We recently connected with Jessica Porta and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How has Covid changed your business model?

In March 2020, I was leading an entrepreneurial community in downtown Raleigh, NC called Raleigh Founded. We offer shared workspace and resources to help startups scale and grow.

Coworking spaces live at the intersection of real estate and hospitality, and I can’t think of two more difficult industries to be in during Covid. As soon as Covid hit, our spaces emptied and as Covid evolved, our member’s businesses started to suffer and they moved out of their spaces one by one. We were at a loss. Our staff was working from home and we had to grapple with the uncertainty of the situation and plan for the future. All the while, I was at home with a newborn. I was entirely out of my element in every aspect of my life.

The great thing about working in an entrepreneurial environment, however, is that we were quick to pivot and ask ourselves tough questions about where we add value as an organization. We quickly started to spin up virtual programming and resources. We held virtual networking events, virtual panels and workshops, we created a jobs board, an online resource guide, and worked with business professionals in our network to create a podcast. We also created a virtual membership and hybrid work options. We took out business loans to survive and not lay off staff, and we developed sponsored membership programs to waive rent and membership fees to those struggling with their businesses.

Two years later, our industry and our business model has evolved drastically. Our coworking membership skyrocketed to pre-covid levels as more and more individuals become remote employees and we have altered our price points and amenities to suite hybrid-remote teams. There is a saying that innovation is born out of necessity and I believe Covid created an unprecedented situation where the shared workspace industry had to evolve to meet the needs of individuals and business owners. And in the end we have created a model that is even more conducive to scaling and growing startups, and we feel incredibly proud of the work we have been able to do.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am the Chief Strategist for Founded Communities, the parent company for Raleigh Founded which is an entrepreneurial coworking community located in the heart of downtown Raleigh, NC. We provide tools and resources for startups to scale and grow. We offer shared workspace and resources such as free legal clinics, business law clinics, accelerator programs, networking events, professional offices hours and more. Raleigh Founded started about 10 years ago, before coworking spaces were commonplace. What sets Raleigh Founded apart from other shared workspaces is its commitment to the local community. We are a certified B Corporation with a mission to foster inclusive innovation ecosystems, starting with the one in our own backyard. This means that in addition to our for profit business model, we also offer programs that lift up women and people of color.

My background is in human rights. I studied genocide and transitional justice and received my Masters of International Studies from NC State. For years I worked with survivors of human trafficking. I traveled the state to educate law enforcement, government officials, schools, nonprofits, and foster care systems about human trafficking and I worked directly with dozens of survivors, getting them to safety and connecting them with resources. I began grant writing for that program and really leaned into more of that work until I ultimately decided to start my own consulting business where I did development work for non-profits and small businesses. One of my main clients was the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture. We held public hearings to bring to light the use of state infrastructure to conduct torture programs post 9/11. When I was working on that project, I needed a space to work out of and connected with Raleigh Founded a shared workspace. They needed some support in their company so I began working parttime with them but really fell in love with the mission an the idea that business could be used as a force for good.

Prior to working with Raleigh Founded, I thought that I was destined to be in the non-profit space, but Raleigh Founded had the values and mission of a non-profit yet the business model and sustainability of a forprofit company. I had never encountered the idea of using business as a force for good before, so I let myself be curious and leaned into the organization, building out programming and resources for entrepreneurs. I saw that supporting entrepreneurs from lower income communities, in particular, could play a role in closing generational wealth gaps and ultimately lifting communities up.

Through my work at Raleigh Founded and Founded Communities, I’ve worked with over 1500 entrepreneurs from 400 different companies. We’ve created a free legal clinic in partnership with Campbell Law School and Innovate Capital Law, we’ve hosted a business clinic in partnership with NC State University, and we are currently working on creating a Main Street Program targeted at supporting women and business owners of color who work in family retail or food and beverage businesses. We are also working on a service based coworking space for lower income business owners. We created programs to support those recovering from the impact of Covid. We also have developed a Rural Affiliate Program where we help small rural communities develop their own community hubs and connect them to the resources of larger cities. And most recently we have worked to build out a Social Innovation Hub in Greenville, SC.

I’ve also been able to use my platform in the community to talk about mental health and being a new working parent through Covid. I have two young children and have struggled with mental health and as a leader of a community of individuals, I feel it is my obligation to be open about those struggles. I have also been able to be creative in this role. I am a mural artist and children’s book author and have found ways to weave those endeavors into my current role.

I’m passionate about helping others, and I am now a big believer in using business to move the needle. I believe that all leaders of all organizations have an obligation to at least ask themselves how they can do better and use their positions of power to empower others and lift up their community.

Any advice for managing a team?

My greatest weakness in my professional career has come from my fear of confrontation. I think we are all afraid of confrontation at some level and we do things to ease that discomfort such as not telling the whole truth to not hurt someone’s feelings. But Brene Brown tells us that “Unclear is Unkind” and this has been my leadership mantra and something I instill in my team. I used to be afraid to set boundaries and expectations but what I learned is that not doing so is unfair to my team and ultimately leads to confusion and resentment.

Instead, we have created a culture of open feedback and communication. Together our team created a team charter where we agreed on items like how we wanted to give and receive praise or negative feedback and our team unanimously agreed that we would want to receive direct feedback good or bad. So we have created space in our team meetings and our 1:1s to provide that feedback. And we offer 360 feedback loops which means that employees can also provide feedback to our supervisors at any time. We also offer high amounts of personal freedom but we demand a lot of those roles. I find that when you expect a lot of people and give them the independence to make their own choices, they will over perform. We also host regular retreats to realign on different aspects of our work and values.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In the summer of 2020, we were already undergoing a major pivot in the way we do business because of Covid. But we were his with one more devastating blow: a cease and desist letter from a large company, asking us to stop using our trademarked name at the time: HQ Raleigh. While we could could have fought that battle, we determined that the best course of action would be to rebrand entirely.

So in just three months time, our team pulled together to find a new name, brand colors, and brand identity. This was challenging for two reasons. First of all, it required an immense amount of work. We had to change our website, emails, printed materials, social media accounts, logo, slogan, everything you could think of in 90 days. Second of all, we had spend 10 years building a brand in the community and we didn’t want to lose traction or look like we had been caught up in a messy lawsuit. So we were determined to find a brand and tell a story about our name change that spoke to the organization we had evolved into over the past 10 years. In August 2020, we unveiled our new brand for Raleigh Founded and I wrote an article about the name change and what it meant to our community and something magical happened: Our community loved it. We received loads of positive feedback and got great press locally, praising our efforts and the new brand. I am so proud of our team and the work we did to embrace the uncertainty of a challenging situation and turn it into something that ultimately moved us forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.raleighfounded.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-porta-89ba7368/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkXWl8EZlpo

Image Credits
Raleigh Founded 9 Miles Media