Capital Circles: Increasing Access to Capital through Collaboration

Justworks Power Your Pitch 2026

Each year, we invite a group of local small business owners to the Justworks corporate headquarters in Manhattan to meet with expert employee volunteers to work on an area of their business that needs capacity support. Justworks is a mission-driven organization focused on small business support and accessibility, so they are eager and excited to engage. This year, we invited Justworks to incorporate its annual on-site skills-based volunteer event into our Capital Circles initiative. 

To identify business owners who might be a fit for this opportunity, we reached out to a long-time collaborator at Next Street, who works with the New York City Department of Small Business Services. Our years-long partnership with the Next Street team, developing programming and serving thousands of business owners nationwide as part of our broader partnership with Verizon, has fostered the trust, confidence, connection, and relationship capital that underpin the Capital Circles ecosystem model. Our Next Street contact, Ryan Arnold, shared the opportunity broadly with his teammates, and one of those folks, Keon Williams, recommended Clement Mensah, owner of TIKoRO LLC. 

We were invited to attend Hudson Kitchen’s Food Business Bootcamp® Startup Accelerator Demo Day by a board member of Investor Circle. There, we met Ryan Mulligan, Alejandro Quintero Corral, and Juliette Clark. Hudson Kitchen’s CEO was excited to recommend them for the opportunity. 

Over a 4-week period, our team worked with the four business owners to build detailed financial projections and structure professional pitch decks. We leveraged our corporate partnership with Justworks to launch their crowdfunding campaigns, with 23 corporate volunteers from Justworks providing pitch development support and presentation coaching to all four entrepreneurs. We estimate the value at $9,000 in pro-bono professional expertise. Simultaneously, we fast-tracked the entrepreneurs through the Kiva loan underwriting process. As a Kiva Trustee, we formally reviewed and publicly endorsed each campaign, clearing bottlenecks and establishing early credibility on the crowdfunding platform. 

We hosted the live Justworks “Power Your Pitch” showcase, where entrepreneurs pitched their businesses directly to an audience of Justworkers. We invited the audience to support the business owners by participating in their crowdfunding campaigns and mobilizing their community networks.

Within less than two months, we accomplished the following:

• $36,000 in Fully Secured Capital: Three entrepreneurs successfully completed their crowdfunding campaigns, unlocking crucial zero-interest growth capital:

  • Alejandro Quintero Corral (Mucha Macha LLC) raised and received $15,000 to scale production and distribution of his authentic Mexican-style chili crisp salsa.

  • Clement Mensah (TIKoRO LLC) raised and received $12,000 to expand his African-rooted arts educational program in NYC schools.

  • Ryan Mulligan (Morty’s Brand) raised and received $9,000 to execute operational goals for his kid-friendly, naturally leavened sourdough sandwich bread.

  • Juliette Clark (Daramel) raised and received $14,500 to her food-packaged business, a caramel-inspired sauce made from dates.

The Justworks Power Your Pitch program is a powerful example of how Capital Circles transforms social capital into financial capital. By connecting entrepreneurs with the right people, expertise, and resources at the right time, IFEL helps founders overcome barriers to funding while building lasting relationships that continue to fuel their growth long after the event concludes.