DoorDash recently revealed the initial business owners who were selected to participate in their new Accelerator for Local Goods program.
The six-week educational program will provide minority business owners whose companies sell consumer packaged goods with resources to continue their expansion. The selected businesses are located in Chicago, New York City, and Washington.
New York business owner Jamie Kim, founder of Jamie's Farm, spoke about the Accelerator program in a news release from DoorDash.
“Jamie’s Farm was created five years ago with the goal of bringing elements of fine dining into something as humble as granola,” Kim said. “After graduating from college, I made the decision to turn this hobby into a full-time job to continue sharing my farm-to-bag granola with more people. Being a part of the DoorDash Accelerator for Local Goods will provide me with the necessary resources to grow my business, including information about wholesale, supply chain, and distribution.”
DoorDash representatives are proud of the people they chose.
“While we were selecting the participants for the program, we were immediately blown away by the entrepreneurial spirit of all of the business owners,” Tasia Hawkins, social impact program lead at DoorDash, said in the news release. “It was evident from the applications how much passion these inspiring entrepreneurs have for their businesses and community they operate within. We hope that the immersive educational programming and financial capital helps these businesses quickly scale to the next level.”
The program members represent a wide range of identities; 77% are women, 40% are Black, and 20% are immigrants, the news release noted.
As of 2019, approximately 1.1 million businesses in the U.S. were minority-owned, representing almost 19% of U.S. businesses, according to the Census Bureau. Approximately 21% of businesses, or 1.2 million, were owned by women. The number of Hispanic-owned businesses increased to 6% in 2019, representing a growth of over 4.5% from the previous year. There were nearly 581,200 Asian business owners and 134,567 Black business owners three years ago.
The selected businesses in New York include DiLena Dolcini, Milene Jardine Chocolatier, Call Me Caramel, Nourrir Drinks, Maluli’s Kitchen, Balkan Bites, BKE Kombucha, and Jamie's Farm.