Why Capital Should Come To The Majority-Minority City Building Inclusive Innovation

FEATURE | FORBES

Memphians want to be known for more than Elvis and BBQ. And they aren’t the only ones. Steve Case, co-founder of America Online (AOL) and founder of Revolution and J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy and managing partner of Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, made a stop in Memphis last year, hunting for the next best founders and ideas. As highlighted in CBS 60 Minutes this past week, Case and Vance believe what many Memphians already know, that worthy and financially viable ideas exist in the oft-forgotten “flyover” states. Furthermore, if you ask the top innovator leaders in Memphis, what makes this innovation ecosystem even more unique—that it’s being built thoughtfully for inclusion, community, and civic responsibility. San Francisco, New York, and Boston—take note.

Leslie Lynn Smith, native Detroiter and current president and CEO of Epicenter Memphis, is working furiously to put herself out of a job. Her goal is to diminish the role of her organization by creating a self-sustaining and thriving entrepreneurial economy. Epicenter serves as the “hub and heartbeat” of the innovation ecosystem in Memphis, providing a clear vision to the entrepreneurial community, helping aggregate and distribute resources across the community, and most importantly, evaluating and measuring the impact of their work. She has raised $40 million, supported by a $10 million grant from FedEx, and true to her work on diversity and inclusion in Detroit, is determined to build an inclusive innovation ecosystem in this majority-minority city. A self-proclaimed “student of equity and inclusion,” Smith’s work on diversity and inclusion notably includes an often overlooked aspect, generational diversity. Her Epicenter team ranges from their mid 20s to early 60s, as does her community of entrepreneurs-in-residence and experts that support the Epicenter portfolio of startups. Another way she drives inclusivity is through a pilot capital program, the Friends and Family Fund. This fund is designed for small entrepreneurial businesses to meet a one-time capital milestone. Most importantly, it’s intended to fill a gap where investments from “friends and family” may not be available to an entrepreneur, which is often the case for underrepresented communities, such as entrepreneurs of color and women.