How a Nonprofit Deployed Influencers to Help Restaurants During the Pandemic | Eater Chicago

"I found DishRoulette Kitchen to be a restaurant-development center and spinoff of tech company DishRoulette that provides financial assistance to small, independent businesses owned and operated by women, people of color, and undocumented entrepreneurs. With Jackson Flores as president and co-founder, the organization acts as a bridge between under-resourced food entrepreneurs and the capital, knowledge, and business relationships needed to keep businesses afloat and work toward profitability; Flores even translated and negotiated on behalf of clients, reducing one vendor’s $1,000-plus citations to $200 while helping her pursue proper licensure. The leadership team (Brian Soto, Hector Pardo, Estelle Lozano, and Sany Nguyễn) brings expertise in hospitality, law, accounting, and marketing, and DRK pivoted from offering social-media consulting to launching community funding and education: it began Instagram $500 grants in 2020, has awarded more than $75,000 through the DishRoulette $1K Campaign, provided over $150,000 in professional-service hours and programming on topics from accounting to marketing, helped launch restaurants out of seed experiments, and is now chasing a match grant while struggling with self-funding, long hours, and the threat of burnout as pandemic-era community compassion fades." - Ximena N. Beltran Quan Kiu