27 min
Kiera Smalls: Community-building and collaboration to support the growth of local entrepreneurs Parallax
-
- Design
Kiera Smalls made the exciting announcement this past week that she’ll be transitioning from her current role as the Executive Director of Philly Startup Leaders (PSL) to take on a leadership position with Bloc Delivery — a new e-bike service that makes it easier and faster for local businesses to deliver online orders to customers, without using cars.
Smalls has been a community-builder and advocate for equity, entrepreneurship, and wellness in Philadelphia for quite some time now.
Since March of 2018, she has served as the Executive Director of PSL, working to provide local founders with the educational tools, financial resources, and networking connections necessary to take their startups to the next level. Although she is stepping away from her Executive Director position, Smalls will continue to serve as a board member for the organization and help advise the Founded in Philly accelerator that she helped establish.
Prior to joining PSL, Smalls co-founded City Fit Girls, a health and wellness community for women, alongside Takia McClendon. She also worked at Bicycle Transit Systems — the team that kick-started Philly’s Indego bike share campaign and is currently supporting the development of Bloc Delivery. While with Bicycle Transit Systems, she was instrumental in setting their industry leading practice standards in equitable marketing and outreach for bike share programming.
We spoke with Smalls a few weeks back — prior to her announcement — to discuss her work at both Philly Startup Leaders and City Fit Girls, the importance of self care in the midst of COVID-19, how she’s keeping active and staying positive during these challenging times, and her continuous work to help build a more inclusive and equitable startup ecosystem in Philadelphia.
Kiera Smalls made the exciting announcement this past week that she’ll be transitioning from her current role as the Executive Director of Philly Startup Leaders (PSL) to take on a leadership position with Bloc Delivery — a new e-bike service that makes it easier and faster for local businesses to deliver online orders to customers, without using cars.
Smalls has been a community-builder and advocate for equity, entrepreneurship, and wellness in Philadelphia for quite some time now.
Since March of 2018, she has served as the Executive Director of PSL, working to provide local founders with the educational tools, financial resources, and networking connections necessary to take their startups to the next level. Although she is stepping away from her Executive Director position, Smalls will continue to serve as a board member for the organization and help advise the Founded in Philly accelerator that she helped establish.
Prior to joining PSL, Smalls co-founded City Fit Girls, a health and wellness community for women, alongside Takia McClendon. She also worked at Bicycle Transit Systems — the team that kick-started Philly’s Indego bike share campaign and is currently supporting the development of Bloc Delivery. While with Bicycle Transit Systems, she was instrumental in setting their industry leading practice standards in equitable marketing and outreach for bike share programming.
We spoke with Smalls a few weeks back — prior to her announcement — to discuss her work at both Philly Startup Leaders and City Fit Girls, the importance of self care in the midst of COVID-19, how she’s keeping active and staying positive during these challenging times, and her continuous work to help build a more inclusive and equitable startup ecosystem in Philadelphia.
27 min