Leaving money on the table: Why it's important to support female and POC-owned businesses

Minnesota has a lot of would-be entrepreneurs, but starting a business is tough. You need investors and a network and you need to interact with potential customers.

That’s hard work for anyone, but research shows it’s more difficult for women and people of color because they tend to have less social capital.

For example, a woman starting a business has to work harder to make connections and they start their businesses with far less money. That can be the difference between success and failure and when a new business fails consumers, workers and the economy all lose out.

Lunar Startups is working to support new businesses. They are part of the Glen Nelson Center in St. Paul, which is the entrepreneurial program of Minnesota Public Radio. A cohort of startup businesses are graduating from their program which provided training, helped them expand their business and supported them for the last year.

Host Angela Davis spoke with Danielle Steer, the managing director of Lunar Startups and Jasmine Russell, the co-founder of Monicat Data, a technology company that was a member of the cohort.

Use the audio player above to listen to the program.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS