Announcing the Fall 2021 City SAIL Winners!
A panel of three judges from the San Diego business community have officially named Bumboo the winner of Mission Edge’s City SAIL (Social Enterprise Accelerator and Impact Lab) Final Pitch Event on November 18th.
Throughout the evening, hosted at Revel Revel, three entrepreneurs pitched their social enterprises to a live audience of over 50 community members, entrepreneurs, investors, donors and a panel of expert judges from the local San Diego business community. Girlie Garage won a $1,500 prize for second place and Shyne San Diego won $1,000 for third place, both generous contributions from COX Communications.
Bumboo is a social enterprise that helps reduce deforestation by offering an alternative (bamboo) to traditional hardwood toilet paper products. As the winning organization, they received a $2,500 cash prize from Union Bank.
Jay Brooks, Founder of Bumboo, says “City SAIL was a direct connection to the right individuals within San Diego, and also helped establish a local community of people doing rad and great things!”
This is the fourth cohort of Mission Edge’s City SAIL program, in partnership with the City of San Diego, and was the first pitch event held in-person since 2019. City SAIL is designed to equip low-moderate income founders of mission-driven organizations within San Diego city limits with the strategies and skills necessary to develop sustainable, revenue-based business models that accelerate social impact and promote economic and workforce development. Through a rich curriculum including workshops, coworking and individually curated mentorships, Mission Edge equips social entrepreneurs with the skills necessary to build, test, and launch their business ideas.
Eight organizations were selected to participate in the program:
FUEL San Diego
Sol Cup
The work Mission Edge does with City SAIL participants doesn’t stop there. Once the accelerator is complete, cohort members are invited to the Impact Lab at Mission Edge’s space in Liberty Station, where they benefit from access to coworking space and a place to meet with their mentors. “The Impact Lab was designed to help these organizations go from idea to execution and to be a space where cohort members can meet and work through challenges together,” says Impact Lab Manager Kacie Brennell. “We are excited to continue working with these teams, especially in person.”
Pitch competition winner Jay Brooks mentioned that before City SAIL, he was “hoping to find a community of like-minded, socially driven entrepreneurs, and was having a hard time connecting with similar individuals.” While Jay came to the program for connection with other social entrepreneurs, he is walking away with a lasting mentor and better understanding of his current market. “SAIL helped reinforce all of the [business knowledge] I [already] had and also expand on my existing network of rad people doing great things in the world!”
City SAIL was funded in whole by the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program funds provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the City of San Diego. Additional City SAIL support was provided by the generosity of Union Bank and Cox Communications.
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