Meet the Fifth Cohort of the We Rise Accelerator

The Fifth Cohort of the Local First’ We Rise Accelerator began the program last Saturday. These twenty-two businesses will spend the next six months acquiring the knowledge and developing the skills, habits, tools and resources to help propel them to the next level.

Smell' N-Bomb

Sheon Paige - CEO

Smell' N-Bomb born out of the desire to promote taking time out of a busy day for some alone time. Bath Bombs are products that help people feel peace, wind down, and destress. I believe in creating luxury self-care products at an affordable price that will drive consumers to buy my bath bombs for a spa-at-home feeling. Every bath bomb is hand molded and decorated with all vegan ingredients. They are phthalate, petroleum, and paraben-free. They are a luxurious treat for the eyes, nose, and skin.

Dsquared Homes For The Homeless

Juan Te Dailey - CEO

The mission of Dsquared Homes for the Homeless is to create a support system for the Seriously Mentally Ill (S.M.I.) through community collaboration, providing hygiene bags, mental health professionals, and rental assistance programs to assist those who live independently and experience temporary setbacks. We seek to combat the growing homeless problem and stigmatization of those who are homeless in the state of Arizona.

McKnight Educational Consulting for College Admissions (MECCA)

Sandra Jenkins - CEO

McKnight Educational Consulting for College Admissions (MECCA) is a one-stop shop for all of your college admissions needs. We are the "hub" that helps parents and students navigate the complex college admissions process and all the college-going milestones.

Dedicated Therapy Services

Makkeda Rubin-Deloney, PhD - CEO

Dedicated Therapy Services helps mature adults eliminate physical limitations that keep them from fully participating in their lives.They teach strategies that encourage each person to take an active role in their tailored program resulting in movement with less effort and more confidence in meaningful activities.  Dedicated Therapy Services believes that aging is not an obstacle that should prevent seniors from enjoying life.

Francis And Bee's PETS

Kedisha Clayborne - CEO

Francis and Bee’s PETS is a black-owned pet treat business. I created it with my family to provide a healthier, more affordable option for fur families all around. Our treats are built on the integrity of having no preservatives as well as no ingredients that no one can pronounce. We bring a unique and tasty treat option while still keeping wellness as our first priority for our fur friends. We provide treats that are loaded with antioxidants and nutrients for our pups and even cat treats that have no salts for our feline friends. Not to mention we also have CBD treats that provide internal health benefits for pets of all ages. Our goal is to continue to spread our love for pets by serving up yummy healthy treats, made fresh daily, to simply do our part to create a longer lifespan for our furry family members <3

Mission 2 Transition, LLC

Antoinette Mendez - CEO

Mission 2 Transition LLC provides education consultation services to individual families and small- and medium-sized nonprofit organizations serving middle to high-school-grade students in underserved communities. Our services include individual and group early college and career action planning to program uniquely designed to improve post-secondary education attainment for marginalized students in Arizona.

Let's Keep Growing LLC

Katie Cole - CEO

Let's Keep Growing is an organic hair care brand that mainly focuses on growth. Our mission is to help our customers achieve results while regaining their confidence. We offer an experience like no other encouraging growth in spirit, wealth, and mental health.

CLF Studios LLC

Clifton Graham - CEO

CLF Studios is an audio production company specializing in post-production services that range from audio recording to audio production and education for aspiring audio engineers. As the primary audio engineer and owner of CLF Studios, I edit and refine music from clients in preparation for distribution to streaming platforms.

Business Credit Works

Darryl Johnson - CEO

At Business Credit Works, we specialize in helping companies build business credit separate from your personal credit. We can establish a good credit score and strong profiles with Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. Good business credit is the lifeline for all companies who need to sustain cash flow, obtain lines of credit, secure company credit cards, lease equipment, and more. Whether you’ve extended your personal credit to keep your business afloat, want to grow your company, or just have never bothered to check your company’s current credit report, we can help. Our expert advising and finance team will help you to build business credit—in months, not years.

Just Sass-e Custom Tees & More

Manikia Boyd - CEO

Just Sass-e Custom Tees and More helps bring ideas and visions to life in the form of custom and personalized Items. We add that Sass-e touch to items such as apparel, acrylics, glass, wood and more. We specialize in out-of-the-box branding merchandise for small women-owned businesses and love helping entrepreneurs with their start-up business needs!

JHN 1726, LLC DBA My Lords Designs

Margarita & Robert Valdes - CEOs

My Lords Designs has 3 pillars and 3 guiding principles. The pillars are: Traditions. Teaching. Transformation. And our principles are: Show it. Tell it. Live it.  My Lords Designs hopes to make Christ socially relevant in our communities. “Our vision is to design products that help support a belief in Christ in the traditions, celebrations and conversations of everyday life. We’ve started with love, Jesus Christmas stockings and in the future, we will expand with other product lines in t-shirts, pillows, home décor and so much more!”

Hair B Ve'Marie

Yvette Curry - CEO

Hair B Ve'Marie is structured to educate diverse ethnic individuals on how to properly care and maintain their hair along with providing hair services to individuals who seek protective hairstyles.

My Beautiful Locs

Yalonda Kilgore-CEO

My Beautiful Locs promotes the natural beauty of African American women by providing quality natural hair care of various Locs methods, including Traditional, Micro & Sisterlocks®.

Zybrena Fine Art

Zybrena Porter - CEO

For nerd/blerd culture enthusiasts who are discovering their inner hero, Zybrena Fine Art's inspired creations and events are fine art solutions that visually engage the psyche to promote self-empowerment. From live painting events to commissioned creations, we focus on creating work that culturally represents our clients, shared values and personal aspirations.

Unorthodox

Melissa Mason - CEO

Why be part of the crowd when you can be Unorthodox? Unorthodox provides its customers with unique and bold design to stand out and get those double-take stares we all love. Every piece created is handcrafted and unique to itself as we specialize in limited quantities and one of a kinds products. We at Unorthodox are happy to share this love of creating staple and fashionable designs for you. We hope you love it just as much.

SydShakes

Sydney King - CEO

SydShakes is a health and wellness company that provides freshly-made nutritious protein shakes for people who want to live a healthier lifestyle. These are completely plant-based, dairy-free, and made with natural ingredients, which is hard to find nowadays at big box stores. I aim to give my customers the best nutrition to enhance or simplify their life by having the convenience of grabbing a shake in the morning or having a plan on how they are going to use these to lose weight, have easy meal replacement meals, or build better eating habits. We also host health challenges for women that involves coaching, liquid fasting tips, fitness help, and more. 

Pure Juice N'joy Smoothie & Juice Bar

Shana Harrington - CEO

At Pure Juice n’Joy customers can choose from a variety of cold-pressed juices, all-natural smoothies, hand-crafted protein shakes, Acai bowls and immune-boosting wellness shots. 

Customers can order customized blends along with their 3-Day “Glow Up” juice cleanse. 

The mission of Pure Juice N’Joy is to use locally sourced ingredients to increase health and wellness in the community one smoothie or juice at a time.

Sparkle N Shine Skincare

Iysha Wedderburn - CEO

Sparkle N Shine Skincare is a one-stop for corrective skincare, skin coaching, and full body waxing. Sparkle N Shine Skincare offers corrective medical-grade skincare with a gentle approach and effective results.

Maricopa Career Institute

Manikia Boyd - CEO

Maricopa Career Institute is an adult learning center offering ten entry-level medical training programs to the community.  It is black owned by a mom and her teenage daughter.  The teen daughter started the school as a high school senior project to tackle the shortage of CNAs in the medical field.  Since its launch, the school now offers CPR, Safe Sitter Babysitting Certification, and more.

Yoga Hippie Studio & Academy

Gabrielle Veasy - CEO

The Gift of Gab is a full-service healing center that aims to provide an array of holistic classes, productions, and instructor training with an emphasis on the practice of Yoga for black and indigenous people.

Fulanee

Soraya Sow - CEO

Fulanee is inspired by West African culture and centered around celebrating Black women. We are an online store that offers products designed around the needs of our target market, for we recognize Black women are often overlooked as consumers. Our primary line of products consists of headwear designs in line with how most black women wear their hair. We also intend to offer a beauty line based on products from the continent of Africa (African Black Soap, Shea Butter, Chebe oil, Argan oil and more.

Regina Rose

Gabrielle Dixon - CEO

Regina Rose is an all-natural holistic beauty and wellness skincare collection. Regina Rose’s main focus is to help and educate patrons on healthier ways of living.