Sarah Adams, a teacher, started a side business selling her Jamaican grandmother’s rum cake in 2015 with $5,000 from her husband’s retirement savings. She began to hand out samples in markets and at street festivals. Her company, Ms. Macs was built one tin of rum cake at a time.
The pandemic of 2020 forced Ms. Adams to pivot her business. She lives at a public housing development in the northern part of Manhattan. She spent the money saved on commuting to teach remotely and test recipes such as vegan muffins, cookies made with less sugar, or low-carb Pizzas.
Few months ago Ms. Adams, her landlord at the New York City Housing Authority received a letter announcing a competition for public housing entrepreneurs. This competition was offering cash prizes as high as $20,000, and also free business classes.
“I thought it was fake,” Ms. Adams said. She called to confirm that it was genuine.
Ms. Adams, 47, owns one of the nine businesses that won “NYC Boss Up,” a “Shark Tank” style competition that invites some of the city’s poorest residents to propose business ideas for further development and funding. There were 279 submissions, and 23 of them were chosen for the final stage. The entrepreneurs were then asked to present their plans for business and answer questions by a judge panel at Central Library Brooklyn in the month of March.
Boss Up was funded for a period of five years by a grant of $1 million from Ron Moelis’ family foundation. Ron Moelis is a real-estate developer, who came up with the idea when he read a report on 2022 published by Center for an Urban Future. The Center for an Urban Future report, published in 2022, highlighted a previously untapped potential of increasing entrepreneurship among residents living in public housing.
“It’s really hard to start a business in New York City,” said Mr. Moelis who, following the selection of the winning entrepreneurs, met with the losing finalists to offer feedback and encourage them to try again next year.
Mr. Moelis developed the Boss Up with NYCHA which offers business courses for free to their residents. He also worked closely with other partners including FJC a foundation who handled the payment of awards.
Applicants to the Boss Up program must live in one of NYCHA’s developments — which house about 368,000 residents citywide — or receive federal rent subsidies through its Section 8 program. The one-time awards are not factored into a family’s income, which is used to calculate their rent.
Valeria Ortiz-Martinez, 18 years old, who lives at the Dyckman Houses, Inwood, saw a flyer for the contest in her foyer. She has turned her idea for a customizable digital business card — which looks like a credit card and transfers information by being tapped on a cellphone — into a business, ConnectoTap.
Some winners like Ms. Adams were already in business, but they needed help to take it to the next step. She will use $20,000 of the prize money to market her healthier line and introduce new baked goods.
Kat Perez started Kat D Productions with equipment she borrowed from College of Mount Saint Vincent in 2019, which was her first client. In college, she and a colleague made two videos with students who defined slang. Together, the videos attracted more than 6 million views.
Perez shot 50 videos since then and earned over $38,300 last year. “I felt like I finally had the foundations for my business to grow, but I didn’t have the capital or the resources,” said Ms. Perez, 25, who lives with her mother in the Bronx.
According to Ms. Perez, the prize money will be used by her to hire an additional assistant, purchase video equipment, as well as market her company via social media.
Daniel Wool will use $20,000 of the money he received to market and diversify his company. Digital Design Truested Technologies pays its volunteers to test the hardware and software for businesses. “It was a seed of a business — I think they really gave me the impetus to go forward,” said Mr. Wool, 45 years old, lives at the Grant Houses, Morningside Heights.
Michael Watson lives in Harlem and won the contest to help build Fable Jones Studios, his art studio.
Watson, 35, began drawing and painting during the pandemic. He saved money for a 2020 gallery opening in Bushwick in Brooklyn. Watson displayed watercolors as well as the works of other artists, musicians, and performers from Bushwick, Brooklyn, many of them people of color.
A year later, the landlord had leased the gallery to someone else. Watson intends to open a new gallery in a different location. Watson is still considering his options.
“I haven’t spent a dime of the money yet because I want to make sure the plan I have is the best plan,” he said. “I don’t want to make any mistakes.”