On Thursday Feb 29 StartUp Westport and Westport 10 hosted a pair of panels in celebration of the last night of Black History Month. They marked the occasion with a forum about the necessity to create opportunities for diverse entrepreneurs.
Jay Norris, the master of ceremonies for the event and the host of the second panel of the night is working hard to change that reputation. Norris is the founder of not only Westport 10, a social club for Westport residents of color, and a co-founder of StartUp Westport, an incubator for the town’s growing tech and innovation space, but also a backer of Blacklight, a search engine designed to place Black-owned businesses at the top of results pages where relevant. He is the CEO and co-founder of Guesst, a property management platform and volunteers his time at several local organizations, including the Westport Library.
Norris explained that when he first moved to Westport with his wife seven years ago, he couldn’t understand why people from cities disliked the suburbs.
“I had never lived in the suburbs, and I was like, wow this is amazing! This place checked all the boxes: beaches, great school systems, taxes pretty decent,” Norris said, comparing Westport to Westchester and Scarsdale. “The only box it didn’t check was diversity.”
Norris explained that he approached that one shortcoming with optimism and decided to help improve that situation. “Why does the community have to add things to me? Why can’t I nourish the community? Why can’t I bring what I know and my knowledge and my relationships to the community? That’s really what made me join all these boards, I have to lean in.”
From the stage Norris called on attendees to join him in making those improvements, and to stand against instances of racial prejudice in Westport schools and join him in leaning in before passing the mic to Craig Melvin an anchor at NBC and MSNBC who also lives in Westport.
Melvin was joined on stage by Wesly Saintil Arbuthnott, founder of upscale Bridgeport eatery 29 Markle Ct, Managing Partner of real estate development firm Grandview Partners Eric Freeman, Ilka Gregory of the Digital Currency Group’s family office, Adam Moore the CEO of WHEELHOUSE Center for Health and Wellbeing and Craig Livingston a managing partner at Exact Capital.
The entrepreneurs had a wide-ranging discussion about their businesses, their ties to the community, and how their businesses can help meet community needs.
The need to re-examine long held views was a common theme. Moore, a trained hypnotist who founded WHEELHOUSE with his wife, a naturopath, discussed how they addressed an emerging issue in the field of medicine.
“People are having an adversarial relationship with their health. They go to the doctor because they have to,” Moore said. “Very few people do it because they want to.”
Freeman of Grandview Partners was blunt about what needs to change to address the nationwide shortfall of roughly 7 million housing units: “Affordable housing can only be created with the assistance of the government,” he said. “The dirty little secret is that affordable housing developments do not generate enough income to justify building it.”
Private-public partnerships were his preferred solution.
Livingston of Exact Partners agreed with that assessment but added that even the availability of market rate units is constrained. “The laws from a zoning standpoint in many municipalities don’t allow for you to create the density that’s needed.”
Arbuthnott discussed his efforts to carve out a space for uniquely Black high-end cuisine, particularly as a first-time restaurant owner. “It’s not easy, but it does bring a lot of connections. Also, I love seeing the joy on people’s face when they leave.”
Gregory spoke about the crypto currencies she works with, hailing them as a way to bypass traditional financial institutions which might have discriminatory practices. “Blockchain will help bring banking to the under- and unbanked.”
A second panel followed, moderated by Norris himself. Paige and Ted Parker, founders of supplement producer Vibrant Health, were joined by Kitt Shapiro the owner of West Women’s Clothing Boutique and Blacklight’s Chief Marketing Officer Michele Peterson and its Chief Technology Officer Pamela Moss.
Moss recalled how she and Norris worked together during the dual heights of the Covid pandemic and the protests spurred by the police killing of George Floyd, while Peterson explained the workings of Blacklight creating a world where supporting Black-owned business is only “a click away.”
The Parkers recounted the challenges of working together as a married couple, and the process of getting employees to see Paige as an equal partner to Ted after they purchased Vibrant Health from a prior owner.
Shapiro, who is also the daughter of renowned vocalist Eartha Kitt, recalled how that same time period drew her to take over a Westport shop and grow to know the community in a way she hadn’t after more than 20 years as a resident of the town.
The event concluded with Norris urging participation in StartUp Westport’s mentorship program, speaking directly to a group of Bridgeport University students in attendance.
After the event, Norris said he considered the night a success, pointing to the exchanges that happened on stage and that he hoped would continue afterwards at a cocktail reception.
“We don’t have the same values all the time, but we need to exchange them and share them. If you don’t share them, how can you grow? Listening and sharing is exactly what this community needs and that’s what we’re here to do.”
