The death of George Floyd and the ensuing resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement compelled us at Beta Boom to ask ourselves what else can we do to support equal opportunity in our community.
Through our continued community outreach and countless conversations, we found that entrepreneurs of color, particularly Black women, lacked access to friends-and-family capital above all. They also did not know where to turn for mentorship, operational support, and learning because available resources were fragmented and hard to access.
The New Pattern grant initiative started in Utah in the summer of 2020 to provide grants addressing the early-stage funding gap coupled with operational support, mentorship, and access to existing resources.
After a successful implementation of New Pattern Utah with our partners Womenpreneurs, the Utah Black Chamber, and the Sorenson Impact Center, we decided to take our tested model and implement it in Beta Boom’s second home—Chicago.
Initially announced at our Female Founders Summit in September 2020, New Pattern Chicago has since received funding from Melinda Gates’ GET Cities program through their Chicago-focused Tech Equity Working Group.
Together with our partners, P33 and GET Cities, Beta Boom will distribute four to five $10K grants to tech and tech-enabled female-led businesses with ties to South and Westside Chicago. In addition, grant recipients will be paired with mentors and operational experts and connected to additional resources provided by our community partners such as Accion and mHUB.
Application open at the beginning of March, and the $10K New Pattern grants will be awarded in a pitch competition format that is part of P33’s Tech Rise program.
For more information about the New Pattern grants, please visit: https://newpattern.org/chicago/