Match Memphis
To address the disparity in resources for Black business owners in Memphis, Tennessee, the Arizona State University Cloud Innovation Center (ASU CIC) has partnered with Start Co, a Memphis based venture firm. The ASU CIC and Start Co. will be developing a prototype of a digital advising app that will help black business owners access the resources and support they need to be successful.
Problem
Memphis is a majority minority city with 40k black owned businesses, but only 800 have one or more paid employees. In comparison, of the cities 24k white owned businesses, 7k have paid employees. In addition, the city has identified significant gaps within the data of black owned businesses which has led to unintentional barriers that impedes growth opportunities, creation of competitive barriers and difficulty for black owned businesses to navigate existing resources.
Approach
The team created the vision for Memphis Match - a digital advisor designed to grow the local small black business community. Memphis Match creates an individualized success journey using business information, collaboration and match-making, access to business resources and tools and access to procurement and funding opportunities. The app allows users to create an account, enter information about their business and get recommendations for resources, programs, and other opportunities. The app also sets milestones and gives tasks to help the user plan their journey.
Next Steps
The ASU CIC is currently developing the prototype.
About the ASU CIC
The ASU Smart Cities Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) is a strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is supported by AWS on ASU’s Innovation campus - SkySong. The mission of the CIC is to drive Innovation Challenges that materially benefit the greater Phoenix metro area and beyond. The CIC will do this by solving pressing community and regional challenges, using shareable and repeatable technology solutions from ideation through prototype, as a service for the greater human good.
The CIC also provides real-world problem-solving experiences to students by immersing them in the application of proven innovation methods in combination with the latest technologies to solve important challenges in the public sector.
The challenges being addressed cover a wide variety of topics including homelessness, water conservation, vandalism, pedestrian safety, digital service delivery and many others. The CIC leverages the deep subject matter expertise of government, education and non-profit organizations to clearly understand the customers affected by public sector challenges and develops solutions that meet the customer needs.
For more information on the ASU CIC, to read about projects or to submit a challenge, please visit https://smartchallenges.asu.edu.