Mercatus elevates the unique and universal narratives of entrepreneurs of color in Portland and Connects the city and region with local talents, businesses, services and products that come from the ethnically diverse entrepreneurs in the city.

elevate and connect

Storytelling Events, Markets, and Networking.

• Storytelling Workshop, August 2018
• My People's Market, November 2018

An online platform founded in Portland, Oregon to highlight entrepreneurs of color in the City of Roses through storytelling and a comprehensive directory. The Collective features videos and interviews with entrepreneurs documenting their experience, resiliency and stories, presenting a collective narrative on business ownership at this moment in time in Portland. 

Elevate

Our deepest hope is that these stories will inspire and inform the readers, taking them on a singular, illuminating journey of an entrepreneur of color in the City of Roses. 

By creating a storytelling platform, we are celebrating the determination, work and resiliency that go into running a business. We wish to make it easy and accessible to explore the narratives of these unique and universal experiences and elevate these narratives to a broader audience. 

Connect

Community is the backbone of a good business environment. Understanding and knowing each other is a key ingredient in a successful community. Hence, our aim is to connect the city and a wider market with local enclaves of talent, businesses and goods from the ethnically diverse entrepreneurs in the city.

We all crave variety, but when we speak of a thriving inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem what do we see?

Too often such matters are considered and presented in a cultural vacuum or reduced to tokenism & outliers. Most of the time when we hear about vibrant bootstrapping entrepreneurs in Portland, Oregon it’s the dominant culture sharing their stories and aspirations in isolation of the “other.” Rarely do we see the ethnically diverse entrepreneurs in the city sharing their anthems, struggles, and best practices together. More than ever, that is what our city (and our nation) requires to remain competitive and reflect the shifting demographics of a new & emerging tapestry of entrepreneurs.