Epicenter Memphis

Our mission is to collaborate with a network of partners to ensure that local startup founders and business owners have equitable access to resources needed to launch and grow. Our organization is centered around ensuring demographics of entrepreneurs served reflect our majority Black city and that barriers to entrepreneurial participation are addressed and dismantled.

Alandas Dobbins, President, Oteka Technologies. Recipient, Memphis Small Business Opportunity Loan Fund

Alandas Dobbins is a 25-year professional in the information technology (IT) industry, having started a technology business with her father in her twenties. Dobbins took a hiatus from IT when her father passed and spent time working with City of Memphis Mayor, A.C. Wharton, in his administration’s Office of Resources and Enterprise in an effort to increase women and minority-owned businesses in Memphis. Using the experience of business-building with her father and working alongside a City Mayor, Dobbins launched Oteka Technologies in 2016.

In early 2018, Shelby County Schools opened a request-for-proposals for low voltage cabling across the entire school system. Oteka Technologies was on the short list for the $1.25 million contract, but it required additional training and staff to perform the job. “We ran into a typical issue – access to capital,” Dobbins said. “Particularly for an African American, we don’t have uncles or fathers that we can get $1 million from to go run our business. Whatever you do, you have to do with your own abilities and by your own bootstraps.” Oteka Technologies received a line of credit through the Memphis Small Business Opportunity Loan Fund, delivered in partnership with Pathway Lending and River City Capital, to purchase the required training. In February 2018, Dobbins and her company secured the multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract with Shelby County Schools. “This loan allowed me to scale at a rate I normally would not have been able to,” Dobbins said. “It will help build our repertoire so we can go after other opportunities as well.”

Dobbins grew up in Whitehaven, a predominantly African American neighborhood in Memphis. Today, Oteka Technologies is nestled in that same community. "Normally, tech businesses would choose an office close to FedEx or [downtown] or something. But I wanted to be in the inner city” Dobbins said. "I’m committed to trying to make a difference in the community.” Oteka Technologies currently employs more than 10 people, with a focus on hiring formerly incarcerated persons. Dobbins has also made a commitment to pay staff a living wage, and she starts all employees at $15 an hour.

Trinette Johnson-Williams, owner, TJ Builds. Graduate, CO.STARTERS

Trinette Johnson-Williams has been building for more than 20 years. Johnson-Williams launched TJ Builds in June 2018 at the Memphis Literary Arts Festival, where she met her first clients through their interest in sample bookcases she created for a silent auction. Johnson-Williams offers owner representation for commercial and residential properties in her suite of services. 

Johnson-Williams recently completed the CO.STARTERS program alongside several other entrepreneurs. "CO.STARTERS took me outside of my comfort zone, but in a good way” she says. "It challenged me to be okay with talking about my business instead of feeling like I shouldn’t say anything unless I’m asked.”