It all started with an experiment.
In 2009 a small team ran an accelerator program in New Orleans, just as the city was recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Twelve local entrepreneurs gathered to share their ideas for helping the city recover – and then collectively decide which of their peers should receive startup capital.
In the next ten years, we grew that idea: we made more than 100 investments using peer-selected investment; created VilCap Communities to share our model with locally-led incubators and accelerators; and launched Abaca as an open matching platform for founders and impact-driven investors.
As we enter our second decade, we'll keep innovating. We reached 1,000 entrepreneurs in our first ten years; we're aiming to reach 100,000 in the next. We have so much to do: thanks for joining us on this journey.
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