NYWSE Incubator Venture “PublicStuff” Selected for $50,000 Investment by the Fast Forward Fund

NYWSE Incubator Venture “PublicStuff” Selected for $50,000 Investment by the Fast Forward Fund First Round of Youth-to-Youth Investment in Social Enterprise Field PublicStuff to move into prototype development to improve government services and community life

June 2, 2009 (NY, NY):  New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE) announced today that one of its Incubator Program companies, PublicStuff (www.publicstuff.org), was selected for a $50,000+ investment over two years by the Fast Forward Fund (FFF) in its first investment round.

PublicStuff is an online portal that connects people with their local governments to improve public services and community life.  PublicStuff is a low-cost system which meets the needs and budgets of the small and mid-sized local government market. 

Selected in a highly competitive process to participate in the NYWSE Incubator Program, PublicStuff Founder and CEO Lily Liu worked with an Incubator Program team of apprentice and mentor to prepare her social venture for investment over the past six months.  Her team includes Advisor Helene Heller and Marketing and Business Manager Morena Vattuone.

According to Liu, “We are thrilled that the FFF will be supporting the goal of increasing civic participation in communities across the nation. The FFF has an innovative model of investing in youth led initiatives that meet large, unmet social needs, and we are honored to be partnering with them. Their investment will be critical in developing and implementing the PublicStuff platform. PublicStuff has the ability to change the way in which we interact with our local governments, and we can’t wait to get started.”

The FFF enables 13 youth Portfolio Directors to direct philanthropic capital to youth-led initiatives for global change as part of a semester-long development program.  According to FFF President and CEO Diana Ayton-Shenker, “The FFF investment strategy focuses on two-year commitments totaling $50-150K per venture, augmented by professional mentoring and peer partnerships, directed to start-up and early stage for-profit, not-for-profit, and hybrid social enterprises.”  It anticipates allocations later this year after full capitalization.  

PublicStuff Technology Director Vincent Polidoro says “the FFF investment will catalyze the development of the PublicStuff platform, starting with our Summer of Coding for Good” project.

According to NYWSE Incubator Program Manager Allison Lynch: “We are honored to have been selected as FFF’s pipeline nominating partner.  The FFF investment represents a breakthrough in the availability of start-up capital for social enterprises and shows the impact that initiatives dedicated to advancing social enterprise can make together.”  The NYWSE Incubator Program enables six fledgling female entrepreneurs to bring to life their social enterprises with peer, team, training, networking, and other support.  Training partners include Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business, Stengel Solutions, and SavortheSuccess.com.