Banks Benitez is the Co-Founder and CEO of Uncharted. Since becoming CEO in 2017, he and his team have doubled the size of the organization by building major partnerships with brands like Chipotle, Facebook, Visible, and NBC Universal moved the organization to a 4-day workweek where people get 100% compensation to work 32-hours a week over four days and has worked with his team to build a values-driven, culture-forward business that was recognized in 2019 as one of Outside Magazine's best places to work in the US. When he's not working, Banks is learning to cook and spending time in the Colorado backcountry.

01. Give us the elevator pitch for Centro Community Partners.

Uncharted is a social impact accelerator that supports early-stage ventures tackling economic inequality in America. We run accelerator programs that are fixed-term, cohort-based, and mentorship-driven. These programs are open to social ventures, nonprofits, movement builders, advocacy organizations, coalitions, and hybrid models.

02. How does Uncharted create a more diverse and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem?

Uncharted is creating a more diverse and inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem in two big ways: supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs and empowering organizations to solve systemic challenges.

We are supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs by democratizing access to capital, community, and clarity so these entrepreneurs can create a strong foundation ready for scale and exponential impact. In our first Economic Inequality Initiative, all 10 organizations which are made up of 16 participants are 100% underrepresented as either women or BIPOC. We are really proud to support these entrepreneurs that are so often overlooked, under-resourced and under-supported. A big gap that exists in the entrepreneurial ecosystem is access to capital and for this first cohort, we were able to provide a non-dilutive grant of $25k. This allowed several of the entrepreneurs to quit their full-time jobs and dedicate themselves to this work full-time. We are still tracking our impact as this program is only halfway through, but the impact so far has been astronomical, particularly in the individual lives of these entrepreneurs. We can not underestimate the power of believing in someone.

Our focus on empowering organizations solving systemic challenges in the U.S is Uncharted living by its values and taking the long view. If we want to create a more diverse and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem a big part of that is solving the systemic issues that have created barriers for many. The economic divide in the US is sharp and rising. In the decade since the Great Recession, middle-and-lower classes saw their collective wealth shrink by over 20%, disproportionately affecting women, people of color, and young people. Meanwhile, the country’s most affluent families grew their median net worth by over 13%, making America the most financially unequal nation in the Western world. At Uncharted, we’re elevating solutions that create transformational opportunities for people to increase wealth in the near term while building towards a long-term vision to address the root causes themselves.

Changing the entrepreneurial ecosystem will not happen overnight, but we believe that increasing the diversity of entrepreneurs getting access to resources as well as focusing on solving systemic challenges, will create change. 

03. How will support from the Techstars Foundation and the Techstars network further the mission of your organization?

Uncharted (formerly Unreasonable Institute) was started in 2009 after inspiration from Techstars, so the DNA of Techstars was infused into our organization from the beginning.

As an accelerator, Uncharted is both a specific program for entrepreneurs that runs multiple times a year and a year-round network of mentors, investors, partners, and champions. Partnering with the Techstars Foundation and Techstars network enables Uncharted to extend its network, learn from their best practices on running accelerators, and identify new mentors and investors who might be interested in supporting the Uncharted portfolio of ventures.

In 2022, financial support from Techstars Foundation will go to funding our next cohort of ventures working to advance economic mobility by addressing wealth inequality. We will be kicking off a program in February for our next cohort of 20+ ventures.

04. How did you come to do this work and why is it important to you personally?

I am the son of two entrepreneurs and grew up talking about entrepreneurship and business around the dinner table. When I was a little boy, my brother and I would run lemonade stands outside of our house. In elementary school, I wrote book reports and did presentations on successful entrepreneurs for class projects.

Over the years, through meeting entrepreneurs around the world and here in the US, I became inspired by the ways entrepreneurs were using their models to create social and environmental impact. I've been passionate about purpose-driven businesses, innovative nonprofits, and risky, early-stage solutions to society's biggest challenges. This is the work of Uncharted.

05. Share a success story.

In 2021 Uncharted Selected ten early-stage ventures with transformational solutions to Economic Inequality for our signature accelerator program. Of the ten that were selected, we wanted to share the story of one of those entrepreneurs, Omolara Fatiregun.

Omolara Fatiregun is the CEO and Founder of Thrive!. In many cities throughout the U.S., communities of color are under-funded and experience significant barriers to government resources. Thrive! has developed equity audit software that uses 80+ measures to identify systemic racism in government spending. Using the results of the equity audit as a guidepost, Thrive! recommends shifts to spending on programs that work to advance equity and economic mobility.

We are proud to support Omolara and her organization for several obvious reasons, but most importantly is Omolara. She is one of the most driven entrepreneurs we have ever worked with and has defeated many odds that were working against her. At the beginning of the program, we asked her, “Why are you running this organization as a for-profit, when you could be getting access to funding if you were a nonprofit?”. Her response was so powerful. She responded and said, “I want to create wealth for myself and create generational wealth for my community”. Very quickly she has proved just that. At the beginning of our program, she did not have any users on the platform. Now the nation's largest education organization in LA, 2 school districts and a large district in Sacramento are using their equity audit tool.

We are proud to support the mission of Thrive and the success of Omolara as a leader and pathway creator for other women entrepreneurs fighting to create wealth and close the wealth gap in the U.S. 

Uncharted is a participant in the Accelerate Equity program of the Techstars Foundation in 2022.

Donate now and advance equity through entrepreneurship with the Techstars Foundation. 

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