NewHavenBIZ

8 n e w h a v e n B I Z | S e p t e m b e r / O c t o b e r 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m T R E N D I N G Blast from the past: A new New Haven Bank BEYOND THE HEADLINES N ew Haven Savings Bank. First Constitution Bank. Found- ers Bank. Union Trust Co. Connecticut Savings Bank. at's just a partial list of the fi- nancial institutions that called New Haven home not so very long ago. Today all are gone, leaving New Haven with no locally owned bank companies — except for one: Start Bank. And in a nod to history as well as to its local roots and local ownership, Start Bank in August changed its name to New Haven Bank. It seems only fitting. Start Bank was created in 2004 in the wake of the demise of the last locally owned New Haven bank — New Haven Savings Bank (NHSB), a mutual savings bank that traced its roots to 1838 but had undergone an ownership change and was being converted (in the face of consider- able public opposition at the time) to public ownership. Incorporating the former Tolland Bank and the Savings Bank of Manchester, NHSB's successor institution became NewAlliance Bank. In 2011 NewAlliance Bank was merged into First Niagara Bank, which itself was acquired by KeyBank in 2016. at same year as the NHSB con- version (2004), Start Bank's parent company, the First City Fund Corp. was created to provide financial services to underserved consum- ers and businesses in greater New Haven. Start Bank represented a new and different banking model — the community-development bank — that was created to invest capital in the community and to serve "as a catalyst for economic and social improvement" in its hometown. Under the new name, the bank pledges to "maintain its promise to our community to be supportive of the neighborhoods and community organizations that work for the benefit of our populations at risk." e new name change is also intended to highlight the fact that Start/New Haven Bank is today the Elm City's only locally owned and -headquartered financial-services institution. More than anything else, the name change reflects "a doubling down on our mission," explains bank Executive Vice President John DeStefano Jr., who was mayor when New Haven Savings Bank disap- peared 15 years ago. DeStefano notes that Start Bank has been profitable for four years now, and its asset base has grown to more than $140 million. ere remains but one location, at 299 Whalley Ave., but DeStefano said a second location is likely to open in 2020. "When we launched Start Bank it had more of a retail-banking focus, and we still do that," DeStefano said. "But what we've become more than anything is a small-business and commercial real-estate bank." "When we chose [the name] 'Start' [in 2004], it seemed to make sense to us," DeStefano explained. "But when you look at what we've been doing, particularly the last five years, we're the New Haven bank." n Saving the world (and maybe making a buck, too) T he entrepreneurs of tomorrow care about building businesses that make money. But what they really care about is saving the world. Two New Haven entrepreneur- ial "incubators" recently hosted coming-out events for business builders-to-be that underscored the trend toward emphasizing social activism even ahead of the most fundamental principle of American free enterprise: Turn a profit. Recently, the Tsai Center for Innovative inking at Yale (Tsai CITY) hosted its annual Demo Day. Creators of ten student enter- prises hatched during an eight- week summer fellowship program pitched their products. e pitches themselves were heavy on social impact; profitabil- ity potential, not so much. Newly minted Yale MPH degree-holder Marina Marmolejo is a Los Angeles native who witnessed first-hand the homeless epidemic in her home- town. So she sought to combat it in her adopted New Haven home by starting a company, Dreamkit, de- voted to combating homelessness, particularly among young people. Dreamkit is a web-based app that allows homeless mobile-phone users to access support services, manage their daily lives, and communicate with mentors and potential employers. Michael Chime is the founder and CEO of Prepared, a mobile school-security app designed for use in school shootings. e app features a single-touch mobile alert system designed to inform all adult school staff in the event of an emergency. e schools-security industry has grown to about $3 billion annually in the U.S., Chime said, and Prepared is targeting a piece of that. Melissa Mazzeo founded Hand Me Up, a children's second-hand clothing company, because of a conviction that "the apparel industry is destroying the planet," she explained. And the best way to save it is by extending the lifecycle of existing clothing — especially clothing for children. "While there are many Yale students founding for-profit and not-for-profit ventures with the aim of benefiting society, that reflects a broader aspect of the Yale culture, with many students keen to focus on such projects," explains Clare Leinweber, Tsai CITY's executive director. "However, the mission of Tsai CITY definitely includes for-profit businesses created by students that could generate real returns for investors." Earlier this summer the entre- preneurship incubator Collab New Haven held its Pitch Day. Similarly, many of the nascent enterprises focused more on societal prob- lem-solving than profit maximi- zation. Dreamkit's Marmolejo pitched to the Collab audience as well as at Tsai CITY. She was joined by Della Leapman, whose enterprise Nestl creates turnkey lactation rooms for workplaces. Another Collab enterprise was Zen Zilla Yoga & Wellness, which offers yoga and guided meditation to address disparities in access to health and wellness resources in the African-American community, according to its founder. n

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