Earlier this month, local educator Gwen Logan-Craig won Grind + Growth’s pitch competition, landing $10,000 for her new business. It’s her first go at entrepreneurship, and that kind of money makes all the difference for M.V.T Virtual Learning, which she started last summer to help tutor kids struggling with classes online.
Just the year prior, in 2019, is when Grind + Growth got its own start. February's inaugural pitch competition represented a major step for the organization and its goals related to economic development.
And as Grind + Growth's founder, Valerie Liddell, describes it, the competition addresses barriers she remembers encountering while pursuing entrepreneurship herself about six years ago. It was difficult to access resources such as business education, mentors and capital.
After researching and compiling a list of resources on her own, Liddell realized she didn’t want other minority entrepreneurs in the community to go without the resources needed for success.
She’s now working on making Grind + Growth the state’s first Black-owned business incubator. On Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, Liddell and Logan-Craig joined host Sarah Fenske to delve more into what the nonprofit has to offer minority entrepreneurs in the region.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill and Lara Hamdan. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
