Sean Sullivan has been an advocate for the LGBTQ community and the Oakland small business community for 15 years. He and his partner Richard Fuentes saw an opportunity to create a gathering place open seven days per week, specifically focused on serving LGBTQ people and Uptown.
Civil Labs is a social enterprise with a mission to empower young people to make change in their community, and to give them the resources to do so. The Oakland-based business is developing a food community center that provides space for after-school youth programming and commercial kitchens for area food entrepreneurs.
Katie Taylor, Main Street’s Assistant Vice President – Communications, interviews Maopepe “Mao” Gaoteote. Mao has over ten years of lending experience in wholesale and Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. Click here for Mao’s bio. In what ways do you think Main Street Launch brings value to our communities? Aside from our ability to deploy capital,…
Karla De Leon is Main Street Launch’s Lead Business Advisor. She offers tips and advice to entrepreneurs to help them start and grow their small businesses. This tip is about how lending circles can support a small business owner who wants to establish or improve credit. As a business owner, making sure you are…
This week Venturize launches, a campaign designed to help small business owners understand their financing options so they can make the best choice for their business. Nationally, there are nearly 8 million small businesses owned by people of color and 11.3 million small businesses owned by women that help power their communities. However, entrepreneurs of…
We’re thrilled to share this great piece about our Oakland clients Marisa Montalvo & Kristin Whitlock, owners of Alt. Brides, a bridal boutique on wheels, allowing brides-to-be to shop for their wedding dress easily. Here’s an except: “Then they needed the wheels. After scouring Craigslist for months, they finally found a truck…
Electric Bicycle Superstore started as Len Rodgers’ hobby. When he formalized his business, building electric bicycles and converting conventional bicycles, he needed capital for inventory and for his storefront. “’The process took a great deal of involvement and paper work, but it forced me to look at the numbers and make some decisions…
We’re thrilled to share Opportunity Finance Network (OFN)’s post about Main Street Launch’s support of Brown Sugar Kitchen, a long-time client. Brown Sugar Kitchen is a staple of West Oakland and a destination eatery (some Golden State Warriors players recently took a picture during their meal there). Main Street Launch has been a proud…
Bernal Cutlery offers several classes that cover breaking down fish and vegetables with Japanese techniques, everyday Western knife skills, and Japanese Whetstone sharpening.
On Wednesday, May 11, Main Street Launch and Veteran Launch hosted a networking event for our small business clients to connect with each other and with our team. The event was hosted at our offices by our Oakland-based Veteran Launch client Noble Brewer. Noble Brewer, owned by Claude Burns, is the world’s first homebrew subscription…
