Priyanka is a perfect person to speak to about society or business. My experience includes major companies like Fintech Australia, Stone and Chalk, as well as ConsenSys in the community function. This helped me to understand the importance of the community in supporting startups and venture capital.
She has also built a community. Creative Co-Operative, a social startup she started, was originally a creative agency. Her rapid growth has led to other Bla(c),k and women of colour coming to her for help. She couldn’t continue her business and handle the number of opportunities and inquiries.
This entrepreneur recognized the needs of a large community, and the question regarding her rich experience and desire to push it forward, but lack of time became, “How can we turn this into shareable knowledge?” How can it be organized into a program that becomes more effective the more members are involved?
This is how everyone was born. Bla(c?)k Women and Women of Color launched Activate in Australia, which is the most popular community start-up programme. It includes workshops, networking events, and advertising contests with prizes up to $10,000. It provides a safe environment for Bla(c),k and Women of Color, to foster their ideas away form the institutional racism of traditional work environments. Ashraf considers it an “experiment” in a sense, where the results surpass those of a few other cool start-ups.
“She said, “We’re not talking about anything else.” “We are referring to the Bla(c?)k Women and Women Of Color’s abilities, which has been systematically overlooked for generations.”
These insights and ideas are revealed in the work that is not possible in other environments.
“What are the specific components required to make an exceptional entrepreneur, what does that look like?” I thought. “We had no idea the true capabilities of Bla(c)k women and women of color working within systemic racism, working within white institutions.
“We haven’t been able see their true potential as a result of the barriers that have stood in their way. Now they have been separated from that. They are now in an environment free of systemic racism and without these kinds of restrictions.
“When they don’t have to abide by these restrictions, what can they do?”
The stadium competition was last week’s Activate meeting point. Two winners were chosen. Dr. Kyal Agraval was the first, and she is a subject matter expert who works on a platform for health tech that allows users to find the best healthcare professional for them. “She sees this problem all the time, her patients have a hard time trying to find the right specialist services. This is a much needed healthcare solution,” Ashraf said.
And I was awarded the second prize BloomAshraf believes that the prebiotics, founded by Rachel Castellino and others, will make Ashraf “money-making”.
“If we look at the explosive growth and innovation in the beverage sector, we’re going far,” says Bloom. Bloom is available at ten retailers already.
While Ashraf’s work helps to create safe spaces and open doors for Bla(c),k and women of color, she believes that others can also play a part in this endeavor.
“It doesn’t mean that people who aren’t Bla(c)k and Women of Color aren’t participating. No. They still need to get involved, and the way to do that is to support us but don’t talk to us.”
As an example, I also included government support, such as the WISE grant from Ministry of Industry, Science and Resources, that allows anyone to apply for it. “This is one of the ways the system can learn and be part the solution without having to provide the solution for everyone.
It is possible to get support from people who are experienced in delivering solutions via live experience.
Amplification is the second. The second method is through amplification. This allows Ashraf and other members of his community to tell their stories.
This is not a gentle role
Ashraf has been involved in community roles for years and knows the importance of these positions to the bottom line. It is all about the relationship between companies, their customers.
What companies have you worked with that didn’t have a societal footprint and which ones?
“They don’t really have a connection to what’s happening out there in real life, there’s almost this barrier between them, their customer base, and it.”
Society is an area that is growing. Venture capital funds are increasingly recognizing the importance of society in their portfolios.
“Society has been considered a soft-role in the past, but to be perfectly honest, it affects the bottom line.
“If society says they are really happy, that is a very clear sign that they are going to tell the world about you and suddenly you don’t have to invest that much in marketing or even sales.”
It’s what she calls “the muscle of society”, and it generates revenue potential for companies in sustainable and organic ways that make economic sense for both the company and its customers.
Like any KPI, it is possible to set it up within a framework and monitor and measure its performance.
“For us, we knew we wanted to work within this system where success is expressed for every dollar amount that is created, as well as the impact. That dollar amount is not going anywhere. This will talk about your success or failure. We wanted to take a step back from the point of “What do we need to get an NPS score over 80 of our communities?” What do we need to make this happen, no matter what product or service we’re publishing?”
What’s Next?
The Anyone Can program helps 75 Bla (c), k women, and Women of Color to launch their careers within six months. It also includes a research component that identifies the funding gap for Bla (c), k women founders and Women of Color. This group was only 0.03% in the $10 billion+ that was invested in Australian startups by 2021. It is a large discrepancy.
CCO’s founding and launch of Anyone Can has seen more funding and support for multi-founders, such as the accelerator program that supports First Nations founders.
Since the CCO’s launch, four to five similar community organizations supporting Bla(c?)k Women and Women of Color were established in the technology and startup worlds. Ashraf stated that this is an amazing feat.
“It signifies the growth of an ecosystem. If only you are doing the work, that is not a good sign, it means that you are not growing a community.”
CCO Team is also working on Maya Cares, a tool for mental health and well-being that helps Bla(c),k) women and women of colour to deal with racism in society. First, by providing information that validates the experience “so you don’t feel like you are imagining things or being gaslit,” and second, by associating them with culturally appropriate and culturally appropriate supports and resources such as lists of culturally appropriate counseling services.
Maya Cares was one of seven companies that participated in the highly competitive Humanitech Lab program, which is run by the Australian Red Cross. It supports innovative startups who tackle the most difficult problems humanity faces with technology.
Ashraf observed, as we were about to hang up, that “all of this was in less than one year and a quarter; I’m so exhausted.” I’m exhausted!”
Her focus now shifts to the next twelve months. Activate prepares to host its third cohort and is now accepted Expression of interest. After two years of operation, she is also thrilled that the CCO now has enough knowledge to understand both what works in community support and what works from business perspective. This will allow them to move on to the next phase.
“This is no longer a constant hustle, we are now moving into this space where we have ‘validated’ ourselves, built a trusted reputation as an organization that delivers, and ultimately have access to some time and space to focus on strategy, planning, and taking a more proactive approach, which is something Really critical, because we are not here for the short term, we are here for the long term.
“The problems we’re trying solve are systemic and now we can think about long term sustainability.”
Bla (c) K Women and women of colour interested in joining the following active group are invited to apply Expression of interest. Bla (c), k Women and Women of Color founders that aren’t interested in joining the cohort are still encouraged. Guide for Founders To give them more chances and reach larger audiences like investors, clients clients and journalists.
Priyanka Aschraf won last year’s Smart50 Community Hero award. She returns as a guest judge on the Smart50 this year. Enter 2022 Smart50 Over here
Originally published at Brisbane News Station
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