Resilience
Goodr: Feed More, Waste Less, and Digital-First
While feeding people on the streets of Atlanta in 2013, Jasmine Crowe was angry. She knew that every year, millions of Americans suffer from the effects of food scarcity – and yet, huge amounts of edible food are dumped in landfills. So, she decided to do something about it. Today, she is CEO of Goodr, a…
Peeko Oysters Has Hope for a Digitally-Enabled Future
Oyster farming is a tough business – but CEO Peter Stein’s determined grit as an oyster farmer served him well when the COVID-19 pandemic took everyone by surprise. Peter has always been interested in aquaculture. When he found himself laid off from a job in the educational software industry, he decided to turn a difficult…
Helping Students Master Math During A Shutdown
As a student, Marcus Blackwell used his piano-playing skills to overcome his “math phobia.” Now, Blackwell’s educational app Make Music Count is helping 3rd – 12th grade students across the country master addition, subtraction, fractions, algebra, and more – while helping parents successfully homeschool their children during the pandemic. Blackwell began playing piano at age 5,…
The Spice House: Supporting Small Businesses While Staying Tastefully Safe
The Spice House is as much a community as it is an expert spice business. The 60-year-old business has a steady customer base of restaurants, chefs, and foodies, as well as a close-knit network of suppliers (with some so secret, even CEO Charlie Mayer doesn’t know them). Mayer calls The Spice House stores “a sensory…
Name Glo: From Producing Neon to Protecting New York’s Health Care Workers
Name Glo co-owners Sas Simon and Lena Imamura are no strangers to finding innovative ways to fulfill a need – whether that need is custom neon signs or protective gear during a pandemic. The New York-based company’s story began in 2014 when Simon was scouring New York for someone to produce a neon sign of…
MedHaul: Providing Critical Medical Transportation For Those In Need
When Erica Plybeah founded MedHaul in 2017, she never could have anticipated its life-or-death importance only three years later. MedHaul – which has been called the “Uber of specialty medical transportation” – is making a difference by managing patient transportation to and from medical offices, clinics, and hospitals during COVID-19. The company has been 100% digital and…
Digital Marketing Lets This Small Business Hold On To Its Hat
Thanks to digital marketing and e-Commerce, a former pastor’s hat factory is still able to delight customers during its busiest season. In her Patriot-News op-ed, Rev. Georgiette Morgan-Thomas says she “never planned to be in the hat business” and was close to retiring in 2015. But her passion had other plans: she says she “couldn’t…
Joining the fight against COVID-19 in NYC
3C member Alex Dabagh is in the heart of the coronavirus pandemic in more ways than one. He lives in New York City, the current epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, and he is a small businessman whose livelihood is at stake as Americans isolate themselves to contain the virus.