Partnerships
Funders & Financiers
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Funders & Financiers

Growth through cultural
transformation.

1863 Ventures partners with financial organizations nationwide by connecting them with high potential New Majority brands & communities that align with their brand objectives and specific investment criteria.

Funders & Financiers
Portfolio De-Risking

Give your existing or potential New Majority investments a competitive edge.

Funders & Financiers
Custom Programs

Rigorous educational programing to turn young brands into strategically viable investment opportunities.

Funders & Financiers
Brand Pipeline

Immediately tap into a pre-vetted pipeline of New Majority investment opportunities.

Funders & Financiers
Brand Activations

Reposition your brand in New Majority ecosystems and source high-value opportunities using incentives.

Funders & Financiers
Our Capabilities

Whether you're trying to de-risk a promising New Majority investment, or launching a digital campaign targeting our communities, we've got the talent to produce memorable outcomes.

Portfolio De-Risking
Give your investments the competitive edge.

Send us your brands, we'll work out their kinks.

Our highly customized solution wherein we work side-by-side with your team to determine how we can support your brands in their attempts to grow and scale their businesses efficiently. After an intensive needs analysis we'll leverage both educational content and hands on support to take their operations to a whole new level.

Phase 1: Discovery Interviews.
Get in touch with us to tell us more about the companies you want to onboard. The goal will be to understand your business goals, and open up conversations with the team(s).

Phase 2: Support Matching.
Based on our conversations with each team, looking at their data, and understanding their strengths, weaknesses, and needs, we'll complete a rigorous assessment of their brand and we'll match the teams to the right programs and or resources.

Phase 3: Post Program Support.
After your teams graduate, we'll promote them through the 1863 investor & partner network for the potential for follow on funding and other resources. The goal is to connect them with the right people.

Case Study: Portfolio De-Risking
New Voices Fund
Protecting a $100 million investment in Black, woman-owned brands.
"Melissa, I need a quote from Richie about how helpful we are."

Richie Lou Dennis

Managing Director

Our 9-point approach to de-risk your New Majority investment portfolio.

As a result of our decades of experience, we've identified and actively target nine common risk factors that, if appropriately addressed, can reduce the likelihood of failure. These manifest in different forms and may need to be addressed at different times based on the brand, the target industry, the venture's stage of development, as well as the leadership team. Regardless of where they are, we can get them to where they, and you want them to be.

Does this solve a real (and costly) problem?
Where we help your portfolio companies define and validate their value hypothesis that articulates and verifies the key assumptions that underlie why a customer is likely to use their offering(s).
Does the solution work as intended?
Ensuring that consumers can perceive and appreciate the degree to which the product or service meets the customer's expectations.
Who is directing the brand?
Guiding the founding team around how they can improve as leaders while also helping them source an advisory team that adds real value.
Are the right people doing the right things?
Ensuring their operations, HR and internal processes are aligned with the brands long-term OKR's.
Are the right systems, processes & partners in place?
Refining their lead management strategy for maximum efficacy. From developing a comprehensive buyer's journey framework to helping them implement an effective CRM.
How valuable is the right solution?
Helping them identify and accurately segment their target markets using data.
How will the brand capture the market?
Defining their target markets and relevant segments means nothing without a plan of attracting, converting and retaining them. We help your portfolio brands get that done while also defining efficient methods of measuring progress.
Does the brand have adequate runway?
Where we engrain responsible management of capital to ensure your brands use your investment dollars wisely.
What makes the brand formidable?
Where we leverage existing data from rigorous customer development to ensure your portfolio companies position their brand in ways that compel their audiences to buy.

Meet the Brain Trust.
A collection of councils, composed of numerous industry veterans tirelessly dedicated to your portfolio's success. Each council is focused on eliminating key risks your investments may face in specific and tangible ways.

Explore the Councils
Fundraising
Reducing the hurdles they'll face with funding and financing.
Support entrepreneurs to get their financial house in order and identify aligned investors who can support scale and growth.
Business Development
Preparing them to be in the right rooms at the right time.
Help members attract key channel partners to enable them to attract more customers with less effort.
Marketing & Comms
Refining their brand message and value proposition.
Help brands promote their messaging to key audiences compelling them to take the desired actions.
Creative
Making sure their visual language reinforces the value prop.
Support our member brands through the artistic & creative process.
Product
Ensuring they produce amazing products & the necessary teams.
Help team accelerate business decisions by gathering user insights, developing roadmaps & building world class teams.
Curriculum
Structuring our program content to yield the most ROI.
Our curriculum is designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. The programs help address and solve real world challenges and opportunities.

A deep and constantly expanding bench of experts.

We actively source a variety of experts from all industries to serve as advisors and technical support for all 1863 member brands. Our goal is to have someone with relevant industry expertise and access to both enable and engage your portfolio brands upon request.

Custom Programs
Develop a funnel of high potential New Majority brands that meet your specifications.

Build a national pipeline of brands that fit your firms specific investment requirements.

A custom and hands-on approach to deal-flow wherein the 1863 staff run targeted programming nationwide to develop a list of process-driven and pre-vetted brands that are investment-ready by the end of the program. Leveraging the experience of the 1863 staff and the expertise of our Brain Trust, we'll do the work required to take your high potential investments from "Not Ready" to "High-Value."

Industry & vertical specific or agnostic.
Get in touch with us to tell us more about the companies you want to onboard. The goal will be to understand your business goals, and open up conversations with the team(s).

Source brands at the right stage of growth.
Based on our conversations with each team, looking at their data, and understanding their strengths, weaknesses, and needs, we'll complete a rigorous assessment of their brand and develop curricula and a support network that gets them where they need to be.

Transparent data & reporting.
After your teams graduate, we'll promote them through the 1863 investor & partner network for the potential for follow on funding and other resources.

We've got a track record of reducing the time it takes for brands to reach product-market fit & scale.

We meticulously track our member brand performance to understand what's working and isn't—doubling down on and optimizing successful strategies and processes while evaluating approaches that failed and why. This allows 1863 to streamline our support to similar brands.

The data

Behind each set of numbers is a compelling New Majority story of accomplishment in spite of intense adversity.

62%
Experienced a 10 to 30% increase in annual revenue within the year
41%
Attracted new or additional follow-on capital
24%
Have hired new employees
65%
Run more, profitable companies

Custom programs to meet your expectations and your budget.

We understand that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work for all of our partners and the brands they aim to support. So we've got a suite of options designed to meet your organization's budget constraints and the outcomes you aim to provide for your brands.

Manage customer development process & systems.
Enabling brands to understand the different target markets they serve, and the audience segments they're composed of. Enabling them to make data-backed decisions across marketing, sales, finance & customer support.
Setup or optimize core processes & systems.
We are laser focused on all existing and necessary systems to develop or optimize them as needed.
Identify, engage and maintain key partnerships.
Our Channel Partner add-on focuses on providing your portfolio companies with the necessary access  to key relationships that drive revenue growth in both the short and long-term.
Brand development, marketing & comms support.
Redesigning each participating brand from the ground up to ensure audience perception aligns with their brand promise.
User experience & interface design with added development support.
Where we optimize a brands conversion rate by aligning their design, development and marketing operations.
Human resource management & recruiting.
Implementing diverse and inclusive human resource strategies and identifying adept operational personnel.
Case Study: Custom Programs
Target x New Voices Fund
Structured program partnership to support & enable Black, women-led retail brands.
"1863 continuously develops amazing brands via their accelerator whose products, our customers, absolutely love! Each brand we interact with require virtually no additional support from us at the point of engagement."

Brand Pipeline
A national pipeline of high potential New Majority investments.

Immediate access to a constantly growing, curated list of brands tailored to your investment criteria.

Not only do you have access to 1863 member brands that match your criteria, but you also gain access to brands across the nation that have been pre-vetted by our partners in major cities around the United States.

From occupancy monitoring to contact tracing, SAMS improves operations and enhances customer experience through technology. Staci Redmon, is trusted by clients such as Dell, Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, Navy Mutual, Army National Guard, Dept of Homeland Security & Dept of Veterans Affairs.

NUEKIE is the brainchild of founder & Chief Chemist, Eunice N. Cofie and a member of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial program. She leverages ACTUAL science to create skincare products that give your melanated skin the love it deserves.

Fashionista, Genevieve Gralton, created Underbares. A lingerie brand that truly understands that women want to feel both comfortable and beautiful in their own skin. Heralded by Vogue & Refinery29 as one of the most comfortable lingerie brands around.

STAR Enterprises, helmed by Naoimi Brown, is a professional staffing solution that works diligently to accommodate the scheduling & budgetary needs of all their clients such as Marriott, Smithsonian, Wework & Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Jacque Amadi is the head magical girl of Adorned By Chi & Chigami Studios, an anime lifestyle and fashion business. Using her platform to represent black women & men, she's changing the anime landscape and is preparing to adapt her book for tv & movies in partnership with Madison Wells.

Medhaul, founded by Erica Plybeah, provides transit solutions that improve the quality of care for our most vulnerable communities. They allow hospitals, patients, and medical transportation providers to book medical transportation to and from various locations, while streamlining the management of day-to-day transportation ops.

SpenDebt, founded by Kiley Summers, is designed to assist people to pay off debt leveraging micropayments through everyday transactions. Partnered with several brands such as Capital One and more.

vTech Solutions, led by Vishakha Vaddoriya, is a fully managed cloud solutions that take away the pain of IT infrastructure management. Their clients include Dept of the Navy, Dept of Education, International Monetary Fund, Cisco, Lenovo, McAfee & more.

Case Study: Brand Pipeline
M&T
Financing small local business with a proven ability to achieve growth.
Provided both financial and non-financial support to many of the high-performing brands that have come out of 1863's programs.

Brand Activations
Engage with New Majority communities.

Highly engaging, community building experiences that truly represent your brand’s values.

Build brand awareness with engaging experiences. Source high potential New Majority teams and reinforce your value & presence within local ecosystem builder networks.

Experiential Marketing.
We bring brands to life by hosting engaging events that allow you to interact directly with your target New Majority audiences & communities.

Digital Marketing Campaigns.
We research and clearly articulate the aims and goals of your digital initiative, then target digital markets, segments & personas, followed by methodically choosing which channels to go after and how we can execute on our combined vision.

Sampling Campaigns.
Get in touch with us to tell us more about the companies you want to onboard. The goal will be to understand your business goals, and open up conversations with the team(s).

In-Person or In-Store Events.
We've worked hard to adapt to changing circumstances and can help you develop unique content that engages people while keeping them safe.

However, it’s important to keep looking ahead. In-person events will always offer a unique and valuable experience to event-goers that can’t be captured online. Enabling your brand to bring New Majority communities to your work environments to build a more personal connection to your organization.

Brand Promotions.
Attract and retain target New Majority audiences through brand promotion-oriented activations. Aligning you with your target audience and keeping them engaged with your brand long-term.

Social Media Engagements.
Build brand awareness, increase target investment brand engagement, generate leads, nurture prospects, as well as Up-Sell target audiences to further engage with your initiatives.

Case Study: Brand Activations
JP Morgan Chase
Attracting growth and scale stage New Majority brands to a new national accelerator.
"Melissa, I need a quote here from the JP Morgan contact who we helped making that event earlier this year a success"

Key Point of Contact

Person Title

Our Capabilities
Valuable options for any type of engagement.

Curriculum Development
The step-by-step process to create positive improvements in the courses offered by the business education-oriented arm of your brand. The world changes every day and new discoveries have to be engaged or included into the education curricula. We'll help you stay on top of it all.
Pitch Competition Judges + Evaluators
Sourcing experts that can evaluate brands across a wide-range of industries & verticals. Their critical eyes can serve as a shortcut for your portfolio companies to get to know investors who might invest in their brands in the near future.
One-on-One Coaching
Effective coaching is an integral part of the long-term success of your portfolio companies. By implementing consistent one-on-one coaching sessions, we can provide all our members the opportunity to share their ideas, frustrations, and goals within a structured and safe environment.
Guest Speaking Engagements
We provide access to role models, mentors and trailblazers to share their stories and inspire your portfolio companies. Each speaker brings opportunity to build competency through workshops and trainings from both sector leaders and successful regional entrepreneurs.
Co-branded Webinars
Two heads are better than one - the saying holds true when it comes to creating webinars that will benefit your brands. Joining forces to run a co-marketing webinar can have double the value of your average broadcast, from reaching new markets to bolstering your credibility.
Customer Insights & Trends
Using our decades of experience in academia and our roots in data analytics, we're able to identify behaviors that are key to inciting change for both you and the teams you support.
Customer Experience
Doesn't matter if you're targeting potential portfolio companies or ecosystem builders, we can craft a market strategy to ensure you're only ever associated with excellence.
Data Science & Analytics
We believe that all change should be centered around real and accurate data. That's why we place pride in our ability to setup, manage & improve the systems required to acquire it.
Product & Service Vision
With our knowledge of national ecosystems, we're able to align all stakeholders, whether it's your team or the teams you support, around what it takes to achieve the right outcomes.
Go-to-Market Planning
Our extensive project managing experience enables us to avoid wasting time and resources bringing a solution to market where or when it’s unnecessary.
Omnichannel + D2C Strategy
While partnerships are valuable (and needed) relying solely on partners to communicate with customers is a risk. We specialize in building direct relationships between the target audiences and either you or the teams you support.
Design Systems + Style Guides
Save valuable time and energy for the stakeholders on your team and that of your portfolio companies by developing a unified and distinct language that your respective customer bases will fall in love with and that's all your own.
eCommerce + Website Design
We've worked closely with top brands to build stores & sites that compel their target audiences to buy into their value. We're bringing that skillset to your organization and your portfolio.
User Experience Strategy
Our design team specializes in translating any brands vision to every touchpoint their target market interacts with. Whether it's your brand setting up an event site, or one of your portfolio companies launching a content marketing initiative.
Digital Product + Service Design
A good solution is something that can be crafted & refined. Whether we're working with your team or one of your portfolio companies, we center the customer's needs and experiences. We ensure that every point where they make contact with the service provider creates a positive outcome in their mind.
Rapid Prototyping & Optimization
While building a product we understand the importance of validation. Before launching any initiative we run experiments to explore, test hypotheses and iterate on ideas. We carefully expose the target audience to the potential designs and experience before investing time and money into formal development.
Mobile Web + Native Design
We all live on our mobile devices, and it's likely that the audiences you're targeting does as well. Whether we're building a pitch event website or guiding the production of your portfolio company's new product, we ensure that the mobile experience is accounted for.
Identity + Positioning
We carefully craft how you want your initiative to be perceived  – from the language used, to your color palette and however else we'll express your brands values.
Brand Guidelines + Playbooks
We'll help you or your portfolio companies develop a comprehensive document that establishes guidelines for how your respective brand is publicly presented. It enforces consistency with all communications, whether that is a company description or visual branding.
Brand Messaging
Craft a comprehensive messaging framework that can guide you or your portfolio companies through marketing across every piece of content and channel. Everything you'll create, both internally and externally, should be able to map back to this messaging.
Visual Language + Art Direction
Just as spoken language is based on fundamental letters, sounds and grammar, visual art is based on elements and principles that, when used together, create works that communicate ideas and meaning to the viewer. These are necessary to convey your values to an increasingly distracted audience.
Campaign Development
Our design team specializes in translating any brands vision to every touchpoint their target market interacts with. Whether it's your brand setting up an event site, or one of your portfolio companies launching a content marketing initiative.
Design Production + Execution
Enables your in-house marketers and designers to stay focused on the big picture while the 1863 team acts as an extension of your department. Rest easy knowing experienced professionals can take your existing design or design direction and create production-ready assets in a timely and professional manner.
CMS Implementation
Develop a system that provides your staff or the staff of your portfolio brand(s) with a way to update or create content for whatever content-centric project(s) you're trying to produce.
Full Stack Development
Our development teams can work with both the front and back ends of a website or application, enabling us to tackle projects that involve databases or building user-facing websites.
Interactive Prototyping
We're capable of validating your ideas and concepts with prospective target audiences before investing time and money in the development stage. Highlighting any issues that users may have, or suggestions to improve the look and feel are addressed.
Quality Assurance
Before launching any initiative we ensure we maintain the desired level of quality in a service or product by means of attention to every stage of the process of delivery or production.
Content Strategy
Support with the ongoing process of transforming business objectives and goals into a plan that uses content as a primary means of achieving those goals.
Copywriting
While design, content marketing, and SEO are all parts of a complete digital marketing plan to New Majority communities, copywriting is the glue that ties it all together. Copy gives your design assets meaning and lays the necessary foundation.
Photography
The 1863 Studio team enables you or your portfolio brands to introduce the world to your business with authentic, high-resolution photos of your team, locations, products, audiences, initiatives and events.
Video Production
Our 1863 Studio team provides full video production services including concept development, production, and post production. For those who need an all-in-one script-to-screen solution, 1863 Studio can write, produce and edit a finished product that fits your video objectives.

Let's build together.

Speak to 1863 staff
Our People

Meet the operators behind the 1863™ Ventures brand.

Corporate

Shape the future of innovation while meeting your brand's goals for growth.

Philanthropy

Connect brilliant New Majority teams to amazing opportunities.

About the Brand
We are DC-based business veterans, bridging the gap between entrepreneurs and equity.
Curricula
Explore our outcomes-driven approach to business strategy.