Are You a Local Entrepreneur Committed to Community? This Man Wants You

By Andrew Metcalf

Jeffrey Cherry made his first trip to Ellicott City last week. The long-time resident of Washington, D.C. said he had always wanted to visit but never had the time.

He arrived from New York City, where he now works as CEO of thePorter Group, an investment firm, to promote his latest endeavor—a partnership with the Maryland Center of Entrepreneurship called the Conscious Venture Lab. 

"This is about building businesses in local communities," said Cherry, who started his first company, an architecture firm, after graduating from Catholic University 30 years ago. "We're trying to find those entrepreneurs that others aren't looking for."

The Conscious Venture Lab received $800,000 in funding from the county through the Howard County Economic Development Authority to begin accepting companies into a training program. The program will take five companies in its initial six-month training session, with the hopes of helping entrepreneurs scale new businesses.

Each entrepreneur accepted into the program will receive $25,000 to $50,000 in initial funding from the Porter Group, in exchange for a 5 percent equity stake in the business.

Cherry said he became involved with the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship after he tried to poach its director, Julie Lenzer-Kirk, for his own company.

He said she turned the offer down but encouraged him to pitch the Conscious Venture Lab idea to the county, which agreed to provide funding and space for the program at its offices in Columbia. The MCE operates as an arm of the Howard County Economic Development Authority.

As for what companies Cherry is looking for, he said the most important thing is they demonstrate they want to create a business that is based on purpose.

He provided Whole Foods and Under Armour as examples, saying both started with a purpose—Whole Foods focused on health food and Under Armour wanted to provide clothing that wicked sweat—and grew into multibillion-dollar companies that are lauded for their customer experience and commitment to employees.

Cherry began to become interested in this form of "conscious" companies after consulting on a book called "Firms of Endearment" that looked at what made firms like Wegmans, Chipotle and Costco successful. The authors found that these companies offered a positive experience and brought pride to all stakeholders including customers, employees and the greater community.

"We found that those companies were good for capitalism," said Cherry, "but also for society."

With that mindset, Cherry joined an investment advisory business that invested millions in what he described as "conscious" publicly traded companies.

"But we thought the real home run is how do you find the Starbucks before they were Starbucks," said Cherry. "We want to create companies from the beginning that thought that way."

That's when Cherry decided to start the Porter Group. At first he started consulting directly with startups, but found it was a "lousy business model."

Instead, Porter decided to raise a fund to invest in the companies, that could make its business sustainable and provide funds for the startups.

That's where Howard County came in and provided funding for the program in August.

“I strongly believe that companies can do well by doing good, and I want to encourage more companies to follow that creed,” stated County Executive Ken Ulman, when he announced the launch of the Conscious Venture Lab.

Currently, the lab is accepting applications from entrepreneurs until Dec. 18. The accepted companies will begin the program in the Spring of 2014.

Cherry said they've already received about seven to 10 applications since calling for applications in October.

When asked how $25,000 to $50,000 could be enough to develop a large company, Cherry responded, "Think of the investment like a scholarship. It's no so much about the investment as the training and community we think we can develop."

He said the curriculum of the six-month program will focus on ingraining a culture in your business, providing mentorship to entrepreneurs, and putting companies in front of customers.

"This is a new story about capitalism," said Cherry. "We find entrepreneurs that want to do something and bring the community around them to help stay the course."

Entrepreneurs interested in applying to the program can apply via the lab's online application.