Dorchester Entrepreneur Sees Startup as a Way to Help Community in Self-Gentrification

Online, April 22, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Keith Donaldson is a serial entrepreneur who specializes in developing technology that improves teaching and learning. After taking a three-year hiatus to help homeschool his two children and consult for startups from Boston to Nairobi, Donaldson is back at it for himself and his community. He founded StoryMap Solutions, which was recently accepted into the Summer 2014 cohort of Smarter in the City.

Smarter in the City is a high tech startup accelerator in the Dudley Square area of Roxbury. Led by Gilad Rosenzweig, an architect, urban planner, and strong leader in neighborhood improvement and economic development projects, Smarter in the City is helping Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan startups develop their programs, apps and companies, while advancing technical and business skills.

"For my previous startups, I would take the Red Line from my home in Dorchester to Kendall, Central and Davis Square, believing I should be close to the best talent the area has to offer," said Donaldson. "Since then, I've built a network of experienced technology, design, business and legal talent in and around my neighborhood. We even have high-grade coffee from Flat Black and great cafйs in Dot 2 Dot and Haley House. What has been missing is workspace and access to potential mentors and investors. We believe as part of Smarter in the City, we can help fill that void by bringing together a startup ecosystem and helping Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan in self-gentrification."

Boston leads the nation in gentrification. A 2013 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland finds that 61% of low-income neighborhoods have undergone gentrification between 2000 and 2007. According to a recent Brookings Institution report, the city suffers the fourth highest income inequality in the country; the income of those earning the most in the city, the ninety-fifth percentile, is $223,838 while those near the bottom, the twentieth percentile, earn only $14,604. The Boston Globe reported in 2011 that poverty in the city was worsening and that it was, not surprisingly, concentrated in black neighborhoods: Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan.