Hot Spot Profile: Edward Greenwood, Co-Executive Director, Communitas America

What is your background and education? How did you get interested in entrepreneurship?

I grew up in Connecticut; I was born and raised there and went to Fairfield University. It’s a Jesuit school and I really appreciated their priority on community and the small class size. I developed great relationships with professors at the business school. I majored in finance and after graduating, went into commercial banking, working for People’s Bank [now absorbed into Buffalo, NY-based M&T Bank] for ten years. I managed financial planning and budgeting. I put in a lot of hours, but I enjoyed learning in a very structured environment.

Edward Greenwood

I always had an interest in other cultures and traveling. After a decade at People’s, I did a complete 180-degree turn and joined the Peace Corps. A senior executive at the bank told me I was throwing away my career, but I knew there was something more for me out there. 

I was first assigned to the Baltics was in Estonia at a time where it was just two years past independence from the Soviet Union. It was a very hard economic situation there; I was assigned to regional office doing needs assessment and seeking funding from the EU—even before they became a part of it. That experience started my international work; I got an offer to work for FINCA, a global microfinance network that supports financial empowerment and impact investing in developing countries to drive pathways out of poverty.

My work with FINCA (originally an acronym of Foundation for International Community Assistance) began in Kosovo in 1999, following the end of the conflict there. I had to fly into Macedonia to travel to Kosovo, carrying 100,000 Deutschemarks in cash because there was no banking there yet. I didn’t know a soul there, but I got assistance from Catholic Relief Services and began to put policies and procedures into place. It was a great learning experience. Initially I didn’t institutionalize those quickly enough, but I realized that not having such a framework in place would limit the perception of accountability. Going forward, I did that much more quickly.

I spent 20 years at FINCA—I got to be known as a startup guru for the organization, working in many countries including Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Congo, Tanzania and Nigeria. Primarily I was supporting small businesses—like bakeries and bookshops—through microfinance, supporting entrepreneurship and economic mobility. 

In Congo, during a time of a 40-year civil war, we were working close to the conflict zone, supporting small businesses there. I began volunteering at an orphanage right on the front lines. The poverty there was truly insurmountable; I was teaching English to the children to help them try to have some opportunities. I connected with a child there, and ultimately, I adopted him. I would say that he chose me! We moved back to the US soon after as I also wanted to be closer to family.

How did you land at Communitas America? What does your work there involve?

Networking drove every major work opportunity I’ve had. It had been the dean at the school of business at Fairfield who initially connected me to FINCA. When I got back, I connected with a former board member at People’s Bank. He thought I would be a good fit for the Connecticut Institute of Refugees doing workforce development. I spent two years with them; interestingly, a third of the refugees we worked with came from Congo.

I met the founder of Communitas and liked its mission; I’ve been there for seven years. I’m currently co-executive director with our former executive director. My prior role was head of venture resources, so I’ve been focused on finding strategic partnerships that can support us institutionally, but also support the entrepreneurs that are going through our accelerator and incubator programs. For example, we recently partnered with Columbia Engineering and CUNY ASRC to run a joint pitch competition for science-based e

ntrepreneurs who have an innovation and are determining whether they can commercialize it.  

Communitas offers resources for entrepreneurs at the early idea stage. We are a diversity pipeline. We serve the Bronx and Harlem—75 percent of our entrepreneurs come from those areas. We do serve all of New York City and are getting more engagement from Brooklyn and Staten Island. Traditionally we support small businesses, not unlike my international work. But we are starting to see more science-based businesses; they want that foundational entrepreneurship training.

I also manage our partnership with law firms and law schools that provide pro bono counsel to our entrepreneurs. There’s a lot of focus and money aimed towards science-based entrepreneurs that have the potential to be backed by a venture capital firm; there aren’t enough resources or support for nontraditional entrepreneurs. Our entrepreneurs are often also working full-time jobs—mostly because of healthcare coverage and costs; they aren’t PhD students.

Communitas serves more of a traditional small business model—say, someone wants to open a bookstore, or a vegan lifestyle café in Queens. One of our entrepreneurs opened a tailor shop in Dumbo and now has six full time tailor employees. I wish there were more resources providing direct support to those types of businesses. When you look at New York, city and state, almost all funding for the entrepreneurial ecosystem goes to VC-backed types of businesses.

At times it can be frustrating that there aren’t as many opportunities or resources supporting what we are doing; our work is critical to the economic stability of our region. We do an annual impact survey; it’s self-reported but accurate. NYSTAR was amazed at our data. We track by zip code; 85 percent of participants are from zip codes with half the household median income for New York City.

What question do you wish entrepreneurs asked?

I wish they would recognize the critical value of customer service and embrace it. It’s human nature that when you are building a business, you think you know what your customer wants. But you must talk to your customers to find out what they want. What we learn from customer discovery is that you never get it 100 percent right, it’s iterative and everyone must pivot at some point.

NY I-Corps does this so well; I always refer our clients to it. We’ve made this a part of our 10-week accelerator program curriculum; without it, we’ve seen people go into the market but get it wrong. Businesses have to evolve.

Do your customer discovery and don’t assume what the market wants. The market might be even bigger than what you are thinking of!

Communitas was connected to I-Corps and the Innovation Hot Spot through the NYSTAR network. Once we got certified, we gained access to all these resources. 

What’s the biggest surprise you’ve experienced working with NY State entrepreneurs?

Resilience. The entrepreneurs we work with don’t give up. Even though most are working full-time jobs, they put in the time that’s necessary. Even those that don’t go full-time with their business and keep it as a side hustle, they are committed. We track how much they raise, and they generate good revenue.  

I’ve also been so impressed by the strength of the community. Communitas has been a good facilitator for that; entrepreneurs choose to be part of community, share resources and intelligence across entrepreneurs and businesses.

While our data is self-reported, our entrepreneurs have hired over 500 contractors, almost always from the local community. That contract work can have a big impact on the local economy. 

What advice would you give to entrepreneurs?

Find your community! No one can be an entrepreneur alone; it can be lonely work. Be part of a community, find your resources. Look for opportunities within the whole NYC ecosystem. 

Can you share a recent accomplishment?

We recently did a successful collaboration with Columbia Engineering and CUNY’s Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), where they had access to our virtual hub. It was a different type of entrepreneur in the cohort—these were all science-based entrepreneurs. It was good to partner with Columbia and CUNY and see how their support for the economic systems works through an academic lens.

What are you reading (or hoping to read soon)?

I’m reading William Henry Seward: Lincoln’s Right Hand, by John M. Taylor. It’s a biography of Seward, President Lincoln’s secretary of state. He’s the one who purchased Alaska, they called it Seward’s Folly. He was a New York governor and senator.  I love history, and I think we learn from history.  

What do you do to relax?

I grew up hiking in Vermont and New Hampshire, and I still love to hike and walk with my dog especially. I try to get out every day. I’m still based in Connecticut, and my favorite trail is in Trumbull, CT; it’s a 300-acre state and town park.