- Video shows the Lean Rocket Local Showcase and Celebration, featuring small businesses like Curated Grants and The Procrastination Bakery.
- Eleven fellows graduated from the Lean Rocket Local program out of Lean Rocket Lab.
- The Lean Rocket Local program provides resources and grant funding for local entrepreneurs to further their ventures.
For the past 12 weeks, 11 entrepreneurs have been mastering skills from financing, to accounting, to branding. All to turn their dream into a business. Alex Masten, Director of LOCAL and Entrepreneurial Services at Lean Rocket Lab, shares, "In 90 days some of them have transformed or gotten resources that have helped them grow tremendously."
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The Lean Rocket Local program has awarded $99,000 in grant funding over the past three years, $44,000 of it going to this year's fellows. Brandi Gaston, The Procrastination Bakery, says, "With the grant from the program, I purchased a cargo trailer, and my husband is going to help me convert it to a food trailer." This year, the program has helped entrepreneurs with ventures like apps, a dance team, music therapy, massage therapy, and catering.
Margaux Dever, Curated Grants, shares, "It's been really great to be here (Lean Rocket Lab) and to be around all of these entrepreneurs that are growing and have big dreams. It's been amazing."
"It's really awarding for me, because this is actually my first cohort that I've put through, so it means a lot because I've held their hand," says Masten. Dever adds, "Learning how and when to ask for help has been a really good part of this as well."
This program is leading, what started as pitches, to be booming businesses in the neighborhood. "Next for my business is growing my waitlist," says Dever. "I've grown so much that I'm at capacity right now." Gaston also shares, "(I'm) stepping out of the box I call my kitchen and getting into the world and bringing my recipes to the table."
WATCH: Get to know a past fellow
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