Cohort 2 (2019-2020)

LITTY SOLAR

Litty Solar is an energy technology company dedicated to the acceleration of renewable energy in Minnesota. Through solar shingle and solar panel installation, community solar gardens, and blockchain technology, Litty is working to make renewable energy more accessible, while creating employment opportunities in underserved communities at the same time.

FLAVA CAFÉ

Flava Café is a social enterprise café that connects, employs, and inspires women of color through youth development, personalized coaching, and economic opportunity. At Flava Café, we are creating opportunity and fostering imagination. Our mission is to empower community to show up for and invest in young women of color through ordinary, everyday actions like buying a cup of coffee.

VONZELLA

Bail is a gateway to mass incarceration. Vonzella is pioneering bail insurance to help low-income Americans avoid unjust incarceration, financial ransom and the systemic prisons of poverty.

UPRISING THEATRE COMPANY

SHANNON TL KEARNS

The mission of Uprising Theatre Company is to create possibility models for transgender youth and to make sure that every youth has a supportive adult in their life. Using theatre to compel change and create empathy in cisgender adults, Uprising Theatre Company connects art to action. Through our work we increase access in theatre for transgender and nonbinary playwrights and artists.

SERAPH 7 STUDIOS

Seraph 7 Studios is a console video game development studio dedicated to empowering compelling change. Our games tell fresh, fun, and meaningful stories featuring diverse characters, story-lines, and artistic styles. We also have a passion for helping high school students expand their dreams, and are building a robust applied, advanced work-study STEAM course where high school students learn how to develop console games while earning a paycheck and high school and college credit.

RED MARKET

RED Market is an online marketplace connecting sustainable farmers with wholesalers, helping farmers deliver local products and build interdependent relationships with buyers. Consumers are starting to choose flavor, quality, and nutrition over mass production of food to preserve our planet and community health. The supply chain isn't. Rather than build warehouses and buy trucks, we redirect the supply chain towards a patchwork of small farms by working directly with farms and buyers to plan what flows through the chain. By connecting sustainable farmers with markets, we help farmers compete, and keep them farming.

THE PRICE DYNAMIC

The Price Dynamic supports African American single and co-parenting families to bridge their communication gaps as a solution of breaking generational curses and addressing the achievement and opportunity gaps that families face.

EPIMONIA

Epimonia is a fashion apparel and accessories brand that creates products out of recycled life jackets that refugees have worn on their journey to Greece. Epimonia provides job employment to refugees and reinvests 50% of its profits in initiatives that benefit the broader refugee community in America, providing scholarships to refugees, paying citizenship application fees, and job training

IDENTITY HEALTH

Identity Health is revolutionizing post-operative care for transgender women who undergo gender affirming vaginoplasty procedures through a newly developed vaginal stent.