Your Stories & Actionable Tips

We’re proud to announce the first round of recipients of the Local Business Support Fund grant program! What is the Local Business Support Fund? Hello Alice and the Global Entrepreneurship Network, in partnership with LISC,  are awarding $5,000 grants to five small businesses that provide solutions in their local communities. Along with generating less than $1M in annual revenue, these small businesses share a steadfast commitment to their customers and community, and a clear plan to use their grant funds! ”The funds from this grant will help launch our grassroots marketing campaign as we not only raise awareness of The Young Musician's University but also the importance and many benefits of music education," says recipient Tembi Gray of the GMG Performing Arts Center. The recipients listed below will receive a $5,000 grant. Congratulations to all these inspiring entrepreneurs! Local Business Support Fund Grant Recipients Tembi Gray GMG Performing Arts Center | Columbia, SC Kenneth Woods Refresherpoint | Clarksville, IN LaTeasha Gaither-Davis Therapeutic Focus | West Memphis, AR Virginia George Crafts & Drafts NC | Durham, NC Suzanne Daniels Brentwood Social House | Austin, TX Do you need funding for your small business? Visit the Hello Alice Funding Center to view our current grant programs and subscribe to the Hello Alice newsletter to stay up-to-date on future programs and funding opportunities. 

As part of our evolution to be the single solution that streamlines and simplifies the complicated world of small business ownership, Hello Alice is excited to introduce the Business Solutions Center — an all-in-one hub for the best offers and products to help you save time and money while growing your business. We designed the Solutions Center to anticipate the needs of a growing business like yours. As you seek to automate processes, purchase services, and learn new skills, look to Hello Alice for tried-and-true recommendations with a proven track record of helping small businesses scale.  Rely on the Solutions Center for: Vetted Products and Services: Spend less time shopping and more time solving with our curated selection of the highest-rated tools and software for small business owners. Exclusive Offers: Get discounts and promotional offers that help you save money while investing in the growth of your business.  Premium Content and Workshops: Purchase access to get one-on-one training and mentorship from top-rated experts on topics including pricing, leveraging your network, business finances, and more. Hello Alice may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made through our platform, but we promise never to recommend anything we don’t fully stand behind. Each solution is hand-picked to help small business owners skip the guesswork, build capacity, and focus on growing their bottom line. We’re excited to see how small business owners put these solutions to use. Check back regularly for new additions to the Solutions Center, and subscribe to our newsletter to hear about new features and offerings as they’re available.

Nearly five years ago, Hello Alice embarked on a mission to help every American with an entrepreneurial spirit launch and grow their business. Now, in 2022, Hello Alice will undergo a significant evolution in pursuit of that goal. Through our conversations with thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs told us about their acute need to access capital, high-quality education and mentorship, and time-saving tools. Most of all, they want a single solution that streamlines and simplifies the complicated world of small business ownership. That’s why we’re excited to introduce a menu of new, premium offerings. In the coming months, Hello Alice will roll out features and products that evolve our relationship with small business owners like you. Each initiative will be guided by our unwavering mission to ensure business for all — however, for the first time, Hello Alice will facilitate business transactions and purchases. To be clear: Hello Alice started as a free platform open to all, and that’s not changing. Our curated resources, step-by-step Milestones, and access to small business grants will remain available at no cost. Instead, Hello Alice owners will gain an enhanced experience that layers on a full range of technology, education, and capital as we move toward our goal to be your all-in-one hub for small business solutions. Here’s an idea of what that will look like:   Virtual mentorship programs: Purchase access to exclusive workshops, accelerators, and other learning experiences where experts mentor small cohorts and provide personalized feedback over time.New cash flow solutions: We’ve long known the #1 owner need is capital. In addition to grant opportunities, Hello Alice will be launching new products to connect you with the full continuum of capital — including loans, financing, and credit cards — you need to run your business.Product recommendations: Our team will recommend the best tools, software, and services to simplify your choices and help you scale. Hello Alice may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made through our platform, but we promise never to recommend anything we don’t fully stand behind. As always, the Hello Alice experience will be about meeting you where you are and helping you find the right answers for your business — not somebody else’s. Our platform will make recommendations based on your profile, and you can mix and match the offerings that make sense for your needs and stage of growth. We couldn’t be more excited to get started on this next phase of our journey together! Stay tuned for updates, and make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter to be the first to hear about new products and features as they’re available.

At Hello Alice, we’re all about helping small business owners launch and grow their businesses, and we regularly hop on our soap box encouraging consumers to open their wallets and spend their hard-earned dollars where it has the most impact.  But as a growing business ourselves, we know first-hand how powerful it is when businesses large and small make the choice to source from the small business community. Case in point: our 2021 holiday gifts. For the third year in a row, we spent 100% of our budget on items and services from small businesses. Holiday gifts are a great way to express our gratitude to investors, partners, and team of hard-working staff at the end of another rewarding (if challenging) year. But our commitment to entrepreneurs pushed us to look past the convenience of traditional gift baskets and two-day shipping to focus on small, local brands we know and love. Plus, as we kick off the Year of Small Business, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to walk the talk and demonstrate how the procurement process can be a powerful tool to invigorate our small business economy.  Let’s meet some of the small businesses we relied on to reward Team Hello Alice for a remarkable 2021. Carve & Cast Co. A big challenge for all-remote companies is finding a way to come together and celebrate as a team when you’re spread across the country and around the world. Rainie Brazil, the founder of Sacramento-based Carve & Cast Co., just might have devised the perfect solution. A jewelry maker by training, Rainie started Carve & Cast as a way for individuals to make their very own rings. More than 75 Hello Alice staff members received a Carve & Cast Co. package filled with a wax ring mold, knife, ring sizer, and other necessary tools. When the time came, everyone Zoomed in to a session to hang out and get tips from Rainie on how to carve the wax into a ring of their own design. Each person mails their finished wax back to Rainie, who then spins it in a centrifuge and forges it in metals such as brass or sterling silver. You get the finished product back in a few weeks as a wearable keepsake. “I have so much gratitude,” said owner Rainie Brazil when she learned that she would be hosting a virtual gathering for Hello Alice. Carve & Cast is still her side hustle, she explained, and group events and recurring clients are what will one day allow her to pursue the business full time. Each Hello Alice team member participated in a virtual ring carving tutorial with Carve & Cast Co. Teak & Twine Founded by Torrance Hart, a mother and proud veteran, Teak & Twine curates unique gift boxes filled with items from small businesses, many of which are owned by women and people of color. Torrance also happens to be a longtime Hello Alice owner. With the help of Torrance, we spoiled our staff and investors with goodies from the following businesses: Notebooks from AppointedSnacks from Partake FoodsCookies from Lark Fine FoodsChocolate from Keller + ManniSparkling white tea from TöstChampagne gummy bears from Sugarfina Hey Bartender  With Hey Bartender, Hello Alice was able to take the party on the road.  How does it work? Top-rated bartenders host virtual events that invite you into what the company calls “the first virtual bar.” Guests get all the ingredients they need, and a bartender walks you through the step-by-step process for creating the featured cocktail in the comfort of your own home. Sure, we weren’t in the same room together, but we were still able to raise a glass to a year of hard work supporting small businesses! For more small business inspiration and funding opportunities, create a free Hello Alice account or subscribe to our newsletter.

Oh, how time flies! It’s hard to believe we’ve jumped into year five of our wonderland adventure. Founded in 2017, Hello Alice's multichannel platform now supports over 550,000 diverse business owners. To be sure, Hello Alice is humbled and thrilled to be the largest go-to platform for small business owners seeking to launch, fund, and grow their companies. So, as Hello Alice says Hello 2022… We’re excited to tell you about a new initiative we’ve been working on: The Year of Small Business. This collaborative effort is powered by communities, corporations, and owners like yourself. With it, we hope to drive growth and invigorate our economy through the power of small business.  2022 Year of Small Business Objectives Of course, Hello Alice continues to provide entrepreneurs everywhere with the connections, capital, and confidence needed to hit the ground running. Specifically, The Year of Small Business initiative will help business owners prepare for their best year yet as we work hand-in-hand to:  Ensure Equitable Access to Capital for All Firstly, access to capital is the number one barrier to growth. Furthermore, the numbers show this hurdle is significantly higher for businesses owned by women, people of color, and many other underrepresented communities. To address these challenges, Hello Alice is rolling out a wide range of grant programs. Similarly, we're working to open up access to lending, credit, and the full continuum of capital to help small business owners everywhere. Focus on Growing Small Business Revenue Secondly, Hello Alice is here to provide the tools, resources, and support needed to help small businesses launch, grow, and thrive. With this purpose in mind, we’re meeting behind the scenes with small business organizations, enterprise partners, government officials, media, individuals, and more to effect real, systemic change for the greater good of our economy, nation, and world.  Create More Jobs with Fair, Livable Wages Finally, we know that healthy businesses build stronger communities. Hello Alice empowers small businesses and the diverse communities in which they serve by advocating for the creation of more jobs that offer fair, livable wages. Our powerful platform provides small business owners the tools, networks, and knowledge needed to broaden their businesses. This in turn expands job opportunities, inspires innovation, and fuels economic growth. 2022 Year of Small Business Resources "In 2022, Hello Alice is leading a nationwide movement  bringing awareness to every American.” As small business owners ourselves, we understand the challenges, and we know that growth definitely has its road bumps. It takes tremendous grit, determination, and collaboration — but we’re all on this exciting journey together. The Year of Small Business will help you ‘get growing’ in 2022 and fuel your business with: An exciting lineup of 2022 small business grant opportunities to help you make your next big move. Be sure to check your email and visit our site regularly to learn more. New virtual events with world-class experts, leading entrepreneurs, and top business advocates who will help you on your path to business success. Personalized learning tools — we’re calling them Milestones — to move your business forward. So that wherever you are on your path to entrepreneurship, you’ll have the right resources, information, and support to succeed.  Through our vigorous Year of Small Business movement — in an effort to create a more equitable business ecosystem — we’re giving small and diverse business owners the knowledge, tools, and support needed to navigate a smooth path towards successful entrepreneurship.  In that spirit, let’s kick-off the New Year in true Hello Alice fashion by making this year the Year of YOUR Small Business. Join us as we roll up our sleeves, reignite our engines, and take a giant leap forward, together.  Our very best wishes for a Happy and Healthy 2022! Team Hello Alice

By Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president of Hello Alice. In the wake of #MeToo, our society is finally becoming more aware of rampant bad behavior by those with financial power. But in the business world, I’m not seeing enough action to prevent terrible incidents before they become headlines. Our first priority will always be to believe, protect, and advocate for anyone on the receiving end of these actions, but it’s clear to me that chronicling their emotional and psychic pain has done little to deter unacceptable behavior or force bad actors from their pedestals. What if we instead examined the price tag attached to each incident? As a country of capitalists, I suspect dollar signs would sound a very loud alarm for anyone with a financial stake attached to these events.  In six years of business and four rounds of venture capital funding, my company, Hello Alice, has had two investors accused of sexual misconduct after they joined our cap table. None of these accusations involved anyone within our company, but our association with these men carries reputational damage that impacts Hello Alice and every company in which these investors have a stake. I believe an important step in ending these acts once and for all is running the numbers on the labor and money we devote to protecting our brands, employees, and customers. Thankfully, other folks have started the calculations. In March 2019, Deloitte published a study investigating the monetary cost of workplace sexual harassment. When they added up the impact on victims, perpetrators, bystanders, employers, and governments over a single year, the nation’s economy faced an estimated $2.6 billion in lost productivity alone. Another analysis in the Journal of Corporate Finance found that news of a sexual harassment case at a major company leads to a 1.5% dip in market value, with the average drop totaling $450 million.  My co-founder and I have been aware of these staggering figures for some time. In fact, as Hello Alice closed its Series A, we knew multiple CEOs reeling from the fallout of sexual misconduct by investors associated with their companies. In hope of protecting Hello Alice, we drafted a first-of-its-kind “morality clause” for board members. The short but powerful paragraph stipulates that anyone accused or involved in negative actions involving gender, sexual orientation, or race is required to step down from the board and would lose voting rights and any control they had over our company’s decision-making. Since late 2019, I’m proud to say that every one of our investors has agreed to these governance terms. Soon after this process, a general partner at a top-rated venture firm, was accused of numerous scandals. We immediately got to work looking for ways to cut ties and neutralize the risk he posed to our brand. Not long after, while closing our Series B, we learned that another investor who joined our seed round, introduced to us by a community-led angel group, was similarly accused of sexual misconduct. The moment we heard, we spent thousands of dollars in legal fees attempting to buy him out, so far without success. The second investor might own less than .3% of the company, sure, but it kills me that those who experienced pain are spending money on legal fees while this guy stands to be rewarded for our team’s hard work. Our most recent correspondence asking to buy back his shares still sends shivers down my spine: “Thanks for the message. I believe in you and your company too much to want to sell my shares right now. I believe my shares in Hello Alice will be worth exponentially more in the next few years.”  As a leader of a mission-driven company that prides itself on equity in all forms, this problem keeps me up at night — especially as I learn its true scale. Almost every venture-backed founder I know who has been in business for five years has dealt with a similar circumstance. Like most founders, I try to ensure we’re taking money from quality institutions and individuals. However, after four rounds of funding and literally hundreds of pitches, the law of averages (and assholes) starts to close in. We typically have limited visibility into the firms or angel groups we’re pitching, outside of the leads we’re working with directly, and rarely interface with the other general partners. We might not even learn of our connection to a bad actor until the damage is done.   That’s why I believe change must start at the top. On behalf of all entrepreneurs, I’m asking limited partners, fund managers, and managing partners to help address the root causes of these issues. Going forward: If you’re a limited partner (LP), ensure the firms acting with your money are vetting general managers for their behavior in and out of the boardroom If you’re a general manager or fund manager, investigate quickly and swiftly when an employee or fellow investor is accused of a heinous act If you benefit from the financial success of portfolio companies, step up with your voice, action, and reaction Create your own version of a “morality clause” that articulates your expectations and values from day one (we’ve published our full morality clause here on our blog to get you started)Most of all, ensure you have a policy in place that protects those who experience pain, prevents retaliation, and provides support to portfolio companies in the event of a reputational crisis Again, your first priority should be to support individuals who are harmed and to immediately release the responsible parties. Then turn your attention to your portfolio companies, before we’re all saddled with the unfair mental, financial, and reputational burdens. After all, we’re supposedly here to make money, and look how much this is costing.

At Hello Alice, we’re committed to delivering solutions that meet you where you are and help you find the right answers for your business — not somebody else’s. That’s where our new feature, Milestones, comes in. Designed to give you all the guidance you’ll need to launch, fund, grow, and manage your business, a Milestone is a personalized collection of key activities to help you to achieve a particular goal.  For example, the Launch Your Website Milestone will take you through a series of step-by-step guides that will show you how to set up your domain, get a company email address, build your website, and install analytics tools. Each guide includes downloadable templates, curated product and service recommendations, and actionable advice from business experts and entrepreneurs who have already been down the path you’re on. Along the way, we’ll ask you a few questions. Each answer helps us understand more about who you are and what type of company you’re trying to grow, which in turn helps us tailor your Milestone experience. That means no more going down rabbit holes looking for the right information or hitting dead ends; instead, follow simple instructions that ensure you get in, get out, and get back to running your business. We’ve made sure that it won’t take you long to read each guide, but be prepared to invest the time and effort to act on the information in each step. Like anything, the more you put into the Milestone experience, the more you’ll get out of it! We’ll automatically save your progress, too, so that you can take a break at any time and pick up where you left off. Tackle different Milestones in any order you choose, but over time we’ll also recommend certain ones based on your profile. However, note that you’ll only be able to work on one Milestone at a time. This helps you focus on what matters most to your business right now.  Building a successful business doesn’t happen overnight, but Milestones are here to guide you down the right path. Let’s start your adventure and get to work alongside 500,000 of your small business peers.  Log in to your Hello Alice account today and get started on your first Milestone!

Today, NAACP Empowerment Programs announced their newly acquired ownership stake in Hello Alice, the largest digital platform helping small businesses launch and grow through access to capital. The announcement is a first for the NAACP Empowerment Programs and will provide substantial resources towards advancing the organization's goals for economic equality for Black communities.  "To champion true racial equity, we need to address the long-standing economic inequality that has left Black communities underfunded and undervalued for centuries," said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. "That's why we've taken the unprecedented step to join as a part-owner of Hello Alice. Our Black-owned businesses, who already faced long-ingrained institutional barriers to success, continue to recover from the devastation thrust upon them by the pandemic. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, today there are an estimated 2.6 million Black-owned businesses, and this first-of-its-kind partnership is a pivotal step towards putting Black business at the forefront of our economy and as a result, building generational wealth and economic power for Black communities." In an effort to support Black-owned businesses on a long-term basis, the NAACP Empowerment Programs first began partnering with Hello Alice to create the Black-owned Business Resource Center that includes capital and networking opportunities for Black small business owners throughout the country. Forty-four percent of small business owners on the Hello Alice platform identify as Black business owners.  As part-owner, NAACP Empowerment Programs now hosts voting rights and fully vested equity in Hello Alice. As Hello Alice grows its valuation and revenue, NAACP Empowerment Programs will receive the same financial earnings as other investors on the cap table, to benefit both the organization and the communities it serves. "It's time for the word equity to hold its full meaning in business," said Elizabeth Gore, Co-founder and President of Hello Alice. "Black business owners are the most entrepreneurial of any ethnicity in our country, and a critical customer set of our business. As a platform focused on the new majority, the NAACP Empowerment Programs share our values to ensure all small business owners have access to the capital they need to scale. This is the best economic bet we can make." The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated inequalities that Black-owned businesses were already facing. The Black-Owned Economy Report surveyed 79,303 owners on the challenges they're facing and found the biggest one to be raising capital. In addition to distributing four million dollars in grants, the NAACP Empowerment Programs and Hello Alice launched several initiatives to help these businesses stay afloat and support their communities. Some of these programs included: the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation to launch the Power Forward Small Business Grant, the Backing the B.A.R initiative in collaboration with Bacardi,  Beyoncé's BeyGOOD Black-Owned Small Business Impact Fund, and finally Daymond John's Black Entrepreneurs Day.  The NAACP has long believed that economic equity is crucial to racial equity, and an inclusive economy means everyone can contribute and earn with fair access to resources and opportunity. Closing the revenue gap between Black and white businesses would generate an additional $290 billion for the U.S. economy.  NAACP Empowerment Programs joins other Hello Alice investors that include QED Investors, SVB Financial Group, How Woman Invest, Green Book Ventures, Backstage Capital, Harbert Growth Partners, Serena Ventures, Phyllis Newhouse, and Jean Case.

Hello Alice is proud to announce our $21 million Series B raise that will unlock the next phase of our mission to ensure business for all. Led by QED Investors with participation from new investors including Backstage Capital, Green Book Ventures, Harbert Growth Partners, and How Women Invest, this round also includes support from leading small business advocates, including Guy Fieri and Jean Case. These leaders are joining historic Hello Alice investors Silicon Valley Bank, Bumble, Phyllis Newhouse, Courtney Adeleye, Serena Williams, and others to ensure Main Street America builds back stronger than ever. With the support of these investors, we can pursue our mission with renewed purpose. Hello Alice exists to make entrepreneurship an option for everyone, including people of color, women, men, immigrants, LGBTQ+ owners, veterans, owners with disabilities, and everyone with an entrepreneurial spirit. What will the next phase of our evolution look like for you? You can look for the impact of this investment in three primary areas: Better matching. Machine learning has always been the backbone of Hello Alice, helping us match you with the right resources, networks, and capital at the right time. Additional resources allow us to invest in the designers, data scientists, engineers, and other smart people who will supercharge our existing tools to guide entrepreneurs down their own unique paths. Over the coming months, you’ll notice changes big and small to our website to make it more powerful, easier to navigate, and indispensable to your small business journey. Equitable access to capital. The number one barrier to owner success is access to capital. That’s why Hello Alice has distributed more than $20 million in grant funding and launched our Small Business Funding Center to gather opportunities from our partners and around the web. Going forward, we’ll be launching new programs to connect small business owners with the loans, credit, and other capital they need to succeed. A new mobile experience. Our additional resources will fund the development of a mobile app so that our tools and resources are accessible and easy to use across smartphones, tablets, and other devices where owners spend most of their time. Grants, how-to guides, and a community of nearly half a million small business owners will only be a tap away. We couldn’t be more excited to get started on this next phase of our journey together. Our team is listening to your feedback in the Business for All community, and make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter to be the first to hear about new features and opportunities.

The story of our company starts in the pages of Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  Our co-founders Carolyn Rodz and Elizabeth Gore realized their experience as business owners left them feeling like Alice — believing as many as "six impossible things before breakfast," as Carroll writes. Around here, we’ve always thought that Alice’s adventures were a pretty great way to capture the entrepreneurial spirit. So great, in fact, that she became our company’s namesake.  Carolyn and Elizabeth first met in 2008 and had an immediate bond over the massive opportunity to become the go-to platform for small business owners, especially the New Majority. You will often hear that Elizabeth was drawn to Carolyn because she always noted the upside and opportunity — not the barriers and risks. Through keeping their day jobs, having four kids, maxing out credit cards, building the first digital accelerator for female entrepreneurs, and finally getting enough funding and time,  (or was it childcare, or was it money….) Hello Alice launched in 2017. Even before we had a name, there were those who believed in our audacious mission, including Zaw Thet, Carmen Jones, John China, Jean Case, and Jacki Zehner. Then there are those who literally helped us just last week, such as Ginger Siegel, Lawrence Bancroft, Frank Rotman, and Rakia Reynolds. We thank all of you for your dedication, time, and advice. Some folks chose to overlook us, underestimate us, or lean on their bias against diverse small business owners. As we say in Texas, bless their hearts. https://youtu.be/RZYqxIwbrlE Four years into this adventure, we’re proud to be the largest platform for small business owners looking to launch and grow their companies. The next phase of our mission is to become the number one place for all of you to access capital. Hello Alice will continue offering grants to help small businesses build back from the effects of the pandemic, and we’re exploring ways to offer equitable forms of credit and lending, too. None of this would be possible without our incredible team at Hello Alice. Each of them has a deep passion for serving small businesses, and one of our core values is that “everyone takes out the trash.” In the beginning, when the founders did everything from code to write proposals to stuff envelopes, it was mind-blowing when we hired our first employee, Jillian Benvenuti. Today, she is Hello Alice’s chief of staff supporting fifty team members.  Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t say thank you to the more than 375,000 small business owners in the Hello Alice community. Through thick and thin, you have all supported each other. Our mission is steadfast to ensure you receive equal access to capital, networks, and resources to help you succeed.  Hello Alice believes in you – women, men, people of color, U.S. veterans, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and all entrepreneurs who aspire to make change. At every milestone, learn from people that have walked your path. We are all in this together, even if everyone thinks, as the Mad Hatter put it, "you’re mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I’ll tell you a secret: All the best people are.” For more small business tips and inspiration create a free account on Hello Alice or subscribe to our weekly newsletter.