Comcast said it has chosen Oakland and four other cities around the country for its grant program to promote the growth of small businesses owned by women and people of color.
“I’ve applied for every grant that’s out there. That’s my version of venture capital money,” Judi Townsend, owner of Mannequin Madness in Oakland and a past recipient of a Comcast $10,000 grant, told those attending a panel discussion with diverse owners of Bay Area small businesses in San Francisco on Sept. 22.Requirements, as outlined on ComcastRise.com
Townsend said she founded Mannequin Madness, a business that sells and rents mannequins, initially as a side hustle in 2001. Today, her business counts Stitch Fix, ThredUp, Target, Amazon and Walgreens among its clients.She was on Craigslist looking for Tina Turner concert tickets when she saw someone selling a mannequin that she wanted for a project in her garden. The seller was leaving the state and eager to sell all his mannequins, so she started her mannequin side hustle from her home.
Another panelist at Thursday’s event, Carol Williams, CEO and chief creative officer of Oakland-based Carol H. Williams Advertising, shared her experience once working for advertising agency Leo Burnett in Chicago, where she rescued in 1972 a struggling Procter & Gamble deodorant brand, coming up with Secret’s memorable slogan, “Strong enough for a man, made for a woman.”