DoorDash’s mission is to help empower local economies. One way the company stays true to that is by providing support through its Main Street Strong Accelerator.
Through the program, cohorts of restaurateurs in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Philadelphia have participated in courses designed to help merchants grow their businesses. As part of their participation, merchants also receive a $20,000 grant and access to one-on-one coaching sessions.
Cafe Juice Up co-owner Fiex Thevinen participated in the 2022 Boston cohort with the cafe’s founder, Denise Omarde. The two had partnered to open the juice bar in Mattapan, Massachusetts, in 2019. “Denise and I met through a mutual friend at that time, and Denise was looking to reopen. That friend brought me on board to shoot some ideas back and forth to give some input about how to relaunch the company,” Thevinen says.
Becoming a DoorDash merchant was part of the relaunch plans. “Denise and I discuss all the time that the survival of any business really depends on how you learn how to pivot your business. Also, we are living in a world of technology, and anything not involving technology that allows you to evolve in your business space, you will fall behind,” he says. “At that point in time, online merchants doing delivery for restaurants was something that was really taking off.”
Cafe Juice Up’s partnership with DoorDash is how Thevinen and Omarde learned about the accelerator. Thevinen talked to BlavityU about joining the Cafe Juice Up team and how the Main Street Strong Accelerator helped their business.
What made you want to be part of Cafe Juice Up?
Throughout that process of learning more about what [Omarde] wanted to do, I sat back and was like, “Whoa, this is really dope. This is literally going to change the whole landscape of Mattapan. Can I be a part of the company?” Dope people doing dope stuff for our community, setting up shop to do something that is totally different than what already exists.
How has being part of the 2022 Main Street Strong Accelerator helped your business? What did you work on during the program?
We have been part of other accelerators, and we do our best to be very proactive. This was really a refresher, back-to-basics course. We literally reviewed all of the good things that we’ve had or we’ve learned or picked up along the way.
One of the things that was really good to have in the forefront was discussing the menus; we had a session where we talked about menus. We also had a guest speaker who zoned in on managing your people and your company and your core existence. [We used the $20,000 grant] for working capital — to pay vendors, to basically keep going forward. It is something that I would recommend anyone to participate in if they are afforded the possibility to do so.
What advice would you give to the next accelerator cohort?
Go in with a clean slate. Even though you may know some of these things, you can go in and learn how to do it differently. Try to make connections with the people who are there, and really use those sessions or that time to figure out what your company is going to be about.
Learn more about the Accelerator or becoming a DoorDash merchant.
This editorial is brought to you in partnership with DoorDash.
