Wendy Lee, CEO of Energize Colorado,
a nonprofit dedicated to helping
Coloradans recover and rise
from this COVID-19 pandemic.
I understand you're led by inspired
innovators working to build the next economy,
one that serves Colorado's across
racial and economic divides. Wendy.
Welcome to the business group.
Thank you very much. It's a
pleasure to be here with you.
Can you tell us a little bit
more about energized Colorado?
Yeah, well, let me there's a
there's an origin story that
will take just a smidge to share,
but it's very relevant in the
very beginning of the pandemic.
Late March we were pulled together
by Brad Feld, a venture capitalist,
co-founder of Techstars and author,
a real community leader to help
him think through recommendations
that would be offered to the
Governor's Emergency Council for
Economic Stabilization and Growth.
Long name important mission though,
and that's how we all got started there.
About six of us on a Sunday,
March 23rd really took brads.
Call had our first zoom.
And that was day one.
Eight months ago of energized Colorado.
It's amazing, that's amazing story.
Now there's so many small businesses
that are in need of assistance.
There's all types of discussion
about state and local aid.
There's also debate on the
upcoming or potential federal
stimulus for small business.
How specifically is energized
Colorado working to support our
small business community? Thank
you for that question.
It's a great one.
First of all, the total available market
across the state is about 670,000.
Small businesses, and I'm sure that
changes daily but just have that number.
So let's just round up and say 700,000.
So when you have an economy like
ours that's wrapped around the
economic value of that sector,
97% of our economic exchange in value
from this state is from that sector.
So when that sector is not stabilized
or not growing, either or.
We're in trouble as a state,
so specifically the way we energize
Colorado are crazy group of hundreds of
volunteers statewide looked at this as
we looked at the set of crises and we
in the beginning noticed an imagined four OK,
one, of course, public health,
two, of course,
economic crisis driven by the
public health crisis, number three.
We sensed early our hypothesis
around mental health was very,
very specific.
We said look this is a time of
instability and always we probably need
to think about helping in that way,
filling a gap if you will that way.
And then we shortly thereafter.
Like many other organizations,
notice that social inequity racial
inequity was yet again exposed.
So from the from almost day one,
we knew that we had to really
focus on the that set of crises,
and so we attempted.
To build quickly and did products
and services that feel very specific.
Gaps gaps that we thought we could
uniquely fill and that no one
else was filling or that we could
partner very explicitly.
Anan build those products or services and
then start delivering them very quickly,
and so those specific foundational services
would be the ones you would imagine.
Or group like us again,
we're entrepreneurs were innovators.
High tolerance for risk. You know.
Lots of creativity so that Gap
Fund was our very first initiative.
Although it took us awhile to pull it off.
Yes,
so we launched that August 31st mental
health early in June. Mentor ship in May.
Very important reopening.
We did both templates and we sell
provision PPE through our site.
So just practically speaking,
if you if you really had a hypothesis
about this set of crises,
you would have built what we built,
and then we just launched MVP's
and we got better overtime, right?
Because there was a lot of things
to figure out.
Absolutely
now you know, being entrepreneur myself
and and having seen the ebbs and flow
of of the economy over the years,
you know I I've seen how you need.
Ten step, always outpace the
available funds that are out there.
Can you give us a sense of if there's
any funds still existing for loans
and grants for small businesses who
are still in need and looking to
organizations like Energize Colorado?
Yeah, thanks for asking.
So we have launched.
We launched the Gap Fund specific
name to businesses and under
represented communities across the
state that likely did not have.
Access to PPP.
You know the one big swath of of the
federal stimulus that we were offered
all the United States was offered?
So after two rounds,
the second round closed on October 26,
we will likely have done grants about.
1600 Eighteen 100 grants were not
completely done with the second round,
but the total amount of funds for
those grants were about 26 million.
So that's cares. Act money.
26 million delivered to under
represented communities,
Minorities, Hispanic Veterans,
Rural Women owned businesses very
distinct 25 employees or less,
but 26 million was a drop in the bucket.
The need requested through energized
colorado.com was about 230 million.
So imagine that gap, yeah?
Boy, yes we continue to raise money.
Yes we will have loans,
not just grants to offer after the
first of the year so the effort,
the whole process, the effort,
the you know, the capability we built,
including the money we deliver through.
Our capability will continue because
we see as others see that the need is
acute and again our state is highly
dependent on small business sector.
And we're very sensitive to
the fact that there have been
many businesses in that sector
left behind. Absolutely yeah,
small businesses truly are
the backbone of our economy of
our country's economy. Windy.
Lastly, how can we as a community
further support the great work
that Energize Colorado is doing?
Well, thanks
for asking how you can support us
in the future and not just us,
but all organization like ours.
We do nothing alone, right?
We are very collaborative.
We have a lot of partnerships
with a wide range of nonprofits.
And state agencies,
but here's what I would say.
I just got off a call
where we were on boarding,
yet 15 new volunteers.
These volunteers are going to
work on the mental health team.
They're going to work on
the mentor ship team.
They're going to do internal
projects to improve our website,
so we continue to look for
very passionate Coloradans,
helping Coloradans with specific skills
around technology or around other
functional areas that could be helpful.
To our initiative so number one if
you're interested in volunteering
were welcome to talk to you to
make sure you get plugged into the
right project or initiative and #2.
If you know of high net worth
individuals or other organizations,
corporate foundations that might
be interested in investing in
the local business sector of
the small business sector,
we would love to have a chance to
interact with them to to tell the story,
explain how we're.
Covering the Capitol both
effectively and efficiently and
give him some exact gift books.
Some examples of the work we're
doing to help small businesses.
Perfect Wendy Lee,
CEO of energized Colorado.
Thanks to you and the energized
team for everything you're doing for
our small business community for
Colorado as a whole for our community.
Thank you very much.
It's a pleasure to be in the role
and I'm confident that Colorado
will come through this will.
We're resilient and will be
more inclusive when we rebuild
the small business economy.
Thank you.