Epicenter president and CEO Jessica Taveau was about to leave for a vacation when she was informed that the organization was a finalist for a major federal grant.
The news that Epicenter was one of 43 grant winners prompted Taveau to have a mid-vacation departure — quickly hopping on a plane to Washington, D.C.
Her mother had to FedEx to Taveau an appropriate outfit for a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I told my kids, if it were anyone else, I would say, 'No.' But I had to go,” Taveau told MBJ.
Epicenter, which supports the Mid-South’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, has secured around $2.5 million in federal grant money to help it scale and expand its operations.
Epicenter and 42 others are receiving a total of $125 million to help underserved entrepreneurs launch or grow their businesses. The funds come from the American Rescue Plan-funded Capital Readiness Program, which is administered by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA).
“This funding really helps Epicenter scale services for entrepreneurs, to connect to more customers, connect to more capital, and access wraparound services,” Taveau told MBJ when the grants were originally announced Aug. 4. “By [wraparound services], I mean all the things that go into making it easier to be an entrepreneur. That could [be] access to childcare or support for a partner or spouse in finding a job. It scales the work that we're doing already and allows us to reach even more entrepreneurs in the area.”
MBDA has been in existence since 1969 but was only made a permanent agency by the passage of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Donald Cravins Jr., Under Secretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development, visited Memphis on Wednesday, Aug. 16, to meet with Epicenter leaders and companies collaborating with it. He also discussed the importance of funding startups, especially among underrepresented populations.
“The work that's going to be done here can change lives,” Cravins said. “They can change trajectory, they can be generational, long-lasting change. It was important that we fund organizations that actually understand the communities and the challenges, that no one size fits all entrepreneurs. That is what we have to be at MBDA. We have to understand that a woman-owned business in Downtown Memphis may not be facing the same challenges as a rural entrepreneur in Brownsville or Hispanic-owned business in Nashville. We have to be able to meet people where they are, and we think Epicenter gets that and can do that.”
