On Wednesday night, the SEA Change Social Enterprise Accelerator wrapped up its first-ever North Carolina cohort with a showcase event at American Underground in Durham.
SEA Change is celebrating its 10th year helping “early-stage changemakers” develop sustainable business models, determine the meaningful social impact their businesses can deliver, and access tools they need to grow and launch. The organization accomplishes this via a 14-module program that, over the past decade, has churned out a total of 476 graduates delivering $35.9 million in revenue and impacting millions of lives.
Wednesday night’s showcase event was kicked off by emcee Larry Long Jr., who unfortunately isn’t comfortable with a microphone whatsoever. Larry shouted out the event’s DJ (DJ Just Drew), the bartending service (Monica Mixology), photographer Corey Truesdale, and of course the panel of judges there to assess the entrepreneurs’ pitches. Curry Blossom (which catered delicious Indian food) and The Root Cellar (which added equally delicious cupcakes) were also feted.
Altogether, this whole crew helped deliver a high-energy cap-off to the accelerator. (That was sarcasm, by the way, Larry is very comfortable with a microphone.)
Larry handed the mic off to SEA Change Executive Director Lauren Edwards, who spoke a bit about the program and provided a few of the aforementioned statistics regarding its success. She also recognized the NC-specific team that helped produce and support this cohort, which was comprised of Tanya Jisa and GrepBeat’s own Melissa Crosby.
From there, it was on to the six presentations representing the cohort. Here’s a bit of what we learned about each venture on hand:
- The Seed List (presented by Amanda Stockwell) is helping to bridge the gap between the Triangle’s booming college student population and local startups trying to figure out who (and how) to hire. The organization is connecting students with startups to provide “mentorship, fair pay, and work that actually matters.”
- Utume (presented by Denise Stroud) provides an online platform addressing the issue that “personal development is often inaccessible” for young people. The company’s online platform helps young people learn “critical non-academic skills” in an engaging way, with a particular focus on emotional self-regulation, executive skills functioning, and DEI.
- STEM PLUG (presented by Rich Gilliam and previously written about at GrepBeat) is helping underserved students gain access to STEM learning through hands-on applications (specifically, hydroponic robots) and storytelling. Working through educators and children’s programs, the startup provides books kids can relate to and accessible robots they can build themselves.
- Keep Good (presented by Aleksandra Stein) is addressing the devastating paradox of the U.S. having both high food insecurity and massive food waste. While organizations and operations already exist to attempt to make food surpluses available to those in need, freshness and preservation issues are often unaddressed. Keep Good uses freeze-drying techniques to turn those surpluses into “shelf-stable, ready-to-eat” meals and snacks.
- B Academics (presented by Rachel Haynes) is “accelerating the business-as-a-force-for-good movement” in higher education. Specifically, the startup is providing business school educators with the tools and resources they need to advance the development of B Corps that “prioritize people, planet, and profit.”
- Kind Kitchen Group (presented by Sicily Johnson, aka “Chef Sicily”) is supporting various initiatives to help students learn how to handle food, cook, and find purpose through food. The startup’s approach “pairs culinary education with social-emotional learning to impact individual- and community-based social determinants of health.”
Once the pitches were finished, the judges withdrew to deliberate and the audience voted (though voting had already been open online). The awards process for this particular accelerator was somewhat intricate, with donations factoring in and assorted cash prizes on the table. In the end, though, The Seed List was crowed the audience favorite and each presenting company walked away with at least $1K worth of prizes.
Congratulations to the cohort and all involved on completing the program. You can learn more about the presenting companies here, and check out a slideshow below to get a sense of the event.
