Inspired by her mother’s ability to run three businesses while parenting seven kids, Danielle Russell set out to start her own enterprise.
“I realized I had no idea how to be an entrepreneur,” Russell said. “I took a step back and I realized that I needed to build a structure.”
Speaking at the Collab Graduate Showcase at NXTHVN on Henry Street in New Haven on Wednesday night, Russell unveiled the idea she hopes will help launch her new business, a planner designed specifically for entrepreneurs. To personalize their planner, a would-be business defines their goals and values, promises to adopt productive habits and creates an agenda.
“The freedom that I’m seeing in entrepreneurship requires a structure, a very personal structure that you build for yourself,” Russell said. She plans a website launch for her planner in the next six months, followed by sales of the product to start next fall.
Russell was one of nine graduates of the 2022 class of the Collab Accelerator, an intensive, 12-week program that schools entrepreneurs on skills including the basics of business planning, prototypes and marketing. Venture managers meet with the participants regularly to keep them on track and focused on their goals.
Collab’s success can be measured by the fact that 87% of the 111 enterprises launched by graduates in the program’s five years are still in business, Executive Director Dawn Leaks said. Thriving businesses helped by the program include Sanctuary Kitchen and Peels & Wheels Composting.
“What I’m most impressed with collab about is the staying power of our ventures,” Leaks said. “I think that speaks to the tenacity of our entrepreneurs and it also speaks to the education that we give them… and that they’re part of the Collab community of entrepreneurs.”
This year’s graduates include founders of a sustainable fashion line, specialized self-care and training for Black women principals, artisanal cold-brew coffee, a catering company featuring Guatemalan food and the “EC Potty,” which helps parents start potty-training for babies as young as 18 months.
“I remember joining the program with just an idea on a piece of paper,” said Ming Hui, creator of the EC Potty, which utilizes technology based on “elimination communication” to signal to babies when it’s time to go and encourages them to use a special potty.
While in the program, Hui has formed an LLC and brought together a team to make a prototype of the EC Potty, which could save families thousands of dollars and keep diapers out of landfills. “I wouldn’t have gotten here without the support of Collab,” Hui said.
Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.
