“Gunbae TriBeCa” opening for business. (Courtesy of UBS)
It’s one thing to have a brilliant business idea, but quite another to see it materialize profitably. Many entrepreneurs face hurdles obtaining funding from traditional lenders, and cannot afford business advice from proven experts. This predicament is especially true for women and ethnically-diverse small business owners. To counteract the problem, UBS launched a much-lauded, philanthropic program called Elevating Entrepreneurs.
The initiative serves under-resourced, high-potential companies by connecting them with people to help grow their businesses. The bank’s financial advisors partner with other industry professionals, forming teams who volunteer their time mentoring the program’s recipients.
One of their signature endeavors, Project Entrepreneur, is a joint effort between UBS and the Rent the Runway Foundation. Its goal is to foster women-owned companies through training and support. Lori Feinsilver, Head of Community Affairs and Corporate Responsibility, describes the program’s purview and impact.
“Project Entrepreneur, in partnership with the Rent the Runway Foundation, aims to increase the number of female-led high-growth, economically impactful companies. Program elements include a venture competition, digital hub, multi-city events, and an accelerator program.”
“Entrepreneurs have long served as the backbone of the American economy.” — Lori Feinsilver
The initiative has been enormously successful. “In the first year of the program, there were nearly 500 applicants to the venture competition, with more than 50 percent of submissions coming from women of ethnically diverse backgrounds,” Feinsilver explains. “Additionally, the program hosted approximately 600 aspiring female entrepreneurs at symposiums focused on building their businesses; these events represented some of the largest convenings of diverse female founders in the country.”
UBS also partners with VEDC, a non-profit, certified “Community Development Financial Institution” that provides access to capital for small business owners. The organization offers non-SBA loans from $50,000 to $500,000, and UBS has made $35 million in capital available for businesses that are typically unable to obtain financing from traditional lenders. Feinsilver notes that to date, 108 small business owners have received loans, resulting in the creation or retention of more than 3,500 jobs.
Outside experts and UBS financial advisors volunteer their time mentoring Elevating Entrepreneurs recipients. (Courtesy of UBS)
Feinsilver further observes that it is in the interest of both the bank and local communities to promote entrepreneurial growth. “Entrepreneurs have long served as the backbone of the American economy, and UBS Elevating Entrepreneurs is committed to delivering the firm’s resources, both financial and intellectual, to enable them to grow their companies, create jobs and contribute to their local economies,” she says. “We are committed to supporting initiatives that drive toward a more inclusive landscape for entrepreneurs everywhere.”
Promoting worthy causes from a distance is all well and good. But the stereotype of a typical bank executive is hardly one who rolls up his sleeves and volunteers personal time to help struggling businesses.
“The program brings to the candidate the wisdom and experiences of somebody like Pete, teamed with a UBS Financial Advisor, in order to help them succeed and grow their business.” — Margaret Lech-Loubet
UBS is trying to reverse that image through Elevating Entrepreneurs’ small business mentorship. The program connects owners with one of the bank’s senior financial advisors and a highly successful UBS client. The team works closely for six months to turn faltering businesses into prosperous ventures. Feinsilver explains that so far 47 companies have been mentored by 50 UBS financial advisors and 46 of their clients.
One of the participants, Margaret Lech-Loubet, is a Senior Vice President for Wealth Management at the bank. She describes the dramatic turnaround that began with a phone call from one of her clients.
“My client, Peter Jonas, read about UBS’s Elevating Entrepreneurs program in the New York Times on a Sunday. By Monday, he had already tracked down the UBS people involved with the inaugural program in New York, and asked about the upcoming Los Angeles program. He is a very successful entrepreneur himself, and was committed to giving back. The program brings to the candidate the wisdom and experiences of somebody like Pete, teamed with a UBS financial advisor, in order to help them succeed and grow their business.”
Project Entrepreneur’s Lori Feinsilver partners with Rent the Runway Foundation to promote female-led, high-growth companies. (Courtesy of UBS)
Lech-Loubet recounts their initial contact with the company. “We were introduced to Maurice and Rhonda Brewster, owners of Mosaic Global Transportation, a livery business specifically targeting corporate clients and accounts. This is a very competitive field, especially on a national and international level. When Pete and I met with Maurice, the company was trying to expand at a rapid rate, but was running deeply in the red.”
Next, the team created a plan to address the challenge. “Over the course of the first month, the Brewsters shared their P/L [profit and loss statement], catalogued the issues they had identified, and challenges they were confronting in specific states, such as the strains on their reservation and billing systems. Pete has a deep accounting background as well as an ability to look at all the components from a holistic overview. I was able to lend overall financial advice and act as a coach by following through with Rhonda to make sure our planning was being implemented.”
But the process proved challenging, and took double the six-month time allotment to complete. “Many of the measures we needed from the Brewster’s were immediate. It was difficult to convince them, since it required selling cherished assets in order to keep the company afloat,” Lech-Loubet explains. “We worked at upgrading their accounting system, hiring more efficient staff, and reviewed how their contracts were being priced. The process took approximately one year of weekly meetings, but as of March 2016, Mosaic has grown to a $12MM entity operating at an 8 percent net margin.”
The Brewsters’ livery business continues to prosper, and both Lech-Loubet and her client, Pete Jonas, are pleased that their volunteer work was instrumental in the company’s transformation.
“UBS, Pete and I are committed to ‘Paying it forward,’ which I think we achieved with wonderful results.”
“Gunbae TriBeCa” opening for business. (Courtesy of UBS) 
