of the grant was critical for my business, so I'm very grateful," she said. "We recently received funding from the National Science Foundation to build out the digital compliment to our line of kits. However, that funding is restricted to tech development only."
"This NC IDEA grant allows us to continue to push commercial activities forward while we build," Olukeye added.
Wiggan said this win was particularly special to him, given he and Olukeye are both Black founders who have supported one another since the beginning. They're the only two startups in Charlotte chosen in this grant cycle.
"Abi and I have been rooting for each other for a long time ... I think it means we're part of the shift forcing inequality to exist no more within the entrepreneurial ecosystems," he said. "It shows we're starting to take the shape of a new tomorrow where resources are available for all entrepreneurs."
Wiggan added, "The job is far from being done. There is much more shifting that needs to take place; we are just trailblazers."
