In keeping with the Women’s History Month (WHM) theme of “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories” from the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA), ICIC is highlighting women-owned businesses that are helping to tell women’s stories–especially the stories of women in entrepreneurship. We invite you to read the stories below, which are just samples of the more than 1,900 women-owned/led businesses that we’ve served in the last year.

Celebrating Women Who Tell the Stories of Women-Owned Businesses

We want to elevate a few storytellers from women-owned businesses both inside and outside of our alumni network.

Frugal Bookstore
Frugal Bookstore is ICIC’s neighbor in Nubian Square and an Inner City Capital Connections alum. Co-owner Clarrissa Cropper founded the store with her husband in 2008. As Boston’s only Black-owned bookstore, they promote books written by authors from minority communities. Their shelves hold many impactful stories from BIPOC women. Holding to their motto, “Changing Minds One Book At A Time,” Frugal prides itself on being a community center, hosting spoken word events, children’s story time sessions, and much more. Read More

She Did That.
‘She Did That.’ is an uplifting documentary that explores the passionate pursuits of Black women and their entrepreneurship journeys. Executive produced by Renae Bluitt, a Brooklyn, New York-based filmmaker, digital content creator, and branding expert who serves as an advocate for Black women’s accurate representation in the media, ‘She Did That.’ offers an intimate peek inside the truths, trials, and triumphs of beloved entrepreneurs who continuously raise the glass ceiling for future generations including interviews with Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Businesses alums, Gwen Woods and Fifi Bell, co-owners of The Crabby Shack. Read More

Muse.
2022 Inner City 100 Award winner, Muse. is a certified female-owned business that specializes in brand and marketing strategies that spark intention, shift mindset, and instill loyalty to drive revenue growth. The company primarily works in the food, wellness, and education industries, inspiring people to change a behavior, habit, career or lifestyle. CEO Jackie Bebenroth has traveled around the country speaking on content marketing based on her work broadly ranging from local restaurant branding to six-figure global initiatives. Read More

IndigEconomies Podcast
Hosted by Karen Swift and Kaylena Bray, the IndigEconomies Podcast explores how Indigenous economies are functioning today. Karen and Kaylena use interviews, storytelling, and conversation with people and groups ranging from tribal leaders to community members, elders, food producers, entrepreneurs, tribal authorities, grantmakers, organizers, and members of the financial community. Read More

AFRO News
AFRO News is the nation’s oldest Black-owned media outlet. Journalist, longtime community leader, and Inner City Capital Connections alum, Dr. Frances “Toni” Draper is the current chairman of the board and publisher of the company. The paper was founded in 1892 by her great-grandfather, a freed slave and Civil War veteran named John Henry Murphy, who purchased the paper’s original printing press with $200 from his wife, Martha Howard Murphy. The weekly newspaper has been owned and operated by the Murphy family ever since and is the nation’s longest-running African-American-owned publication. Read More

Jennifer Pinck
Jennifer Pinck has a long history of paving the way for people from diverse communities to be included in the construction industry. She began her career in the 1970s in the building trades as a commercial painter and then worked her way into construction management on multiple urban high-rise projects, and held management positions on Boston’s two mega-projects – the BIG DIG and The Boston Harbor Project. She earned an MBA along the way, became the first woman in Massachusetts to receive an ABC Boston Building License, and in 1998 founded Pinck & Co., Inc. The firm won numerous awards, including being named one of the fastest-growing private companies by Inc. Magazine, earning a place on the Inc 5000 list for 2016 and 2017, and is also a multi-year recipient of the Inner City 100 Awards. Jennifer sold Pinck & Co. in 2018. Additionally, Jennifer played an instrumental role in developing and launching ICIC’s pioneering Building for Growth (BFG) program for BIPOC- and woman-owned construction contractors. In addition to serving on the BFG Advisory Board, Jennifer is also the Board Chair for the Boston Center for the Arts. Read More

Nina Terrero Groth
Nina Terrero Groth has spanned the scale of storytelling from entertainment to corporate communications. As a former journalist, her work has appeared across platforms such as NBC, ABC, CNN, Good Morning America, and Access Hollywood. After leaving the entertainment industry, Nina went on to join the Public Relations team at Target, a long-time partner of ICIC’s Inner City Capital Connections. Currently, she works on Target’s Enterprise Growth Group as the Lead Pipeline Manager for the Target Accelerators Program. Nina was recently interviewed on the Latina to Latina Podcast, where she shared how her storytelling background led her to a career helping small business owners to find new levels of success in retail. Read More

Support Her Story

Take time during this Women’s History Month to “celebrate her story” by supporting your local women-owned small businesses and nominating them for our upcoming programs specifically designed for woman-owned businesses and/or Black, Indigenous, and People of Color: 

• Building for Growth (BFG) is a national, online, tuition-free executive education program that helps BIPOC- and woman-owned construction contractors build capacity and develop sustainable growth strategies that position their businesses to increase revenues and profits. The BFG program launched its inaugural cohort in 2022 serving 54 construction businesses from 19 states, 91% of which were BIPOC-owned and 53% were woman-owned. In 2023, BFG is running two cohorts and is now accepting applications and nominations. The application deadline for the Western Region-focused cohort was extended to Friday, March 17, with classes starting on Tuesday, April 25. The application deadline for the National cohort is Friday, June 9, with classes starting on Wednesday, July 26.
• Inner City 100 Awards (IC100): Since 1999, ICIC has identified and celebrated the 100 fastest-growing businesses in under-resourced communities through the Inner City 100 (IC100) award. In 2022, 50% of the award winners were woman-owned/led companies, a first for the program’s 24-year history. For the third consecutive year, 50% or more of the winners were BIPOC-owned. Applications and nominations for the 2023 IC100 awards are due on April 28.