“It finally happened!”
This was the vision that Dr. Monica Williams and her co-founder Dana Roberts held for the millions of girls undergoing their first period as they launched their FemTech startup, RedDrop. Rather than experiencing shame and fear that often accompany this milestone, especially for the two-thirds of girls who experience their first periods in school, they would have the right products and information to feel prepared and empowered. They would simply tell their best friend or parent about it and go on with their day.
Dr. Monica’s outcome initially focused on selling more period products. Her growth trajectory changed when Shane Kelly, CEO and Founder of Atlanta-based Cinematica Labs, became her mentor while participating in the 2024 Black Ambition Initiative program. Shane helped Dr. Monica find her purpose, dream big, and build a pathway to match those dreams with reality. Six months later, RedDrop won the USD 1M prize at the 4th Annual Black Ambition Demo Day in New York City, launching a new empowerment chapter for young girls everywhere.
Monica’s transformative journey to finding her purpose exemplifies why Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) like Cinematica Labs exist. Alongside Catalyst Labs and Zane Access, two other like-minded ESOs in the US Southeast, they reduce barriers to critical social and financial capital for under-resourced impact-creating founders, giving them a chance to thrive.
Dive into this comprehensive blog, highlighting how Cinematica Labs, Catalyst Labs, and Zane Access are redefining entrepreneurial growth through three non-traditional, human-centered approaches: prioritizing founder wellbeing, enhancing soft skills, and concentrating on the community.
Human-Centered Approach One: Prioritizing Founder Wellbeing over Company Wellbeing
The fast-paced nature of entrepreneurship is often linked to a “growth-at-all-costs” mentality, even if that growth comes at the expense of founder burnout, disengagement, and lack of innovation. Cinematica Labs, Catalyst Labs, and Zane Access are working to reverse this paradigm by putting founder growth above company growth.
Cinematica Labs supports mentors in building entrepreneurial ecosystems centering on people and the planet. They create safe spaces that encourage founders to bring their dreams, identities, experiences, and full selves and connect them with peer founders and mentors who approach wellbeing and company resourcing differently.
Marcia Chong Rosado, Director of Cinematica Labs (and previous-VilCapper!), shared, “Founders sometimes feel they need to wear armor. We bring them together to show up in an authentic way.” Shane added, “This is the first time many of the founders are in a safe space where they can just be, without managing the perception or expectations of others. The result is healing.”
For Dr. Monica, this safe space helped her realize that RedDrop’s purpose went beyond top-line growth. She was building the foundation of a movement to radically improve the journey from girlhood into womanhood, beginning with how tweens experience their first periods.
Cinematica Labs also supports investors and mentors, uplifting the next generation of stakeholders. Shane describes how mentors engage founders by “teaching them what they need to know and sharing their personal stories, challenges, and losses – even more so than their wins.” They've engaged over 100 mentors, most of whom have investor and founder experience, and all of whom can hold that safe space for founders from all backgrounds by listening, asking questions, and validating.
Zane Access, an Atlanta-based ESO, bridges the capital gap for early-stage founders through comprehensive and ongoing education and support. Shila Nieves Burney, Co-Founder and CEO, created the Zane Venture Fund in 2019 after experiencing two hardships weeks apart – a last-minute investment fallout for an African fintech startup and her daughter's survival of a gunshot wound when caught in the violent crossfire at a traffic light.
Shila quickly realized many under-resourced founders were not “venture-backable” due to high barriers to education, support, and capital. In response, she created Zane Access, the Fund’s nonprofit counterpart, to build generational wealth for founders at the pre-MVP or pre-revenue stages. This lack of access to critical capital is one reason Black founders received less than 0.5% of the USD 140B venture capital investments in the US in 2024 – a percentage that continues to decrease. To date, alums from the program have raised over USD 18M in capital, generated over USD 14M in revenue, and created over 60+ jobs.
Recognizing that mental health struggles affect 72% of entrepreneurs and at a rate of 20% higher for Black entrepreneurs, each session of Zane Access’ Capital Readiness Program begins with a grounding exercise like meditation and breathing. They show founders how to build the habit of putting their mental health first within the fast-paced entrepreneurial environment.
In a full circle experience, Naya Powell, 2022 Zane Access alum and Founder of Topia, a digital wellness and HR platform elevating globally relevant and holistic wellbeing in the workplace, came back to lead the mental health curriculum of the Capital Readiness Program in 2023.
Michael Burney, Program Coordinator at Zane Access, emphasizes, “Founders often put themselves last. Knowing when and how to take care of yourself is everything.”
Charlotte-based Catalyst Labs provides the next generation of builders with the resources and social and financial capital to incubate and accelerate their companies. Shondra Washington, Co-Founder and CEO, and Harold Hughes, Co-Founder and CXO, launched the organization in 2022, to help founders avoid the challenges they faced in their investment, technology, and entrepreneurial careers.
Catalyst Labs supports pre-seed and seed companies by encouraging founders to always iterate and scale. For example, they guide founders to identify the right pitch targets, focusing on value alignment and exploring purpose-driven or non-traditional capital options. Shondra shares, “The easiest way to scale is to go slow and learn as you go.”
Catalyst Labs also shows founders that they are not their business. Like Zane, they believe mental health is not a personal priority but a critical business component, conveying to founders, “When you're at your best, everyone benefits,” which extends far beyond the impact of their company.
Human-Centered Approach Two: Prioritizing Soft Skills over Hard Skills
Entrepreneurial success depends on mastering hard skills, such as technical expertise, financial acumen, and industry-specific knowledge. But soft skills – the interpersonal foundation that fosters relationship building, collaboration, and trust – are even more critical.
Soft skills are not easily quantifiable, as there aren’t credentials like technical or academic achievements to validate them. While traditional entrepreneurial accelerator programs focus primarily on hard skills, Catalyst Labs, Zane Access, and Cinematica Labs prioritize soft skills to level the playing field for under-resourced founders without opportunities to develop these abilities.
Catalyst Labs’ 12-week accelerator program focuses on four pillars: storytelling, collaboration, social capital, and communication. These pillars are rooted in Shondra and Harold’s lived experiences as an investment banker and a serial entrepreneur, respectively. They’re also the skills that strengthen founders’ ability to build trust and connection with others.
Harold, a first-generation American, had nearly every entrepreneurial odd stacked against him: a first-time founder, a Black founder, a founder who didn’t go to Harvard, Stanford, or MIT, a founder who didn’t work at Facebook, Apple, or Google, and a founder building outside of traditional US-based technological hubs like San Francisco or New York City.
“Storytelling is the heart of a great pitch. It’s not just about what you do – but why you do it and how your journey sets you apart,” Shondra recalled. Harold agreed, saying, “The soft skills lead to that warm and fuzzy feeling of, ‘you just get me,’ which helps customers trust that you’re going to solve their problems.” Those are the feelings that make all the difference.
Catalyst Labs combines a standardized curriculum with tailored support, offering "white-glove concierge" programming to meet each cohort's unique needs. Through a program similar to “Toastmasters for pitching,” founders refine their stories and practice investor-friendly updates. They then showcase their growth at Demo Day, celebrate their progress with a graduation ceremony, and begin their next chapter equipped with confidence and transferable skills.
For Zane Access, uncovering founder stories that fuel their missions is critical. These stories led Kristen Dunning to channel her pain into purpose. After battling eczema her whole life, strolling skincare aisles of stores looking for the right product and enduring bullying in school, she set out to create something new. She tapped into her agricultural training and family heritage and launched Gently Soap in 2020, a plant-based soap incorporating sustainable sourcing and everyday wellness.
In 2022, Kristen entered Zane Access’ Cohort 3, where she learned how to craft a compelling pitch. She leveraged her pitch in 2023, when she appeared on Shark Tank, and secured an investment from Candace Nelson. She also won Aveeno's Skin Health Startup of the Year and Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition Award that same year. Today, Gently Soap has surpassed USD 1M in sales and is expanding into body wash and bath bombs, delivering the gentle, natural skincare Kristen dreamed of as a child.
Michael Burney, Program Coordinator at Zane Access, can’t help but smile big while telling Kristen’s story. He explains, “These soft skills build confidence to show others you know what you’re talking about.”
Kristen Dunning, as well as Stefan and Cora Miller at Young King Hair Care who also competed on Shark Tank, are two of 100+ Zane Access alumni who have experienced remarkable growth. Other alums, like Delphine Carter at Boulo Solutions, Kim Jolasun of Villie, and Brooke Hill, founder of Swella, are others who have notable achievements post-graduation.
Cinematica Labs instills soft skill development through a curated mentorship program, creating a supportive ecosystem where mentors and founders build resilient relationships. They select mentors with lived experiences and train them to focus on holistic founder growth, company resourcing, and different mentorship approaches that extend beyond capital acquisition and problem-solving mentorship. This is a process that Marcia described as “more of an art than a science,” mentors create a safe space that strengthens the next generation of entrepreneurs, and they bring a different way to resource founders in venture and entrepreneurship.
Matching the right mentors with the right founders opened new doors for DeShuna Spencer, Founder and CEO of KweliTV, a global media platform celebrating Black stories. In 2022, she joined Cinematica Labs’ program, where Shane and Marcia intentionally paired her with Jessica Salinas, Chief Investment Officer of New Media Ventures, in a narrative and storytelling media pod.
Jessica’s strong alignment with DeShuna’s mission resulted in a USD 100K investment from New Media Ventures, despite previous funding rejections. It also eventually led to further opportunities like a Black Ambition investment. Today, the partnership between DeShuna and Jessica remains strong.
Human-Centered Approach Three: Prioritizing Community Over Competition
When individual achievement defines success, as in the traditional entrepreneurial ecosystem, feelings of isolation and loneliness are common. These feelings are even more pronounced for founders who have fewer opportunities to access social and financial capital. ESOs serve as the building blocks of a supportive community to share experiences, learn from one another, and grow together.
The desire for a stronger community motivated Shane, Marcia, Shondra, Harold, and Shila to launch Cinematica Labs, Catalyst Labs, and Zane Access. During the pandemic, when opportunities to form authentic connections were scarce, they aspired to create new spaces for founders from all backgrounds. “Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to build a company,” Shondra explained while describing her role.
Zane Access’ Capital-Readiness curriculum engages founders through various core training and ongoing learning and connection opportunities. Behind the scenes, their goal is to make it seamless for founders to be present and effectively build strong connections. At the start of each program, each founder in the cohort commits to being an active community member and unconditionally supporting one another.
This approach helps founders build a culture of unwavering founder support from day one. “We like to make the experience seamless for them by lowering barriers to connect, like giving DoorDash gift cards,” Michael shares.
Once the program ends, the founders’ commitment to community and lasting relationships continue. They can opt into mentoring support and additional learning opportunities, like a networking trip to NY Tech Week.
According to Zane Access’ 2023 Annual Report, 92% of cohort members shared that meeting and connecting with their peers was the most valuable and rewarding part of their experience. This sense of camaraderie – combined with exposure to investors, industry leaders, and hands-on support – empowers founders to build thriving businesses and vibrant communities.
Cinematica Labs cultivates a broad ecosystem of founders, investors, and mentors with unique experiences who collaborate to unlock mutual value. They specialize in finding mentors whose careers have built their own communities and ecosystems, like the investors of the VC Familia community (now a part of LaFamilia Foundation) that Marcia, a first generation immigrant, co-founded.
Shane and Marcia started these communities by welcoming investors, founders, and ecosystem builders into their inner circles to spark micro-ecosystems. They have been able to leverage strong mentors to support founders because they’ve been intentional about building their own communities for over a decade. Shane, a 3x founder, angel investor, and VC investor, explains, “This is the community I built to survive entrepreneurship.”
While they aim to advance founder growth, they ultimately support mentors in growing and developing their robust networks. These so-called micro-ecosystems create a ripple effect that results in the ability to support more founders, and in redesigning how entrepreneurial ecosystems are built and for whom in our economy. By bringing these stakeholders into the same room, entire communities benefit.
Shondra and Harold constantly think about how to scale to better fill the industry gaps. While redefining new ecosystems takes time, Catalyst Labs aims to reach more founders by meeting them where they are.
Their newest initiative, Launchpad, debuted in 2024. This one-day accelerator connects founders with mentors, investors, and others with whom they typically wouldn’t interact. Borrowing the foundation of their longer accelerator programs, they gathered a group of established mentors and investors with founders to elevate their businesses, including strategies to refine their visions. The founders received tailored and specific feedback for quick implementation.
The event ends with a “happy hour,” inviting broader Houston professionals to leverage their corporate experience to help companies scale earlier and more efficiently. Receiving tailored feedback and making new connections was how Brianna Flemings, CEO and Co-Founder of Jem Social, a social marketplace for Influencers, scaled her company. After participating in Houston’s Launchpad, she raised USD 200K from investors.
In 2025, Launchpad will expand to 5-7 cities across the US. The program is designed to be adaptable to any event where founders gather, such as AfroTech or South by Southwest for example.
Amplifying ESOs to Amplify Thriving Ecosystems
Founders are not the only ones who crave a safe and supportive community to share, learn, and grow together. ESO founders, too, seek opportunities to grow their networks and access new resources to help them better serve founders, investors, and mentors – the people they exist to serve.
Cinematica Labs, Catalyst Labs, and Zane Access are three of ten ESOs currently participating in Village Capital‘s Resource III initiative, a capacity-building accelerator to enhance their value proposition and effectiveness in their local communities. The four-month VilCap program, now in its third cohort, resembles the ESOs human-centered approaches. Through a curated curriculum rooted in founder wellbeing, soft skill development, and community building, ESOs gain new skills and resources to grow, ultimately increasing their capacity to support startups — specifically founders, investors, and mentors.
Previous Resource cohorts have supported 23 other community-led ESOs, which have raised over USD 23MM in operational funding, supported over 3,500 entrepreneurs, and helped founders raise over USD 400MM in investment capital. The average Resource ESO has helped drive more than USD 34MM to early-stage startups, creating over 800 jobs since October 2021.
The human side of entrepreneurship cannot be understated. By redefining growth through founder wellbeing, soft skills, and community, ESOs like Cinematica Labs, Catalyst Labs, and Zane Access can continue transforming the entrepreneurial landscape toward greater support and sustainability. Learn how you can be part of these entrepreneurial champions to better support founders, investors, mentors, and the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem here.
