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What's happening at Start Small Think Big.

Follow the latest news, partnerships, ideas, and stories from across our network of entrepreneurs and professionals.

Mabell Fernandez of Start Small Think Big standing beside a woman speaking into a News 12 reporter's microphone, a television camera on a tripod alongside them, in front of the Local Bites food kiosk at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Start Small news

Start Small Think Big names Brendan Landry Director of Corporate Engagement

New role will lead the corporate partnerships that power Start Small's pro bono legal and financial services.

Brendan Landry, Start Small Think Big's Director of Corporate Engagement, arms folded and smiling in a light blue button-down shirt against white clapboard siding.
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43 stories

Latest news

Brendan Landry, Start Small Think Big's Director of Corporate Engagement, arms folded and smiling in a light blue button-down shirt against white clapboard siding.
Start Small news

Start Small Think Big names Brendan Landry Director of Corporate Engagement

New role will lead the corporate partnerships that power Start Small's pro bono legal and financial services.
Mabell Fernandez, Start Small Think Big's Executive Director, smiling in a red cardigan and black shirt in front of a dark floral mural.
Start Small news

Start Small Think Big names Mabell Fernandez as Executive Director

Start Small Think Big has appointed Mabell Fernandez as its next Executive Director, effective January 26, 2026 — she returns to the organization she helped grow from 2016 to 2020.
Start Small news

The foundation of Start Small Think Big's work

Entrepreneurs told us what they needed most. Their answers shaped our legal and finance services into four pillars, from getting the finances right to scaling sustainably.
Partnerships

Strengthening Harlem's small business community with the Harlem Business Alliance

The Harlem Business Alliance has been building entrepreneurial opportunity in Harlem since 1990. Here's what our partnership has made possible, and how to support their work.
Elizabeth Lewis, founder of Brand, Style & Bloom, standing with one hand on her hip against a deep red backdrop in a white floral-print dress.
Entrepreneur stories

Embracing style and success: the journey of Elizabeth Lewis

Elizabeth Lewis founded Brand, Style & Bloom to help professionals get noticed. She talks about playing dress-up as a shy kid, launching a knitwear line, and going from client to coach.
Entrepreneur stories

Spotlight on Black entrepreneurship: Joanna Briley's journey in comedy and business

Joanna Briley founded the Black Women in Comedy Laff Fest after 33 years in a New York City token booth. She talks candidly about what she got wrong on the business side, and what changed once she asked for help.
Entrepreneur stories

Ethical diamonds of the future

Gwen Beloti talked herself out of applying to the Emerging Designers Diamond Initiative in 2021. Two years later she was one of six designers selected. A Women's History Month conversation about doing it scared.
Entrepreneur stories

Small business story: Pure Joy Coffee

When everything closed down in 2020, Delia and Chris saw a chance to build a business and a life together. Their Colombian specialty coffee company has grown every year since.
Partnerships

A San Jose hotline for small business owners

With the City of San Jose and the Latino Business Foundation of Silicon Valley, we run a rapid-response hotline for business owners facing lease problems, eviction, and contracts they can't read.
Partnerships

Start Small Think Big partners with Contract Black

A partnership with Contract Black, a freelance marketplace connecting Black professionals with small businesses, giving entrepreneurs in our network a discount on the platform.
Gwen Beloti standing with one hand on her hip beside a jewelry display bust, in a black and cream sweater with a Manhattan skyline behind her.
Entrepreneur stories

How to start a small business: Gwen Beloti

A Brooklyn native who couldn't find clothes that fit her curves turned to accessories instead. Gwen Beloti on launching a size-inclusive jewelry line and what she'd tell anyone starting out.
In the media
ProBono.net

The December relief bill: supporting small businesses through the COVID crisis

How Lakou Cafe, a Brooklyn restaurant, used PPP support to stay open and pivoted to feeding healthcare workers and first responders during the pandemic.

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Partnerships
BVA

BVA and Start Small Think Big partnership

BVA announces a diversity and inclusion partnership focused on supporting underrepresented small business owners, particularly business owners of color.

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Partnerships
New York State Governor's Office

Governor Cuomo announces the launch of the New York Forward Small Business Lease Assistance Partnership

A public-private partnership providing pro bono legal assistance so small businesses and landlords could renegotiate lease terms through the COVID-19 crisis.

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Partnerships
PRWeb

AXEL partners with national nonprofit Start Small Think Big to provide data custody for entrepreneurs

A partnership giving entrepreneurs in our network access to the AXEL Go file sharing platform for secure, private data management.

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In the media
Life and Money by Citi

Insights from an expert in strengthening small businesses

An interview with Executive Director Jennifer DaSilva on small business development and what support looks like through an economic downturn.

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In the media
TIME

BIPOC entrepreneurs have been hit hard by the pandemic — but as they work to save their businesses, they're also giving back

A feature on entrepreneurs of color giving back to their communities while navigating the pandemic, and on the disparities in who could reach PPP relief.

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In the media
American Bar Association

American Express honored for its corporate legal pro bono work with Start Small

The American Express General Counsel's Office receives the ABA Pro Bono Publico Award, recognizing its partnership work with Start Small Think Big.

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In the media
Mastercard

We all have a role to play in supporting our local businesses

A profile of Claudy's Kitchen in the Bronx, and the logo design donated to the business by graphic designer Milton Glaser.

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In the media
PYMNTS

Citi launches a small business campaign to support struggling entrepreneurs

Citi and Mastercard donate five cents per transaction, up to $1 million, to Start Small Think Big through July 2020.

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Start Small news

PayPal announces a $530 million commitment to support Black businesses, strengthen minority communities, and fight economic inequality

PayPal establishes a $5 million grant fund for nonprofit partners strengthening Black business owners, and names Start Small Think Big among the recipients.
In the media
The Greenlining Institute

We the Future: a virtual summit on race equity

Executive Director Jennifer DaSilva joins a panel on economic equity and small business recovery through COVID-19.

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In the media
TIME

How small business owners are banding together to adapt during the coronavirus pandemic

Jennifer DaSilva on the creativity and collaboration small business owners drew on to keep operating through the first months of the pandemic.

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Start Small news
eBay Inc.

eBay Foundation increases grantmaking to nearly $15 million for COVID-19 relief and employee matching

The eBay Foundation awards Start Small Think Big a $1 million grant for COVID-19 relief and small business support.

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Partnerships

A new strategic partnership for COVID-19 small business assistance in the San Francisco Bay Area

A partnership with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights bringing free legal and financial services to Bay Area small businesses hit by COVID-19.
Start Small news

Start Small awarded a two-year $400,000 grant from the Sobrato Family Foundation

The grant funds an expansion of our model into San Jose, California, part of a five-year plan to reach ten cities.
Start Small news

Jennifer DaSilva awarded the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award by the New York Women's Foundation

Executive Director Jennifer DaSilva is honored at the New York Women's Foundation's Annual Neighborhood Dinner for her work with women entrepreneurs.
In the media
Cake

Jennifer DaSilva, Executive Director of Start Small Think Big, stops by for a Cake panel

A panel conversation with Jennifer DaSilva on entrepreneurship, volunteering, and what it takes to make a difference in your own community.
In the media
Patch

Meet the Brooklyn Navy Yard's newest food entrepreneurs

A feature on the food entrepreneurs selling through our Local Bites kiosk at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, including Grace Kelli Cupcakes and Sabor Restaurant.

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In the media
Bloomberg

Black and Hispanic women are less likely to get patents than white women and men

Bloomberg on the patent gap facing women of color — and why intellectual property is one of the things entrepreneurs ask our volunteer attorneys for most.
In the media
Brooklyn Paper

New program serving up tasty treats at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Coverage of the Local Bites food kiosk at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, built to give Food Business Pathways graduates their first retail space.

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In the media
NPR

New York public housing is home to the city's newest food entrepreneurs

A profile of Joann Poe, a NYCHA resident who launched Best Dressed Cupcakes after the Food Business Pathways training program.

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In the media
Bklyner

Local Bites: the Brooklyn Navy Yard provides food retail space to NYCHA entrepreneurs

The launch of the Local Bites kiosk, offering temporary retail space to graduates of the Food Business Pathways program.

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In the media
amNewYork

A Brooklyn Navy Yard kiosk supporting local businesses

How A Cake Baked in Brooklyn won catering contracts through the Local Bites opportunity at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

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In the media
News 12 Brooklyn

Our food kiosk at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

News 12 reports on the NYCHA and Brooklyn Navy Yard partnership that let residents launch food businesses.

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In the media
WNBC Channel 4

Start Small Think Big's food kiosk at the Brooklyn Navy Yard featured on WNBC

WNBC Channel 4 News covers the Local Bites food kiosk at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
In the media
NY1

Start Small Think Big's Local Bites food kiosk featured on NY1

NY1 covers Local Bites, the food kiosk Start Small Think Big opened at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
In the media
Fox 5 New York

Doing what's best is the motto of socially conscious companies

Fox 5 on our work helping people on lower incomes start businesses, and on the entrepreneurs behind it — almost all of them women and people of color.

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Start Small news
Citi

Start Small Think Big receives $500,000 in support from the Citi Foundation

Start Small Think Big is selected as a 2018 Citi Foundation Community Progress Makers Fund recipient, receiving $500,000 in core operating support.

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In the media
New York Magazine

Start Small Think Big featured in New York Magazine

A profile of founder Jennifer DaSilva and our work giving people on lower incomes the legal, marketing, and financial guidance to start a business.

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In the media
Debevoise & Plimpton

Q&A with Jenny DaSilva of Start Small Think Big

An interview with Jennifer DaSilva on how Start Small Think Big began and on the barriers facing entrepreneurs on low incomes, particularly women.

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In the media
Law Practice Today

Interview with Jennifer DaSilva

Law Practice Today interviews Jennifer DaSilva, then Executive Director of Start Small Think Big, about the model and what it delivered in 2014.
In the media
The American Lawyer

For small businesses, a hand up

The American Lawyer on the law firm partnerships — Simpson Thacher and Debevoise among them — behind our early work fostering commerce in the South Bronx.

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Start Small in the news.

Explore recent coverage, interviews, and conversations featuring Start Small Think Big and the entrepreneurs, professionals, and partners in our network.

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press@startsmallthinkbig.org

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