- [Narrator] Someone gave, someone donated, someone left a legacy.

Generations of generous someones have helped shape Rhode Island into this amazing place we call home.

How do you thank them?

By leaving your own legacy.

We can help.

(eerie upbeat music) - Welcome to another addition of In Another Opinion, a public information program, where our discussions are focused on the diversity of the state of Rhode Island.

I'm your host, Peter Wells.

My guest today is Ashley Medeiros, vice president of strategy and partnerships at Innovation Studio.

Ashley, welcome.

- Thank you.

- I'll tell you, that's a long name and a long title.

- [Ashley] Yes.

- But I know you're doing some great work.

- Yeah, we are, yes.

- Tell us about it, what is Innovation Studios?

- Sure, Innovation Studio is an organization that helps anyone with an idea start and grow their business.

- [Peter] To start or grow a business?

- [Ashley] Yes.

- [Peter] Any type of business?

- Any type of business.

And so what we really focus on is helping individual find their pathway to success.

And so you can come in and have all different ideas.

It could be a small, you're making home goods at home and you wanna grow that into a business or it can be you have this great idea to disrupt a market.

And so we do everything from the smallest business to the biggest ideas.

- So what is it that you do?

You say we do, what do you actually do with this client?

- Absolutely, and so we offer a few different things to help individuals grow their business or succeed and become an inspiring entrepreneur.

So we offer our own continuum of programming that ranges from one to one support, all the way up to cohorts and more in depth trainings.

We also collaborate with a lot of people and in a lot of other organizations.

And so we work with them to develop different types of programs that are gonna help individuals, but we also work with them to refer.

So we know that our services can't help everybody.

And there's a lot of other great organizations out there who can, and so we wanna make sure that we're getting the individual to where they are that's gonna help them succeed.

And the third thing we do is we manage spaces and they're open and free to anybody who needs a place to work or a place to meet and collaborate and connect.

- So let's say I'm going to write a book and I need a place to set up to work, you're gonna provide me with a space or is it a shared space or is it an office?

Tell me how that works when you say space.

- Yeah, space, so it's a shared space.

And so it's an open public lounge.

And so we have two facilities in Boston and then we're actually working to open a third here in Rhode Island.

And so we manage the District Hall and the Seaport of Boston, the Roxbury Innovation Center.

And then we are collaborating most recently with one neighborhood builders to activate and open their business support office at 22 Mann Avenue, and we've opened it up and are going to have access to computers and desks, some workspace and the internet so that people can stop in when they need it and work for free.

- So what kind of collaboration would you be doing with Neighborhood Home Builders?

- One Neighborhood, yeah.

So there are community development organization here in Providence and they are really working to help not just with housing, but really strengthening the community.

And so what they've been told is they want the residents in the area need somewhere to help either existing businesses to grow and access the resources or people who are looking to become entrepreneurs or small business owners, they need some access to resources.

So we are helping them to open a space that is right on the Mann Avenue.

And as I mentioned, it will be co-working, but there will also be a continuum of different resources, not just from Innovation Studio, but great partner organizations.

Rhode Island is fortunate to have just an amazing group of people who have really developed some amazing support services.

And so right now there is a collaboration of about nine groups who will be there to help and support.

What we'll do is we'll have the office staffed and manned at all times.

And so if you needed, you wanna write a book, you could stop in and say, "Here is my idea, this is where I am."

And we might say, "Oh, we can help you here."

Or we might say, "You know what?

"This is the best organization.

"Here's the contact information, "or let me set up a meeting with them so that you can."

- Okay, so it's more of a consulting role.

- In that sense, yes, yes.

- 'Cause I guess when people think in terms of resources and support to start a business, they're thinking bank funding, they're thinking those financial kinds of things.

So do you provide money?

- We do not provide money except... - Or loans?

- We do not do loans.

Some of the organizations we work with, we will refer to, or if there's a banking institution, what we can help with is preparing yourself, your budget, your finances, your business model, so that when you take that information to get a loan, it's to a place that the bank will fund.

Obviously, if you're a new business owner, you might not have collateral.

So it's really based on you and your idea.

And so you have to make sure that you have a solid business model and we're able to help you developed that.

- Okay, so I'm getting a better feel for the innovation part, is really what someone brings to the table.

- Yes, so they're the innovators.

- Okay.

- And so innovation could be anything from I wanna pivot my business, I have a coffee shop and I have this great new idea, how do I implement it, to I have this new app that's gonna change the world, right?

And so people come and anytime they wanna do something different or change, that's really innovation.

And so we wanna help them to find the different pieces of the puzzle that we can help them put together to achieve their individual goal.

And we like to call it a pathway to success.

- How are you funded?

- Yeah, so we're funded in two ways.

We are a nonprofit.

So obviously, we have donors and sponsors and there are a lot of grants.

So that really has helped to sustain us, but we're fortunate enough to also have spaces that we can rent and reinvest that money.

And so all of our rentals income is reinvested.

Unfortunately, we were, I always like to say, the last two years, have been, we were in the best industry, in the worst industry.

So just like any other event, rental space, we really took a hit and that was tough, but we were in the best industry because we were helping people sustain their business.

And we were helping people who lost their job to start a business so that they could sustain their family.

And we were lucky enough to be able to pair down a bit, but really focus on that and help over a thousand local businesses to access the resources they needed in technology to sustain their business.

And we access some of the COVID relief money to do so.

And so, although our space rental is not what we'd like it to be and we're hoping that it will scale back up, we have been fortunate to access some of that money, but we're still a bit limited.

And so we really are working to grow our financial support and donors and corporations and sponsors.

- Now, does the client pay for this service?

- So right now in Rhode Island, we are fortunate that the Rhode Island Foundation gave us some funding and we're able to start our launch pre-accelerator with that funding and our relaunch, which is a technology program.

And so right now we're not charging.

In our mission, we wanna make innovation a possibility for anyone.

So we never want to limit because of financial resources.

And so some of our programs, we do charge, but if you're unable to pay, we can do a sliding skill or even offer for free.

And that's where our donors and funders come in.

People who can't pay need it the most, and we wanna be there to help to change their lives.

- So Ashley, why is it that you think that the minority businesses have a difficult time accessing capital funding and things of that nature?

- I think it's connections and access.

And so that is one of the things that we really focus on and what we built out of the Roxbury Innovation Center and what we're hoping to build more in Mann Avenue here in Providence.

And the reason I think is I always say, if you go to, we have a lot of entrepreneurs who go to college, they might go to one of the best colleges, but they became attorneys, doctors, PhDs, and that's not really in the entrepreneurship.

Their families might not have been entrepreneurs.

They don't know people who have access to money or to capital.

If you go to a school like Harvard or Brown, there's just so much money and so many resources and the students are trained.

And so what I find is that a lot of the venture capitalists will just go to these schools because they know that there's all these great ideas instead of looking elsewhere.

And so our goal is to train individuals who come from backgrounds where this hasn't been taught, train them in the skills so that they can compete with others who have the skills, and then also connect them with individuals who can help them advance.

And so it's not just a one time thing, you really have to hone in those skills and learn and train.

And so that's one of the things that we really want to work on and to help more individuals.

And we've seen great success.

There was a recent article on the Boston Globe and that entrepreneur who spoke actually came through one of our programs, originally and spoke how it was so difficult.

And we were able to get of her some money at a pitch competition and help her with those skills so that she could continue to pitch and raise more money, but it was much more difficult for her.

- Sounds something like that Shark Tank situation.

- Yeah, that's exactly what it is.

- Okay, can you give us an idea of maybe one or two success stories you've had right here in Rhode Island?

- Yeah, here in Rhode Island, we're actually just starting our launch, Pre-Accelerator, which helps people with an idea launch their business.

But the one program that we've we've done really regionally is our SEED immersion program.

And we do that in partnership with retail business services, which is a branch of Hunter Hayes who runs Stop & Shop and others.

And so it's an extremely competitive program that we have entrepreneurs apply from around the country to really immerse themselves in an international food and supply chain company.

And so what it is, it's this imaginative program and they actually win $25,000.

We can only choose five people to go through this, and a local person here in Rhode Island was actually last year's winner.

We'll be launching that as well as another SEED program in the next coming weeks that anybody can apply, for one is SEED Gamification.

How do you take your technology business and use the skills that a video game developer uses, which is huge right now.

And then the second will be the retail business services, supply chain and retail SEED program.

- So can you tell me the difference between a SEED program and a... - [Ashley] Launch program?

- Launch program, yeah, I mean, they both sound the same to me.

- Sounds same, right?

So a launch program is exactly what it is.

You're gonna launch your business.

And so it's, "I have this idea, what do I do?"

Right, it's the basics.

It might be, "So I have this idea, is this even a business?"

And so that's what we cover.

Can you make this idea into a business?

What does it take?

Who are your customers?

How do you market this?

- And that's the launch, not the SEED.

- Not the SEED.

- Okay.

- One of my favorite stories is a woman named Diane Austin.

And she was a black woman and a cancer survivor.

And when she was having chemo, she couldn't find a wig that matched her hair.

And so after she recovered, she decided to start a business because she found a need.

- [Peter] Yes.

- And so she came through our launch program to kinda sort that idea out, went through some of our workshops.

We convinced her, even though she didn't want to, to do our pitch, learn how to pitch her business.

And over the last year, she's been in People Magazine and on The Today Show with this great idea.

And so that's what we do.

We get people started in that.

The SEED program is somebody who already has some traction.

They are pre-SEED it's called, which is right before you're raising money, or you've raised some little bit of money.

And then that early entry into raising venture capital and that's SEED.

So you have this idea, you already know who your business is tailored towards, you have a product, maybe even already have a prototype and you're raising money to grow that business.

- So all of these businesses at the end of the day are all looking for venture capital money, is that it?

- Venture capital money, some are just looking for their first sale.

And so I think no matter what type of business or entrepreneur you are, you need money to grow.

And so if you're starting a business, some people start and just go after that first sale and they grow naturally.

And so they might have a consumer good as an example, a skin care business, so you're making lady skincare products and you're selling them online.

And so you're growing because you're making money and reinvesting that back into your company, others decide that they want to almost forgo the initial making of money that way and raise capital to scale their business through investors.

- Okay, even though they don't have a product yet?

- Sometimes, yes.

- Okay, so I'm getting a better feel for what we're talking about here.

We're just talking about nourishing an idea to make money.

- [Ashley] Exactly.

- Pretty much.

- [Ashley] Yes.

- Okay, and sometimes we use language to cover a broader area, when you say innovation, it's a big word.

- [Ashley] It is.

- And so for people to wanna think about coming to Innovation Studios, we're talking about people who just want to be an entrepreneur of some kind.

- Exactly.

We actually find when we use the term entrepreneur, small business owners don't see themselves as entrepreneurs.

So we always say, oh, innovator entrepreneur or small business owner, even though you're still an entrepreneur, you're nurturing an idea, like you said.

- I see, and English language is a funny thing.

We tend to get used to using terminology a certain way.

And then when it gets to be used a different way, it takes I'm to catch up, I think.

- Yes.

- Well, let me ask you this.

Do you have a board of governors or how are you directed?

- Yeah, we're a nonprofit so we do have our board of directors, which is growing right now.

So we're actively looking for great people to join our board and to help us achieve our mission.

We have our president, Daniel Vidana, who... - [Peter] That was who?

- [Ashley] It's Daniel Vidana.

- [Peter] Daniel Vidana, okay.

- And he is mostly based at our headquarters in Roxbury.

And then it's my, like I said, small mighty team, it's myself who oversees our programs and partnerships.

So our programs, our fundraising and our marketing that achieves our program missions and my team here in Rhode Island, as well as my team in Boston.

And then we have our operations director who oversees the space rental side.

- Okay, now, how are you marketing Innovation Studios?

- Great, and the last year, we've had a lot of change, and so Innovation Studio is actually new.

And so it's our rebranded name.

And we're just now trying to get out there and say, "Hey, this is who we are and this is what we do."

And so for a long time, we did events really focused on that venture funding and the, what you would call tech enabled businesses.

But then we learned and saw so much success out of other programs.

And we didn't wanna just be in that niche, and we really enjoyed helping entrepreneurs from so many different backgrounds grow and be successful.

And so then we said, you know what?

That's where we really wanna be Innovation Studio.

We wanna be innovation for everyone and help people to grow and achieve their goals no matter what they are.

- So let's say I'm going to wanna start an Aqua farm.

- [Ashley] An Aqua farm, yes.

- Do you have subject matter experts at your hand to help me with an Aqua farm as to what I might need in terms of filtration systems, health department, yada, yada, yada, all the things that we go with raising fish for sale, for consumption?

- We do not, but what we like to do is work with others.

And so there are so many great organizations in Rhode Island, in Massachusetts, just in the ecosystem.

And so what we would do is we might say to them, "Hey, we can help you with this piece of this business, "but we really wanna connect you "to one of these other organizations who know that."

They work in what you would call the blue economy now, and they have the right connections to really hone in on that piece of the business.

And what we know is we do some things really, really well, and we try to fill gaps, but we don't wanna compete with others who are doing things great.

We just wanna help to prepare people so that we can refer to these other organizations or these other teams who can really help them succeed.

- So in some cases they may be a fee?

- Sometimes.

- Okay, modest as it might be.

But then if you refer them to another organization, there might be additional fees with that particular organization.

- There could be.

I think what we're finding now is a lot of organizations are really mission centered.

So everyone wants to help.

And if they can't pay, you're trying to figure out how to help individuals to be successful, if they can't.

Obviously, if you can, then that helps the organization to help others who can't.

Particularly here in Rhode Island, there's just a great coalition of groups who really focus on helping everyone and putting aside that if need be and helping just strengthen the businesses that are here and grow the new ones.

- Now, you mentioned the Rhode Island Foundation gave you a start, your organization a start, are they also involved with your clients as well or no?

- Not so much unless there was a service.

I know they provide a lot of trainings and different opportunities.

And so there might be something, if somebody, but for us, we focus mainly on for profit businesses.

There's another organization that really does more with nonprofit organizations.

And so again, they're the experts in that.

And so let them do what they do best so that we can focus on what we do best.

- I guess I should have asked that.

So are the businesses that come to you are gonna be for profit, they're not gonna be nonprofits?

- Right, for the most part.

- For the most part.

- We do have nonprofits that will come to us or wanting to start an nonprofit, and they might attend some of our networking or our panel discussions.

But if they really wanna take a cohort, we would refer them to an agency that better supports their needs and has the expertise to help them start a nonprofit.

- Gotcha, so is there a publication as to when you have these training sessions and things of that nature, how would my viewers access this information?

- Yeah, so the best way is to go to our website, innovationstudio.org.

Right now in Rhode Island, we have our application open for our launch.

And so you can go online, apply, and we would love to accept a range of different businesses.

And again, you don't have to have anything, you don't have to have a business, it's I have this idea and what do I do?

And so the class will start at the beginning of March.

So if they're interested, I'd apply soon and the same with all of our programs, we'll be offering them in both English and Spanish.

And so they're on a rolling base, so at least two a year in English and two year in Spanish in Rhode Island.

- That's interesting.

So just innovationstudios.com and they could get access to that information?

- .org, innovationstudio.org.

- .org.

- Yes.

- Ah, that's right, nonprofit.

- Nonprofit.

- I'm so used to that.com thing, I know.

All right, so can you give us an idea of some of the businesses that you've worked with that are supporting your effort with these new entrepreneurs?

- Yeah, and we actually, depending on the type of business or entrepreneur, we try to find people that match those.

- [Peter] Matching, sure.

- A matching process.

And so what we found, particularly during the pandemic and what we try to do, so we have a great group of volunteers who are able to give back and to support businesses, but we found that a lot of times, small businesses like to learn from other small businesses or entrepreneurs like to learn from somebody who's just a little bit ahead of them.

And so what we try to do is access resources to pay individuals as contractors, to do some of the trainings, to do some of the individual one-on-ones because what we found was that individuals who are small business owners, taking two hours out of their day to do a training, that's money out of their pocket, they might not be able to do that.

And so by being able to pay them a stipend, we're able to then access just so many more people who really can meet the needs.

We also find that it helps with equity too.

And I guess we never thought of is, again, if you're volunteering, a lot of times, you have the means to take time away and to volunteer.

But what we also found is once that business has worked with you for free for a while, and they like you, sometimes when they do have revenue, they'll hire you.

So essentially, those with means we're getting more business by volunteering.

And so by being able to pay somebody, we are then now investing, I always say double dipping for a good reason.

We're investing in businesses and paying them to help other small businesses.

- Yeah, that's pretty unique.

That's a good idea.

And finding volunteers today is obviously very tough.

I mean, the economy hasn't been in the best of shape with COVID and so on and so forth, has that made any major impact, or had a major impact besides the space issue on entrepreneurs or has it increased them?

- It actually has increased.

And so particularly early in the pandemic here in Rhode Island, we worked with Rhode Island commerce to build and support what we call the small business support program.

And it was all about technology.

So a lot of small businesses didn't have a website or use social media.

So what we did was used a volunteer group of people at first to train, so they were experts.

A lot of them were able to volunteer because their own businesses were taking a hit.

And so they were able to volunteer to train others to use this and everyone was willing to help.

As a pandemic wore on, they had to get their business back on its feet.

And that's when we are saying, okay, how can we generate resources to be able to pay for this service?

These businesses here still need help.

They still need to use technology better.

And they can't afford to do it because of the pandemic.

These businesses here, they're getting their selves back on their feet.

They know how to do it.

So let's pay this person to help this person and it's really a win-win.

- Now you mentioned that too, you were able to access some COVID funds.

Are there any more dollars coming down the line as far as you know?

- I hope so.

- For innovation?

- I hope so, I think there is.

And so right now, actually, and it is the Rhode Island Grant program that's out, it's Rhode Island rebuilds.

And so that's one of the programs that our funding is going directly to small businesses, but there's other grants that help smaller organizations to help people apply, to provide that technical assistance.

- So we have innovationstudios.org, located at?

- So yes, we're located at 222 Mann Ave and we're also located at the Westwey Club, which is at the Turk's Head Building.

- Okay, and that's on what street?

- I'm not sure.

- You know offhand?

Okay, well, maybe rely on there's no building.

So maybe don't know the Turk side building or the Wayside building.

(Ashley laughing and mumbling) - We're both losing it.

- I know, right.

- But anyway, Turk's Head Building.

- Yes.

- Okay, I'll have to try to find that on the map.

Listen, Ashley, this has been great.

We're actually running out of time, but we'll have to have you come back and maybe bring one of your clients with you so we can chat with them about that, but we have run out time and I wanna thank today's guest, Ashley Medeiros and you the viewers for tuning into another addition of In Another Opinion.

A special thanks to PBS for making this program possible.

I'm your host, Peter Wells, give us your opinion on Facebook at In Another Opinion.

And if you can, reach out to Innovation Studios to see if you can start your business in this new era of COVID and have a great day.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Someone gave, someone donated, someone left a legacy.

Generations of generous someones have helped shape Rhode Island into this amazing place we call home.

How do you thank them?

By leaving your own legacy, we can help.