I thought I had the perfect career. I had played a major role in the growth and subsequent sale of 3 technology companies. I traveled the world visiting and learning from top technology leaders. Without a doubt, I was incredibly privileged to have been provided access to these opportunities and fortunate enough to have access to the mentors and resources needed to drive success. I benefited greatly from something we call “access” here at Ureeka.

Having spent 10 straight years in a constant state of travel, meet the numbers stress, hotel rooms and 200+ nights a year away from family, I decided it was time to take some time off and frankly figure out what was next in my life. I was convinced that it was not “technology”. In addition to family time, I spent most of my time mentoring young people and companies that were within my network. Another example of how fortunate I was to have access to a “network” and frankly how fortunate these people and companies were to have the same “access”. Helping people and companies grow is a passion of mine and while I found it fulfilling, I felt that something wasn’t right.

For those of you who don’t know the connection with one of my fellow co-founders. Dave J and I met in 2o13 when he was running Aggregate Knowledge and was looking for a partner to help him execute his vision. We became good friends and while I was on the sidelines searching for what was next, I would often call him to talk about the mentoring I was doing hoping to tap into his “access” to Silicon Valley. One day he mentioned an event in Buffalo for entrepreneurs which included a pitch competition and was looking for help in mentoring small businesses in the Buffalo area. My first thought was Buffalo really? Well those of you who know Dave he can be persuasive. I soon found myself on a plane to Buffalo and meeting with a variety of entrepreneurs. What I found in Buffalo simply changed my life.

First, the entrepreneurs were amazing. Full of energy, smart and passionate all with great businesses built from the ground up, but all with the same challenge: a lack of access to the help, resources and mentoring that I simply took for granted. Second, I met Melissa, my other Co-founder, someone who had dedicated her entire life to helping the “New Majority”, women and minority entrepreneurs. While on the surface it would seem we had very little in common but, it was clear to me we were both passionate and in Buffalo for the same reason. Which was helping these New Majority entrepreneurs by providing mentoring and access to the resources they desperately needed to be successful.

Melissa educated me about the challenges of supporting underserved and overlooked entrepreneurs — marginalized by geography, race, gender, etc. I began to realize that Buffalo was merely a small example of a much larger systemic problem for New Majority entrepreneurs who simply suffer from not having the right access to people, tools and services that I inherently took for granted to be successful. It became clear to me that my passion could be pointed in a different direction towards these entrepreneurs that lacked access and frankly needed it more than my “network”.

This was my Ureeka moment. The moment I realized that collectively our backgrounds, access and passion could together be directed towards building and scaling a platform where every entrepreneur — irrespective of race and gender — could have access to the best materials, resources, coaches, mentors, & capital that has historically been reserved for the privileged in places like Silicon Valley, New York, Austin and other “tech hubs”. I will forever be thankful that despite our obvious differences, Melissa was ultimately willing to take the risk, put her faith in me and Dave, and connect us into her life’s work in helping these New Majority entrepreneurs.

The mission of Ureeka is to democratize economic opportunity by enabling community and by reducing the cost and risk associated with growing a small to medium business. Ureeka enables access for underrepresented SMBs — geo’s outside of Silicon Valley, women, people of color, and others — access to a collaborative community, tools, & services that the 1% take for granted.

On November 6th, we are opening our scaled beta of Ureeka. We hope that you will join us in this journey in building a new community for all entrepreneurs. We are looking for coaches and mentors who want to help and if you are interested please connect with me at rob@ureeka.biz. Follow us on Instagram or Facebook.