Mentee News & Announcements

New mentees offer camp for kids of LGBT families

Mentees Jackie McGowan and Chris Hudson have started Camp Highlight, for children of LGBT parents. This is a one-week overnight camp in Pennsylvania held at the end of the summer. Camp focuses on traditional recreational activities, nature education, and team building in an environment that celebrates LGBT families.   Each camper is encouraged to develop leadership ability, self confidence, and social skills in a safe environment.Camp highlight team

How BAF is Helping:
Our Think Tank Team of Jeff Ackerman, Arnold Miller, and Scott McGrath recently met with Jackie and Chris.  BAF will help with business planning and review their marketing materials.  If you would like to participate in a focus group to help Camp Highlight with outreach and marketing to LGBT families in NYC,  please contact BAF.

Fashionista Update...

Congratulations to Kendra Porter (Honor You Image consultant/personal stylist and image consulting agency specializing in plus sizes) for receiving the LEAP Award funded by the Lanza Foundation at WEDC's Annual Spring Luncheon. Also, the Association of Image Consultants International is honoring Kendra with their Rising Star Award.

Other New BAF Entrepreneurs Seeking Connections

Tender Touch For All offers rehabilitative and restorative massage photo 2massage therapy for seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities and chronic conditions at their residential or treatment centers. Marc Silverstein, founder and director, is looking for contacts at nursing homes or other facilities where these therapeutic services can be offered. He will follow up with a presentation to the management, showing how this added value is advantageous for clients. www.tendertouchforall.org



Quikkiks - Freedoms Footwear is an innovative design for a self-locking shoe that can be used by individuals with physical challenges who cannot bend over or use their hands for putting on their shoes. Steve Kaufman, the inventor (and also father of a son with a physical disability), is seeking contacts in the orthopedic footwear industry and venture cap investors. Vote for Quikkiks at the HealthTechNY contest, online here: http://innovatehealthtechnyc.com/submissions

BAF Think Tank - Fashionista Edition

Fashionistas at BAF!

Mentee candidates Kendra Porter, Melinda Huff and Tabitha St. Bernard recently met with BAF's think tank advisors, and came away with new ideas to grow their business plus some great connections.

A special thanks to our teams of advisors:  Fran Dellabadia, Shurnette Henry, Jessica Ganjon, Robert Long, John Raptis, Sarah Rigano, Albert Solana, Dana Wilson, and BAF Board members Steve Holt and Peter Boritz.

To find out more about the candidates, visit:

Melinda Huff

Mirame Swimwear - High fashion style swimsuits.

www.mirameswim.com

Kendra Porter

Honor You - fashion and life style consultant and blogger for plus size women.

www.kendraporter.com

Tabitha St. Bernard

TabiiJust - Zero waste natural fashions with a Trinidad vibe.

www.tabiijust.com

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

If you can help with fashion retail contacts or business management advice, please CONTACT US.

5 Startup Tips to Survive the First Year

Bootstrapping a startup is no easy task. That first year is particularly grueling. Yet these days, a lot of folks are bootstrapping their startups, rather than going the VC-funded route.

It takes a tremendous commitment from the founder(s) to make it through the ups and downs during those early months. You must overcome many roadblocks and hurdles as you travel from idea to side project to full-time gig to thriving company.

To that end, let's cover a few tips and tactics crucial to the survival of a bootstrapped startup during its first year. Whether you’re just hatching an idea or already knee-deep in code, hustling to ship your minimum viable product (MVP), these tips will help to move things forward, and ultimately, compete with larger, funded startups.

5 Practical Tips for Perfecting Your Startup Pitch

We are living in the age of the entrepreneur — more people are starting up, and it's ever important to stand out in the crowd. When pitching investors, then, it's crucial that entrepreneurs do their research, understand what's expected of them and pitch accordingly.

We spoke to a handful of venture capitalists and startup entrepreneurs to get their top tips on how to put together the ideal startup pitch. Here are the best five tips we heard.

New Customer On-Boarding: 4 Keys to Success

BAF President Peter Boritz provides the keys to increase customer retention, referrals and your brand!

In my experience, I have a found that On-boarding is the most significant period in the entire customer life cycle. It can be the tipping point between a successful, long relationship or not. Surprisingly, few companies have a specific procedure to implement this.  The following are my 4 keys to creating an exceptional new customer on boarding experience: