BALTIMORE — A group of up and coming women and minority Entrepreneurs in the tech industry have a new place to call home in Baltimore.
The founders of the Hutch program unveiled their brand new office spaces downtown Tuesday morning.
It’s a sign that a long lived dream has finally come to fruition for Hutch, one of the only incubator programs in the country dedicated to supporting founders of color working in digital services.
"It’s exciting I mean when we joined Hutch, it was just us. There was no space and so I’m really truly excited about what we’re doing here today launching our new office space," said Felix Gilbert, a graduate of Hutch and the owner of XCell.
Its new home located at Spark in Power Plant Live! features private offices and work spaces for Hutch program graduates offering more opportunity and access to minorities and women running companies in the tech industry like Summer Bazemore.
"Just being a young black woman in the engineering space has always been a challenge but to be able to break through as The owner of my own company to be able to employ other women to seek out actually minorities in engineering and to grow and help them to grow as well has been a big big thing for us," Bazemore shared.
She says she appreciates having the space resources and access so she can grow her her company.
“It’s important to finally be able to get out into a space that is collaborative and a space that’s just ours for us to get together and bounce ideas off of one another, be with like minded individuals and just be in the space where our main mentor is," she added.
Bazemore is able collaborate with other business owners and professionals like Koffi Harrison..
"We might provide similar services but all of it is very complementary so as a result of that We’re able to fill space and fill voids and rise them together as one," Koffi Harrison said.
That constant collaboration is what the COO of Fearless says they were aiming to create for graduates and individuals apart of the Hutch Program.
"If I have a question, I have to rely on myself to get the answer right, how awesome is it for someone to be able to go up a flight of stairs and ask myself, Delali, our CFO, ask the head of our brand or people opps and get an answer like that. That’s how you want to get through the day to day of business," said John Foster.
The launch of their new spaces is small part of the bigger picture as the program intends to build 25 black-owned businesses by 2025.
They're hopeful they can compete, and secure contracts from the city, state and federal government.
"Really it’s the foundation for what we’re about to lay for the impact we’re going to be making in the community here in Baltimore, the DMV and abroad," Gilbert said.
for those interested in being apart of the programs newest cohort, visit https://hutchstudio.io/
