Meet the businesswoman who created Minneapolis' first BIPOC Startup Week

When Nigerian-born entrepreneur Charlotte Epée-WillSuN attended startup events in the Twin Cities designed to help business owners grow their ventures, she realized something was missing.

Namely, people who looked like her.

Despite these events showcasing knowledge she said all business owners crave — from strategies for raising venture capital (VC) dollars to negotiating sales and contracts to how to hire, market and develop products — the audience seemed heavily white and male.

"I noticed a severe void in the voice of BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] founders, both in panelists as well as in attendance," she said. "Anyone who has been to these events, they'll know these events pack a whole load of information. There's a lot of resources, a lot of networking, a lot of VCs that help you scale your business up, and a lot of decision-makers.

"When we're cut out of that, that does nothing but continue to broaden the whole divide."

So after three years of unrequited hope someone would address the issue, Epée-WillSuN took it upon herself to fix the problem. Using her own funds, she launched the inaugural BIPOC Startup Week. It's separate from Twin Cities Startup Week, which typically takes place each year in September with Minneapolis-based nonprofit Beta.MN organizing.

BIPOC Startup Week runs Dec. 7-9 in downtown Minneapolis at the Workbox co-working space inside the Foshay Tower and Finnovation Lab within Finnegan's Brew Co. The three-day program is free and open to the public and will center on topics like attracting investor capital and negotiating contracts. But there will also be entertainment-based events, including a marketplace featuring products by BIPOC-owned companies as well as film screenings and musical performances celebrating various cultures.

Moreover, entrepreneurs of color can feel out of place when they are in the minority and might fear asking questions at the risk of looking amateurish, Epée-WillSuN said.

At events like her BIPOC Startup Week: "We can be authentic, own our voice and be strong in numbers."

There's research to support Epée-WillSuN's point of view.

Not only are Minnesota's entrepreneurs often unaware of resources available to them, but BIPOC businesses in particular remain underrepresented in Minnesota's economy, according to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. People who identify as Black, Indigenous American or as a person of color represented nearly a quarter of the state's population in 2021 but only 7% of the state's employer-firm owners, per the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

Yet, between 2017 and 2021, the number of BIPOC-owned employer-firms increased 26%, while white-owned firms shrank 3.4%, according to DEED.

"The more established and successful BIPOC businesses are, the more we can engage and hire from our communities," Epée-WillSuN said. "When that happens, it means we're going to have better lifestyles for our families and for generations to come."

The Twin Cities is the perfect launching pad for Epée-WillSuN's series, said Chris Brooks, co-founder and managing partner of Brown Venture Group, the first Black-owned venture capital fund in Minnesota. The group formed specifically to fund Indigenous, Black and Latinx tech founders.

Women and people of color are at the center of the state's startup ecosystem, and stakeholders are "building components of what eventually will become a robust, dynamic, BIPOC ecosystem," he said.

"There are new diverse faces leading all things across the city, but there aren't very many folks that are convening and aggregating those voices and bringing us all together in a way that adds value," Brooks said.

In addition to launching BIPOC Startup Week, Epée-WillSuN runs two businesses: a video-on-demand streaming platform and an IT recruiting system. Her past ventures include a clothing brand, moving business, beauty lounge and grocery delivery company.