FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1 June 2018
Foundations of 9 New Social Enterprises Launched at 2nd Annual GiveBackHack Cleveland
CLEVELAND, OH: The foundations of 9 new social enterprises were launched at GiveBackHack Cleveland (May 11-13). Each social enterprise took a different approach to community impact, targeting issues like housing insecurity, transparency in public records, access to whole foods, safe transportation, and more.
The two top teams, Wild Tiger Tees and Docket Digest were each awarded $2,500 from Lead Sustaining Sponsor CoverMyMeds. Wild Tiger Tees, a subscription service for graphic tees that will provide jobs to disadvantaged youth, was also awarded a consulting session from the Cleveland Co-Labs, a branding workshop from Prosper for Purpose, and 1500 business cards from Hotcards. Docket Digest, a software that will alert users when a new file is entered into PACER RSS feeds, was also awarded a consulting session from the Cleveland Co-Labs, a Finance and Fundraising course from SEA Change Ohio, and 6 months of free co-working space at StartMart.
The runner-up teams, Parents In Motion, Mentor Pack, and The People’s Box (descriptions included below) were also awarded a combination of consulting sessions from the Cleveland Co-Labs, SEA Change support, and co-working space.
The weekend long event kicked off at StartMart on Friday night, 94 participants met and pitched 47 ideas on how they could improve Cleveland. Participants then voted on their favorite ideas and formed teams around the top 9. The teams then spent majority of the weekend working with top social entrepreneurs, tech leaders, designers, and non-profit influencers to vet their ideas and turn them into real working products – physical products, smartphone applications and websites. On Sunday, the teams presented their products to the community. Our panel of expert judges consisted of Nicole Capuana of Convey, Nichelle McCall of SEA Change Ohio, and Rushabh Seth of CoverMyMeds. Full descriptions of sponsors, judges, and mentors can be found on the GiveBackHack website .
Teams
The following social enterprises were launched at GiveBackHack Cleveland 2018:
Docket Digest:
– Improving our democracy by making sure federal court cases are easily accessible to the public through a notification system for PACER RSS feeds.
Wild Tiger Tees:
– A subscription service for graphic tees that will provide disadvantaged youth a chance at stable and fulfilling employment.
Parents in Motion (PIM)
– A carpooling service for parents that enables safe and trusted ride-sharing for the most precious cargo: your kids.
Mentor Pack:
– A BOGO subscription box for men’s hygiene products. A subscriber receives a subscription box complete with a surprise assortment of high-end men’s hygiene products. For every subscription purchased, a homeless shelter receives a backpack complete with basic hygiene necessities.
The People’s Box:
– Taking a more affordable take on boxes like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh – they focus on quick, whole food for families – no chopping and plenty to go around.
Block To Block:
– A community app for citizens to report problems they see in the community. App will visually present the data in a way the city can take actionable steps upon.
Community Link:
– Connecting people with organizations in need of volunteers while giving them a chance to earn points and redeem perks.
Freedom Cycle:
– Connecting people in long-term housing solutions to accessible, free transportation – bikes, and empowering them to use and repair them.
Grow Together:
– Battling our giant food waste problem by bridging the technological gap from seed to store.
More About GiveBackHack
Launched in Columbus in 2015, GiveBackHack connects the tech and social impact communities – two groups that do not come together often enough – to learn from each other for the benefit of both. It blends startup concepts – rapid prototyping, iteration, risk tolerance – with domain expertise in the social impact space to create a launchpad for social enterprise.
GiveBackHack is also committed to expanding their community impact footprint in 2018 by bringing the event model to other cities across the country. The next GiveBackHack event will be taking place in Baltimore in September 2018. For more information on the GiveBackHack Baltimore event please reach out to Suzy Bureau at suzy@givebackhack.com.
Want to learn more about Cleveland? Please feel free to reach out to Feras Deiratany at feras@deiratany.com for further information.
