‘Tis the season to support small businesses, fellow entrepreneurs, and ecosystem builders! As we get closer to the end of the year, we wanted to share a little ecosystem builder gift guide to help highlight some of our members. If you still have shopping to do, here’s your chance to support another SCN member this season.

Peeq Pro

Did you know that former Board Chair Tom Chapman is the CEO of a health and beauty company? Peeq Pro was founded because "Eyelids are gross." To improve hygiene, the company has built patent-pending device technology, trade secreted cleansers, and built a unique subscription service.

About Tom CHapman

Tom Chapman is one of the founding members of SCN and has served in many positions to advance our mission. He is most recently our past Board Chair and is currently serving as the Co-Chair of our Membership Committee. He is also the Instructor and designer of our Ecosystem Health Challenge, through which he has helped ecosystems across the country get a better handle on the health of their ecosystem and determine metrics most helpful for tracking growth.

Tom wears many hats as a serial entreprenuer. He is the founder and principal at Chapman & Company, one of the premier organizations for measuring early-stage ecosystem metrics. He has helped hundreds of early-stage companies grow and has worked on product validation in healthcare, software, government, e-commerce, and other fields. He is also the CEO of Peeq Industries, a health and beauty platform, and the creator of Mug.News, a Nebraska-based storytelling blog that focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Cohado

Cohado is a Zulu word meaning the long sustainable view - it is the broken pieces coming together. Cohado is the plan and the architecture to enact UBUNTU, the Zulu understanding that we are responsible for each other's wellbeing. We understand that we are all connected – we are ONE.

We can utilize our resources, our connections, our energy, our voices and our power to usher in this age of relationship, understanding and connectedness. Of course, we cannot do this alone. We need support, we need community, we need each other. We also need flexible and powerful tools to aid in this global relief effort. Cohado is offered for this purpose. Experience this gentle power tool… Learn more here.

About Paulo Gregory

Paulo Gregory supports our Board culture and community development and serves as Chair of our Intercultural Unity (ICU) committee. He is the inventor and President of Cohado®, a flexible design-thinking structure and tools to support collaborative entrepreneur ecosystem development and sustainable design. Cohado is also a social enterprise dedicated to leveling the economic game through developing models and vehicles for economic ascension of economically starved communities. Paulo stewarded the launch and growth of the Black Butterfly Network and Exchange in Baltimore (more about that here), utilizing the Cohado® emergent strategic design process to create a thriving ecosystem of Black entrepreneurs and businesses in Baltimore to support ground-up economic development.

Donate in Honor of Someone

The PLACE Builders fellowship program was developed in honor of Pava LaPere and the values she embodied. It was developed by EcoMap Technologies (SCN Members Kevin Carter and Sherrod Davis) and Forward Cities (SCN Member Fay Horwitt). It is designed to equip a cohort of ecosystem builders with education, mentors, tools, community, funding, and a platform to tell the stories about the PLACEs that they love. What better way to honor a fellow ecosystem builder or loved one than by donating to a cause that supports ecosystem builders. Learn more here

"We Are All Starters"

With a stirring call for revolutionary change, Victor W. Hwang shines a path forward in our challenging time. In the concise and provocative manifesto “We Are All Starters,” he explains the choices that got us here, and how we must advance forward as a nation. The manifesto articulates a new fundamental right that has never been articulated before – what he calls the Right to Start – flowing from the innate entrepreneurial potential in all of us. It is a right implied in the original promise of America, but has withered over time. The manifesto is a fervent call to unleash that right. That means launching a movement to break down barriers, give people resources to adapt, start, and grow, and create more inclusive prosperity. Hwang describes specific strategies and actions at every level of society, where all of us can participate in building a new civic infrastructure. The Right to Start provides a roadmap for recovery, by helping millions of us find alternative incomes, restart closed businesses, open new businesses, and unleash our talents to renew ourselves and our nation. Grab the book here.

About Victor Hwang

Victor W. Hwang is an economic growth expert. His ideas have shaped the economic lives of millions of people worldwide. His work has helped over 300 communities, cities, states, companies, and entire countries create greater prosperity. Victor became an entrepreneur and started several companies, organizations, and initiatives fighting to remove barriers holding people back. He is founder and CEO of Victor & Company, an economic growth consultancy. He is founder and CEO of Right to Start, a campaign fighting to expand entrepreneurial opportunity for all. Previously, he was Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading philanthropy supporting entrepreneurs with an endowment of $2 billion.

Lucky Entrepreneur Coin

Support starters you know who are building their dreams. Give them the Lucky Entrepreneur Coin™ to show them that you care about them and that you are with them on the journey, every step of the way. By giving them a Lucky Entrepreneur Coin, you can increase the odds of their success and support their right to be the starter they were born to be. The coin was created by Right to Start, an organization with two SCN Members: Victor Hwang and Catherine Read. Get the coin here.

About Catherine Read

Catherine is a mission-driven leader, advocate, campaigner and coalition builder with almost twenty years’ experience in developing organizational vision, executing on strategy, stakeholder engagement, external affairs and policy advocacy. At Right to Start, she leads all aspects of national grassroots and public engagement strategies.

“Money Talks”

"Money TALK$: Uncut Convos with Financial Experts on How to Grow, Leverage and Protect Your Assets" is a remarkable book authored by 24 accomplished African American financial thought-leaders from across the world, each bringing their unique expertise to the table. This collective effort aims to ignite a spark of financial wisdom, empowerment, and lasting change within communities that have been historically underserved. Financial literacy is a cornerstone of financial well-being, and this book is designed to break down complex financial concepts into digestible, actionable insights.

SCN Member Lyndsae' Peele is one of many contributors to the book. In her chapter, she peels back the layers of what it takes to build a winning wealth team and why it's important to achieving financial success. Get it on Amazon here.

About Lyndsae' Peele

Lyndsae' Peele, MBA, PMEC™ is a results-driven finance coach, international speaker, and Black wealth advocate. She was recently appointed as the new Kiva US Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Manager where she supports a portfolio of 35+ community-based Kiva lending partners (called Hubs) and their 40+ staff members (called Capital Access Managers) across the US and Puerto Rico. They aim to expand access to capital and drive financial inclusion with non-traditional, no-fee, no-interest, crowdfunded financing in their communities.

She is also the Chief Wealth Officer of the award-winning financial services company, Kingdom Vision Consulting. Lyndsae' combined her years of banking experience and her passion for economic development, to create a socially conscious organization specializing in personal and business finance for entrepreneurs of color. Kingdom Vision has been honored as the SBA’s 2022 Maryland Financial Services Champion of the Year.

SCN Swag

Get your favorite ecosystem builder (or yourself) some SCN swag this holiday season! All sales support Startup Champions Network, a 501c3 nonprofit. Our mission is to provide builders of entrepreneurial ecosystems the connections, resources, and professional development they need to cultivate thriving and inclusive communities. Grab a shirt or a mug and help support our work. Shop here.

Ecosystem Builder Gift Guide