We’re so incredibly proud of Sandro Chumashvili ’24, Carson Crochet ’22, and Thomas Athey ’24 for their hard work and perseverance to expand their businesses with support from the Hurt Hub@Davidson and $10,000 grants from the Avinger Impact Fund. The awards will support wine exports from the country of Georgia to the United States; “buddies” to comfort cancer patients during treatment; and educational programs related to the stock market and cryptocurrencies.
Today, NC IDEA announced during their Ecosystem Summit that they have awarded the Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Davidson College, Launch LKN and First Turn Innovations a $50,000 Regional Impact Grant to support the expansion of their mentorship, Gig-Hub and seed capital programs in the Charlotte / Central Piedmont region. The Regional Impact Grants under the umbrella of NC IDEA ECOSYSTEM, were made available to existing NC IDEA ECOSYSTEM and NC IDEA ENGAGE partners to serve as the lead grantee. The Hurt Hub@Davidson received an NC IDEA ENGAGE grant to support TechStars Startup Weekend during Innovation Week in September 2021 and was then eligible to lead the Regional Impact grant application. “We were thrilled to win an NC IDEA Regional Impact Grant to support scaling some of the fundamental programs we offer around mentorship, talent development and experiential learning, and access to capital, particularly for underrepresented members of our entrepreneurial community,” said Hurt Hub@Davidson Director, Liz Brigham.
The Hurt Hub@Davidson, which facilitates access and exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship for all, and Launch LKN, a non-profit which serves as a catalyst for the creation of a viable, sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem in Lake Norman, have partnered for three years to provide mentorship and educational experiences to the entrepreneurship community in the region. First Turn Innovations, founded in 2021, recently partnered with the Hurt Hub@Davidson and Launch LKN to offer a deeper focus on the inspiration, innovation and implementation of hardware-based ideas through technical support, IP legal support, business administrative support, and mentorship.
The grant solicitation required at least two organizations to collaborate on a program supporting entrepreneurs building scalable businesses, focusing on a specific region of their choosing. This particular grant program intends to strengthen the infrastructure supporting North Carolina entrepreneurs via collaboration and the sharing of resources and networks. “Startup ecosystems need density to thrive – density of talent, density of investors, and density of customers,” said Launch LKN co-founder Mark McDowell. “This grant will help The Hurt Hub@Davidson, LaunchLKN and First Turn Innovations expand our reach in our region and allow us to approach long term, sustainable operations.” Several of the partnerships focused on elevating Black entrepreneurship were funded under the leadership of the North Carolina Black Entrepreneurship Council (NC BEC).
The leadership teams at the Hurt Hub@Davidson, Launch LKN and First Turn Innovations intend to allocate the grant across three main areas: Mentorship, the Gig-Hub program and Tech Impact Fund, and seed funding.
Mentorship
The team plans to allocate $20,000 of the grant toward subsidizing a part-time staff position to oversee the following:
Gig-Hub and the Tech Impact Fund
The Gig-Hub program offers Davidson students the opportunity to work for startups and small businesses to expand their work experience while providing capacity to these businesses at an affordable rate. The team will allocate $10,000 (over 550 hours) of pro bono Gig-Hub consulting work for women and minority-owned businesses through the Tech Impact Fund, a fund established in 2015 by Whitney A. White, Davidson ‘08 and founder of Afara Global and Take Back Your Time. Another $10,000 will support scaling the administration and operations of the Gig-Hub program.
Seed Funding
With the grant, the team also seeks to eliminate barriers for entrepreneurs to get their first funding. They will use $10,000 to support expanding access to capital for all audiences, but specifically for underrepresented founders. The team will distribute micro-grants to support activities such as prototyping in the First Turn Innovations facility, market research, testing and launch support at the Hurt Hub, reserving $5,000 for underrepresented founders.
About the Hurt Hub@Davidson
Vision:
We facilitate access and exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship for ALL.
Values:
We believe innovation is born out of Freedom, Integrity, and Inclusion.
Mission:
The Hurt Hub@Davidson convenes innovators and entrepreneurs in the Davidson college community and the Lake Norman region to catalyze innovative solutions to critical problems through educational programming, experiential learning in a safe environment, an inclusive co-working space, uncompromising ethics, a robust mentor network, and access to startup capital.
About Launch LKN
LaunchLKN, or Launch Lake Norman, was founded with the purpose of serving as a catalyst for the creation of a viable, sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem in the greater Lake Norman Area. We pursue this objective through four pillars: Community Building, Education, Mentorship, and Investment. Of these four focus areas, Mentorship – directly advising and supporting local entrepreneurs in their pursuit of successful venture launch – is the most impactful and unique in the region. We have a group of over fifty mentors, each with diverse and applicable career background and skills, actively volunteering their time to help entrepreneurs in the region succeed. To date, we have mentored over 60 ventures spanning over 2,000 hours. Our applicants come to us through our partnership with Davidson College as well as from the broader tech and start-up community, with 37% of the group consisting of women entrepreneurs and 52% of the group consisting of BIPOC entrepreneurs.
About First Turn Innovations
First Turn Innovations is a place where ideas come to life through a collaborative effort of a highly skilled pool of human capital. It is an organization of scientists, engineers, patent attorneys, business owners and venture capitalists that have come together to provide a pathway for budding companies to get stood up in their pursuit of success and economic prosperity. We aim to be the vehicle for inspiration, innovation and implementation of hardware-based ideas and to create an environment where entrepreneurs can grow their ideas from concept to production or where they may scale an existing organization for long term success. FTI initially hopes to harness the entrepreneurial and engineering communities in our region through technical support, IP legal support, business administrative support, and mentorship.
We kicked off the Hurt Hub Innovation Week with a TechStars Startup Weekend with 20 participants, including one who traveled from Portland, OR! Participants spent the evening coming up with a problem they were interested in solving, pitching for 60 seconds and forming teams. Facilitator, Roger Osorio, emphasized that the best entrepreneurs fall in love with the problem, not the solution, so that’s where we began.
Hurt Hub Innovator in Residence, Mbye Njie ’04, shared his startup story to inspire participants. He spoke of becoming obsessed with solving the challenge of accountability in encounters with law enforcement after his own experiences and the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. Njie, who just recently completed the the Cox Enterprises Social Impact Accelerator powered by TechStars Atlanta, joined the Hurt Hub@Davidson as the inaugural Innovator in Residence in July and will serve as a judge for the weekend’s pitch competition.
He also shared the importance of the network, making connections over the weekend, and staying in touch. “I have a packed Slack channel with everyone who was in my TechStars cohort,” Njie shared, “I’ve asked for recommendations for attorneys, for tips on social media strategy and everything else. The power of the network is unmatched.”
Participants each gave a 60-second pitch of a problem they needed help solving. The pitch was to both get them comfortable in front of the group with limited time and to inspire others to join them. After that, everyone moved into the Van Deman Innovation Lab and voted on each of the ideas. Then, they recruited their teams.
On Saturday, they were back at 8am to get to work!
Stay tuned to our social channels and to our blog for a run down of each day. Also, mark your calendars for the pitch competition Sunday, September 12th from 2-5pm EST. We will be live streaming for those who can’t join us in person!
The Innovator in Residence role provides a $75,000 grant for one year to Mbye Njie and the Legal Equalizer, Inc., team to grow their business while employing at least two Davidson students, engaging with Hurt Hub coworkers and providing mentorship for the Davidson community.
Njie founded Legal Equalizer, Inc., a mobile app providing users with their legal rights during any law enforcement encounter, seven years ago after his own experiences. In a January 2021 interview on Hub & Spoke, a Hurt Hub storytelling platform featuring Davidson alumni entrepreneurs and innovators, Njie shared that he had an awakening after hearing about Michael Brown’s shooting in Ferguson, MO. “When I first read the Ferguson story, I didn’t believe it. My whole question during Ferguson was why did no one have a recording? I kept looking for apps that would record and let people know when you got pulled over.” After finding nothing in the app stores to solve this issue, Njie established his new venture. Although he had no technical expertise, he progressed with a deeply-rooted obsession with solving the problem for others.
Njie mentioned that his academic work with Dr. Nancy Fairley, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Davidson College, instilled in him a respect for people across cultures and fostered a desire to collaborate with law enforcement. “If I wasn’t a Davidson student,” Njie emphasized, “I wouldn’t have been as curious to go out and learn from all sides.” Embracing empathy for different audiences has guided his product roadmap and other features he intends to develop in the future.
Today, after bootstrapping for seven years, he’s emerging into the Innovator in Residence role with funding from the Cox Enterprises Social Impact Accelerator powered by TechStars Atlanta. “This grant will be significant as it will allow us to continue the momentum that we saw from TechStars. We can finish vital aspects of the app as well as build out a secondary app for attorneys that connects with Legal Equalizer,” Njie said.
The Innovator in Residence role delivers on the recommendation from Davidson’s Commission on Race and Slavery that “the college will create an ‘Innovator in Residence’ program at the Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for alum entrepreneurs whose businesses promote equity or combat systemic racism.” As part of the grant, Legal Equalizer will employ at least two Davidson Gig-Hub Consultants throughout the year. The Gig-Hub program provides students who want to develop their professional skills with project-based micro-internships, known as gigs, that immediately translate into skills that employers desire.
Njie is no stranger to the Gig-Hub program at the Hurt Hub, having hired 7 students already through the program, some of whom were part of the Tech Impact Fund. Through generous support from Whitney A. White, Belk Scholar alumna ‘08 and founder of Afara Global & creator of Take Back Your Time, the Tech Impact Fund provides pro-bono consulting services for women and minority-owned businesses in the Charlotte region and across the country. “I’m elated that we will be able to work with some of the brightest students in the world on issues that have been plaguing society for a while and that I believe are truly fixable,” Njie said.
Sohan Gade, a rising junior Philosophy, Politics, Economics (PPE) major and Computer Science minor has already been working on Gig-Hub projects for Legal Equalizer, Inc.
“Having [Njie] take on the role as Innovator in Residence is a giant step towards a more equitable Davidson College; he is an inspiration to all in the Davidson community, bridging the gaps between entrepreneurs and humanitarians,” Gade said. “He lives, talks, and breathes Davidson College; I do not think there is anyone else that loves our school more than he does.”
As Njie transitions to working in the Hurt Hub every day, at least 25% of his time will be spent engaging with students and the Davidson community. “I can’t wait for the opportunity to work with students as they are going to get a chance to see a startup grow into the phase of making revenue and scaling,” Njie shared. “I plan on having the students discover the different phases of being an entrepreneur, from my decision-making process, to how I market and sell the app, to the processes of building a team and of growing.”
Njie will also be available to serve as a mentor, as he did in Spring 2021 during the Davidson Venture Fund pitch competition, and as a guest speaker during events such as the upcoming TechStars Startup Weekend during the Hurt Hub Innovation Week in September.
“Mbye’s experience building Legal Equalizer will bring a new energy to the Hurt Hub where we are committed to facilitating access and exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship for all,” Hurt Hub Director, Liz Smith Brigham ‘04 said. “He will show Davidson students how their education can help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.”
About The Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Davidson College
The Hurt Hub convenes innovators and entrepreneurs in the Davidson College community and the Lake Norman region to catalyze innovative solutions to critical problems. We facilitate access and exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship for all Davidson students, alumni, faculty, Hurt Hub co-workers, and community members through educational programming, experiential learning in a safe environment, an inclusive co-working space, uncompromising ethics, a robust mentor network, and access to startup capital.
We believe innovation is born out of Freedom, Integrity, and Inclusion.
For more information, please contact Liz Smith Brigham ‘04, Director, Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Davidson College at librigham@davidson.edu.
About Legal Equalizer, Inc.
Legal Equalizer is a mobile app providing user with their legal rights during any law enforcement encounter. Legal Equalizer also allows users to alert loved ones of encounters with law enforcement and in emergency situations so that they will be able to see what is happening in real time.
For more information visit: www.legalequalizer.com To download the app visit:https://apps.apple.com/us/app/legal-equalizer/id1255955244.
To invest in Legal Equalizer, consider participating in the crowdfunding campaign: https://wefunder.com/legal.equalizer
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