Meet the VC Fund Helping Startups in Underserved Communities GrowA venture fund invests serious cash on startups in underserved communities.

In recent months, community leaders from New York, Baltimore, Detroit and Washington, D.C., have come to Oakland, Calif., to ask: How can we launch something like the local-business-building program ICA Fund Good Jobs? The program helps new companies create jobs in underserved communities, and does so in many ways -- with workshops, an invite-only accelerator, venture funding of $250,000 to $1 million and relationships with community banks and local organizations that pitch in as well. Since launching in 2013, Fund Good Jobs has invested more than $2 million in five startups, unlocked $6 million more in outside capital and created more than 100 local jobs. Here's how one of those businesses grew, using the right tools at the right times.

2011

Oakland-based Keba Konte is accepted into an ICA 10-week business class. At the time, he owns and manages Guerilla Café, an organic coffee shop in Berkeley, but he dreams of building his own small-batch coffee roaster business and a chain of cafés.