It is our research and development arm where collaborative ideation turns into strategic action. We aim to shift economic policy and permanently close the racial wealth gap with innovative programs that make a real impact. These bodies of work are an ongoing response to the ever-evolving needs of Black and Brown entrepreneurs as we collectively work toward restoration and repair.
RUNWAY Labs is our space to dream up economic possibilities that center Black liberation, wellness, and prosperity.
We explore the possibilities and seek healing, justice, and liberation through the following Labs:
REAL PEOPLE’s fund
Real People’s Fund is a community-powered investment fund and entrepreneurship program co-designed and managed by RUNWAY. REAL People’s Fund provides non-extractive capital, holistic business support, and opportunities to build political power for BIPOC entrepreneurs in the historically disinvested East Bay communities of San Francisco Bay Area. Our experience building this movement fund has taught us what it means to facilitate a community-led, democratically-governed funding program and has partially inspired the launch of our new national fund.
THE ROAD TO REPAIR PODCAST
Together, financial activists Jessica Norwood, Nikishka Iyengar, and Andrew X co-produce Road to Repair, a business podcast about building a reparative and regenerative economy rooted in justice, equity, and solidarity. Road to Repair is for anyone working towards building the next economy. If you recognize that our dominant economic system of capitalism is working as designed to reinforce (other) systems of oppression such as white supremacy, patriarchy, and imperialism, but don’t quite know what a journey out of it looks like, this podcast is for you.
THE GLOW UP
The RUNWAY Marketing Glow-Up was a real-time response to a growing need for businesses to pivot through the pandemic and get high-impact marketing support to cut through the digital noise following quarantine. We recruited top creative agencies that specialize in branding, PR, web, or digital marketing and matched them with our entrepreneur community for short-term, quality engagements that resulted in mutual brand amplification and meaningful social impact.
The Black Music Entrepreneurship Incubator, HiiiWAV, tasked our Glow-Up partner agency, BBMG, and its seasoned team of summer interns with renaming and creating a brand identity system and story to supercharge a new chapter of participation, growth, and impact.
Entrepreneur Universal Basic Income (UBI)
RUNWAY's pilot rapid emergency fund first launched in March 2020 to provide a no-strings-attached 6-month Universal Basic Income (UBI) for our entrepreneur family in response to the global pandemic. The pilot allowed us to hypothesize whether this type of supplemental income could be curative for the racial wealth gap. Recipients received an up-front direct cash infusion of $2,000 from Runway in addition to monthly stipends of $1,000 through October 2020 and free ongoing business and marketing consultancy services. Out of the 30 Black-owned businesses in our inaugural UBI program consortium, not a single one has had to close up shop due to the pandemic shutdowns.
AFROFINTECH:
THE FUTURE OF BLACK CAPITAL
The Future of Black Capital lab is an exploratory media arts project led by activists and afrofuturists in economics, banking, and financial services, Jessica Norwood and Malia Lazu. The global financial system is undergoing several simultaneous transformations. Digitalization and democratization are reshaping the way capital markets operate, and sprouting unique opportunities to transform communities that have been historically underserved and exploited. This lab imagines what capital markets and infrastructure could look like if it loved Black people. From fintech to web3, we want to understand the future lens of Black money, investment capital, and the financial industry by convening thought leaders who offer new narratives around collective liberation, justice, equity, and solidarity. You can expect reports, fire-side chats, and access to works that help us all engage in the future of Black capital.
Movement Freedom Finance Training
The Movement Freedom Finance Training is a liberatory economics training course designed to equip Black and brown communities with a deeper understanding of how extractive financial systems and racial capitalism impact our lives and how we can intervene to create a more equitable world. Born out of a fellowship and initially launched as a pilot, this five-part training will be regionally deployed as RUNWAY launches funding for fresh cohorts of Black businesses in new cities.