(Birmingham, AL) Jan. 27, 2011 – TheCASHFLOW and its non-profit foundation, 100 Urban Entrepreneurs, are headed to Birmingham to offer $10,000 and a business network to urban residents with good business ideas that need start-up capital and support.
The organizations’ founders are hosting one of their 60-Second Business Pitch competitions in Birmingham during the upcoming Magic City Black Expo on Feb. 5th at the BJCC North Exhibition Hall.
Magnus Greaves, a cofounder of both organizations, says his group is ready to give up to five $10,000 awards to people who make the best pitches for their business ideas. Those who win also get eight-weeks of training and mentoring sessions to help them get the biggest bang for their free bucks.
Greaves isn’t upset that people are initially skeptical of a group that swoops into town offering what appears to be fast money. “We get that all the time because people think it sounds too good to be true. But it is real,” says Greaves, a stock-market trader turned media mogul and now a business philanthropist.
Lucas Riggins, a street entrepreneur from Jamaica, Queens in New York City, said he was tired of the despair he saw in his urban community. So he reached out to Greaves for help in 2007, not knowing whether he would respond. They connected, built their network and created this plan to reach back into urban neighborhoods. “We consider what we do as ‘the stimulus package for the streets,’” Riggins says. “We are using our ‘network’ to increase the ‘net worth’ of urban entrepreneurs.”
Greaves and Riggins say their goal is to provide a meaningful, long-term economic boost to urban communities throughout the United States by supporting entrepreneurship at its earliest stages. TheCASHFLOW co-founders also created 100 Urban Entrepreneurs to finance inner-city entrepreneurs who would otherwise not have access to start-up capital.
TheCASHFLOW’s professional network of wealthy and successful business owners share first-class knowledge to teach and mentor urban entrepreneurs who join.
By the end of the year, Greaves and his associates want to give away a total of $1 million to 100 urban business owners across the country. They believe that jumpstarting inner-city entrepreneurs can both stimulate the economy, and offer urban youth a business path toward prosperity.
“We want them to be examples and a source of inspiration for the next generation,” Greaves says. “The more we help urban entrepreneurs become successful, the more it benefits their community and everyone else.”
QUICK FACTS
WHO: 100 Urban Entrepreneurs / TheCASHFLOW
WHAT: 60-Second Business Pitch Competition to award $10,000 and mentoring support to urban entrepreneurs with the best business ideas
WHEN: Saturday, February 5th, 2011 during the Magic City Black Expo, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (www.magiccityblackexpo.com; event admission $5). Pitch competition starts at 2 p.m.
WHERE: Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC)
North Exhibition Hall
2100 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. North
Birmingham, AL 35203
About TheCASHFLOW
TheCASHFLOW is the one-stop shop for urban entrepreneurs dedicated to helping them start their own businesses and achieving financial independence. Through its non-profit foundation, 100 Urban Entrepreneurs, TheCASHFLOW seeks to provide 100 entrepreneurs with $10,000 in startup capital, along with mentoring and guidance, while making its proprietary startup tools and insights available online — for free — to all aspiring entrepreneurs. Its platform caters to ambitious businesspeople of all levels of experience, and offers a unique blend of resources, e-commerce and community features. For more information, please visit http://www.thecashflow.com.
About Magnus Greaves
Magnus Greaves is an entrepreneur with a track record of conceiving, launching, building and selling innovative companies. In 1998, he cofounded the futures-trading firm MacFutures, which grew to more than 500 traders and was sold in 2003. In 2004, he founded Doubledown Media, an award-winning magazine publisher with offices in New York, London and Dubai, which published five titles internationally in the niche area of men’s business/luxury. He is currently the founder and CEO of MYMAG (www.mymag.com), which partners with celebrities to create signature limited-edition print magazines where they share their interests and passions with their fans. As the founder and CEO of TheCASHFLOW, Magnus combines his own two principal passions — finance and media — to create a more efficient way for young people to realize their entrepreneurial goals.
About Lucas Riggins
Lucas Riggins’ success didn’t come from waiting for opportunities, but by creating them. At 18, he considered how the environment in his Jamaica Queens’ community in New York City negatively affected his choices and those of his peers. Riggins co-founded Terri Woods Publishing, a book publishing company that changed the face of urban manuscripts. Most famous publishing for such streetwise urban novels as True to the Game, B More Careful, and Dutch, Riggins began his career by self-publishing and selling one million copies independently. He then struck a distribution deal with publishing powerhouse Simon and Schuster. Riggins co-founded TheCASHFLOW with Magnus Greaves in 2008.
Read more about the founders of the 60-Second Business Pitch Competition and of the Magic City Black Expo at Birmingham View Blogs, “The Power of Good Ideas.”
