DoorDash has announced the DoorDash Accelerator for Local Goods, an educational program designed to uplift local consumer packaged goods businesses owned by entrepreneurs who are women, transgender, immigrants, or people of color.
Through the DoorDash Accelerator for Local Goods, DoorDash is empowering 50 entrepreneurs by giving them important resources, education, and funding to bring their local products to market for distribution via DashMart.
The program consists of a live and self-guided six-week course designed in partnership with Next Street, a mission-driven small business solutions firm, which will cover six specific topics, including supply chain management, wholesale vendor relationship management, managing cash flow, and business development.
Beyond the educational component, participants will receive a $5,000 grant to support their business needs, access to marketing and sales support from DoorDash, and the guarantee to sell their products via DashMart, a DoorDash-owned and operated grocery and convenience store.
First introduced in 2020, DashMart is a new type of neighborhood store offering customers thousands of fresh groceries, household essentials, and local items delivered to their doorsteps. DashMart offers local businesses a new channel to reach customers, transforming how merchant partners can sell their products across the country. With DashMarts nationwide, DoorDash already supports over 400 local and regional producers from coast to coast.
"Local businesses generate a substantial amount of economic return for the communities they thrive within, while also creating notable job opportunities for residents," said Tasia Hawkins, social impact program lead at DoorDash, in a statement. "By developing the DoorDash Accelerator for Local Goods, we are equipping aspiring entrepreneurs with the educational and financial capital to become wholesale-ready and create an even stronger relationship between local businesses and consumers residing in the community.”
At the end of the six-week curriculum, DoorDash will commit to purchasing products from participating entrepreneurs to sell through at least one DashMart location as another way to help further bring these local businesses to market and connect them with more customers.
Merchants are eligible to apply through April 1 by clicking here if they are a registered and actively operating a packaged food local business in New York City, Chicago, or the greater Washington DC area, if they have 20 or fewer employees, if they have generated less than $1M in revenue in fiscal year 2021, and they must have been in business for at least two years.
Related: Southeastern Grocers Seeks Local Suppliers; Meijer's Rivertown Market Emphasizes Local.