Seven start-ups focused on improving the way critical services and opportunities are delivered to urban residents have moved into Conscious Venture Lab’s new headquarters, located at Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) in West Baltimore, as members of the accelerator’s Fall 2017 cohort.

The firms – five from Baltimore, one from Alexandria, Va., and one from California – will participate in the three-month program that kicked off last night at Conscious Venture Lab’s grand opening event at its new location at BCCC, 2600 Liberty Heights Avenue.

“We were looking for companies that could improve the way we provide services and opportunities in cities, and how we live together,” Jeff Cherry, CEO of SHIFT Ventures and founder of Conscious Venture Lab, said. “We wanted companies that had developed new models to increase economic opportunity and create more livable and equitable urban environments. With these seven firms, we’re sure that we’ve done a pretty good job at exactly that.”

The seven companies are:

The Baltimore Food Hub, located on the East Oliver Street site of the old Eastern Pumping Station. The 3.5-acre campus is a place where food-related businesses can scale up, and entrepreneurs can collaborate and learn what it takes to make a career in the kitchen.

The Cube is Maryland’s first membership-based co-working space focused on parent entrepreneurs. It includes a play area – equipped with eco-friendly toys and staffed by CPR-certified personnel – for children. For adults, The Cube has communal workspace, meeting rooms, free high-speed Wi-Fi, and other business necessities.

Danae Prosthetics is a Baltimore-based firm that helps amputees design their own prosthetic covers, helping them to embrace their “new normal.”

GridLion, a Baltimore-based utility data analytics firm that helps its clients – including commercial building owners, healthcare and industrial facilities, and indoor agriculture facilities – save as much as 30 percent on energy and water, and improve power quality for operational resilience. GridLion is contributing the equivalent of 5 percent of its 2017 revenue to programs and initiatives that help Baltimore families and create opportunity

Jeremy Bedine, Managing Director of GridLion, Breaking the Alternative Energy Gridlock - Warfield Live

Parkofon, an Alexandria, Va.-based firm that has developed an all-in-one device that will ease one of the biggest headaches that urban residents face. It helps facilitate car sharing, parking management and enforcement by providing a fully automated parking payment and control system.

Treason Toting Co., founded in Baltimore in 2013, sells backpacks and tote bags online and from a store at 1714 Thames St. in Fells Point that are durable enough for everything from delicate iPads to heavy hand tools.

UJoin, based in California, is a social benefit company that has developed an app that helps small and mid-sized groups run grassroots advocacy campaigns as effectively as the largest organizations.

On the selection of BCCC as Conscious Venture Lab’s new home, Cherry added, “Baltimore City Community College is an ideal partner as it is an institution dedicated to creating opportunities for a very broad base of communities in the City. They have enthusiastically welcomed us to bring our program to campus, and we can’t wait to engage the students and faculty to bring more opportunities into the West Baltimore community.”

“The partnership is an ideal match for our community workforce development mission and will tap the energy and creative aspirations of all of our students, faculty and residents of West Baltimore,” said BCCC President/CEO Dr. Gordon F. May.

“It's long overdue for opportunities like this to find a home in West Baltimore,” said Baltimore City Councilman Leon F. Pinkett III (D-7th District). “We have to prioritize on both the State and local levels the provision of financial and other incentives for businesses that locate, hire, or expand in the West Baltimore community, and promote the interests of underserved Baltimore citizens everywhere. I am excited about this bold partnership and the synergy being created by BCCC – our anchor community college institution – and Conscious Venture Lab. My hope is that this will be the catalyst for similar projects in the near future.”

This is the third cohort of the Conscious Venture Lab Accelerator program, which started as a partnership between The Porter Group (now SHIFT Ventures) and the Howard County Economic Development Authority. The move into West Baltimore creates a beachhead from which SHIFT Ventures and the Conscious Venture Lab will work to plant the seeds of prosperity in a part of the city long-neglected by the innovation ecosystem.

In September, the Conscious Venture Lab announced a partnership with Sagamore Ventures, the private investment firm of Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank, that will provide the Conscious Venture Lab with funding and access to Sagamore’s powerful brand, as well business advisory support for the Accelerator Program’s companies.

In conjunction with the new cohort, Conscious Venture Lab has also secured the commitments of four, talented and accomplished business leaders who will serve as new mentors to the cohort firms.

• Jacques Panis, President of Shinola, the company that former President Barack Obama declared to be a symbol of American manufacturing that was bringing jobs back to the United States.

• Ahmad Ashkar, founder and CEO of the Hult Prize Foundation, a start-up accelerator for social enterprise named by President Bill Clinton and TIME Magazine as one of the top five ideas changing the world. Ashkar was named Esquire Magazine’s 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year.

• Tina Naser, a principal with global management consultant Oliver Wyman, which has specialized expertise in strategy, operations, risk management, and organization transformation. Prior to joining Oliver Wyman, Tina founded Pure Impact Inc., a management consulting and advisory company that helps organizations create sustainable social impact through commercial strategies, financial performance, and operational excellence.

• Brian Le Gette is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Sagamore Ventures. He became well known as an entrepreneur in the 1990s with his successful consumer apparel firm 180s. He since has started Big City Farms and mobile accessories manufacturer ZeroChroma.

About SHIFT Ventures and the Conscious Venture Lab:

The Conscious Venture Lab is on a mission is to uncover entrepreneurial talent wherever it might be. In 2017, Conscious Venture Lab’s parent company, The Porter Group joined forces with Baltimore-based SHIFT to form SHIFT Ventures in order to help entrepreneurs achieve increased levels of growth and sustainability. Together, the companies can offer innovators and entrepreneurs new corporate partners, investors, and world-class consulting expertise.

Interview with Jeff Cherry, Executive Director of Conscious Venture Lab and CEO of SHIFT Ventures