Interview by Jonathan Kersting
**Nov. 7 is deadline to submit applications for forst round**
Comcast Corporation launched Comcast RISE, an initiative created to help strengthen and empower small businesses hard hit by COVID-19. The Comcast RISE program will help thousands of small businesses over the next three years. The multi-faceted program offers grants, marketing and technology upgrades, including media campaigns and connectivity, computer and voice equipment, as well as free marketing insights to all applicants.
U.S. small businesses have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the number of U.S. active business owners dropped from 15 million to 11.7 million from February to April. The study cited that Black-owned small businesses were hardest hit, suffering the steepest decline (41 percent), followed by Hispanic and Asian American-owned small businesses. Read the presss release here.
Comcast's Thaddeus Lee talks to TechVibe Radio about the program, how to apply and more details on the resources.
Transcription:
This is Jonathan Kersting, the Pittsburgh Technology Council and TechVibe Radio doing One Mic Stand. Today's interview, I think is just so important. And I cannot wait to jump into this story. We are talking to Thaddeus Lee, he's the regional vice president of project management and customer experience at Comcast, and these guys have just launched I think is going to be a very transformational program called it's the RISE Initiative nothing can be better than the word rise. It's all about helping minority owned businesses get back up on their feet working or stay on their feet. With a series of grants and services and Ruby fun stuff. When I saw this press release, I'm like, man, I called up my guy, Bob Grove over there, Comcast, I said, we got to get someone on on on the one mic stand to talk about this, because I want everybody in Pittsburgh to know this program is happening. So that is, thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. I'm just excited to jump into this. Thank you so much for being part of this. Thank you for having me, Jonathan, I'm super excited to be with you. And I'm just looking forward to getting more and more people exposed to this program. So thank you, definitely for jumping the program. What I always do with all my interviews, I got to know a little bit more about that he is and what you do at Comcast, cuz I said you have a very long title, if like any one of those pulled out cards. I'm thinking you could have a lot of fun at work, too, as far as that goes. So what's your background? That is and how long you've been at Comcast work? Yeah, great question. Yeah, I do get to have a lot of fun at work. And I will say I've been with the company for just over 16 and a half years, so I've had quite the journey, I started out as a technician, when I was an undergrad, yes, I did the installs, then I went door to door, I was knocking on your on your, your or your front door while dinner. Okay, I did that on the residential side, I did it on the business side. And then I kind of moved up market a little bit and, and then I transition into something called market development where we negotiate access rights, I went into customer care, while we work with our loyalty and our management teams. And now most recently, to the earlier point, I lead our project management team and our customer experience team, which simply means anything that we deploy within our region that serves our 2 billion customers, okay, my team is responsible for sort of coordinating and working cross functionally to make sure that all projects get executed. Additionally, we're always observing and listening to the feedback of our customers to see how we can improve the end to end customer experience. So every process, every product, every interaction that we have with our customers, my team is constantly trying to learn, you know, what was this? Like? How can we improve? And how can we make it better in partnership with our teams here, and our teams just across the company, understanding how our customers want to be served. First off, that's a really cool story. I mean, you started as a technician, like you're installing cable zelens. I mean, that should mean Comcast and be so happy to have you because like, you know the ins and the outs of the company, man, that's pretty, that's pretty cool. It's been it's been a great journey. It's been exciting. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. Because starting from where I started, it gives us such a unique perspective. So when I think about the customer experience, I've kind of been in every level. That's what's so cool about so you know what, I understand why you're doing what you're doing, man, I can tell it's your passion as well, too. And that is that is as we all know, man when COVID hit, it hit hard, right. And Comcast stepped up quickly. I mean, they were instantly working with like Pittsburgh public schools and McKeesport school, they're getting connectivity and laptops in the students hands. I mean, they're taking these initial first steps that were just really transformational. And we we documented a lot of that, or when Mike Stan interviews in our our summer of 50, Pittsburgh tech stories we did with Comcast this year. And they've been obviously the need is still there even greater, especially for black owned and minority owned businesses, because there's some staggering stats as to how hard they've been hit. Just so quickly. There's numbers out there. Can you give us some some contingency fields to how many millions and millions of businesses have been impacted? Oh, yeah, I mean, great. That's a great question. Look, a recent study, Jonathan from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the number of us active business owners dropped from 15 million to 11 point 7 million from February to April, right. From February it was that much Yes. Then it was like it was like it was on a cliff right. But the study also cited that black owned small businesses were the hardest hit, suffering the steepest decline at the at a tick of about 41% followed very closely by Hispanic and Asian American owned small businesses. So yeah, you're right. The numbers are staggering. And black on businesses were like, significantly impacted. Exactly. So what's crazy is to me, Comcast sees this, and they're not just gonna be like, okay, that's a crazy stat, what can we do? But no, they just say we're gonna do something immediately. And they come up with this rise program. That's when I saw it. I was like, Man, this is cool. And yeah. So tell us about the rise program. Give us some of the details, because I think it's so cool. Some dollars and some services, and 2 million companies hands like immediately. Yeah, so first of all rise. I am so proud to be a member of the Comcast team, because RISE is actually a part of a larger $100 million diversity and inclusion initiative. Yeah, it's like 100 million bucks.
But But rise is sort of one of the things that we're doing. And it stands for representation, investment, strengthening and empowerment and rises design. It has some main components that addresses and that brings the best of Comcast, together, our effective partners, which is our ad, arm advertising arm, and Comcast business. So the thing that we're going to be offering these small businesses to sort of help them get on their feet and stay on their feet, we're going to be combining media and technology resources to help them be successful. So one pillar is consulting, where we are going to provide advertising and marketing consultations with local effective marketing, research and creative teams so that they can these businesses, they can gain insights on how to grow their business, we're also going to help them from a media perspective, well, we're going to help them create a linear TV media campaign, running over a 90 day period, we have another creative production opportunity where we can help them create a turnkey 30 second TV commercial production for their business. And last, but certainly not least, one of the things that I'm working directly with is our technology makeover, where you have a business where like, you know, I used to lie, by the way I love the makeover shows my daughter is. So to be a part of this is amazing. We get to go into a company, and we get to say, tell us what you're using from a technology standpoint today, what do you need, and we're going to be able to come alongside them and help them with computers, with laptops, with iPads with phones and printers, while also providing them with core Comcast Services, with up to 12 months free of services, they'll be getting access to our high speed internet, there'll be getting access to some of our cybersecurity platforms. And we have some smart off we have a bunch of different things that we're going to be offering. But it's going to be exciting. And we have a bunch of different ways that people can qualify apps is also is there's also cash available as well to some small grants or something like that. So coming very, very soon behind that we're going to be offering up to $10,000 each for us base and small for small and diverse businesses that have been in operations for three to five years. Okay, so that's also going to be coming down the pike as well. Very cool. So I think about this, I mean, this is like, this is real value here, when you're looking at like a technology makeover, getting new help building a 32nd commercial, I mean, these are all things that if you had to go do this, you know, outside of this, you're going to spend 515 thousand dollars or more on something like this. Easy, peasy. And so I'm so excited that you're going to get this into people's hands and they can start doing this and getting their business back up and online having a reliable backbone having cybersecurity on top of that and the equipment that they need. It's like I mean, this is this is gonna, I think gonna put so much more wind in company sales. So how do you qualify for this? How does someone apply? And what is the criteria before they apply? They make sure that they're, you know, in the right ballpark for something like this? Well, it's really easy to apply. They literally just have to go to Comcast rise.com. That's a little Yes, super easy. Comcast Rise Ri se.com. And it's super easy. When it comes to eligibility. A few things right owner is at least 18 years of age or older, primary decision maker actively engaged in day to day operations for the business. If you're going to receive the tech make over no more than 25 full time or part time employees for the tech make over. If you're going to receive some of the media support no more than 100 full time employees. You must have been have been in business for at least one year, and you must be at least 51% black owned, gotcha majority black owned for the businesses and and I do want to just say something, you know really quickly. Definitely. You're right. You said you know, being able to come alongside these businesses and help them One of the things that we've thought about was, people aren't lacking in in the area of just great ideas, creative ideas and innovation. But sometimes the resources, and just the partnership that they need is what is what's going to get them over the hump. And so when we did rise, when we came up with rise, we wanted to be clear that, you know, we're not the engine of these machines, we're just helping be a little bit a few. Because the people in these communities, they're the engine, they're the entrepreneurs, they're the ones that are moving our economy. So we just want to come alongside them important with them. And that's sort of the spirit of rise, is we just want to help few, something that's already very powerful in our communities.
I see companies coming up already, just I hear the word rise, I'm just thinking like, Man, these pop up, I think it's so cool. And you're gonna expand this out to other groups of people in the coming months to is that correct? November 28, beginning November 28. This year, we want to expand this to Hispanic and Asian American business owners, they'll also be able and eligible to apply. In fact, it'll be black, indigenous, and people of color is going to expand once November 28 hits. So we initially we wanted to focus on those hardest hit, but very rapidly. We're jumping into making it available to several several of our business small business people. I knew Comcast will step up and something big as COVID was hitting. I mean, we saw the initial stuff with with the connectivity. And then when I got this news release talking about this Raj program, like boom, that's what's happened. And that's what I like about this, because I think it's just so important. And it was so much fun talking, you didn't think about your 16 year career at Comcast, we're going to all levels I think you got some Comcast, I think in your in your veins. I love it. It's been a great journey has been great for my family. And I and it's been a pleasure speaking with you, Jonathan. And we are excited to help every company that we can. So we're super stoked. That's good stuff. We're gonna get the word out as best we can on our end. And let's see what happens here, especially in the Pittsburgh area, because that's what we do is protect counsel on that. And you know, there's lots of companies in the Pittsburgh area that could really use your help actually, there's some companies I've been interviewing with neighborhood allies, and some some organizations where I'm going to tell them about this because they may not do them person gonna reach out and say you got to apply if you need this help. I think they might. So I'm so stoked. I'll be a little evangelist for you guys gonna love it. And I know. Listen, keep this in mind, November 7, November 7, that's when we close applications for the first round. Okay, tell as many people as you can, between now and then because we're excited to welcome as many as we can. And I'm writing that down November 7, do the best that he is. Thank you so much for taking the time and telling us all about this rise program. I just love it. It's my pleasure. You're absolutely great stuff. Thanks, Jonathan. Everybody, this is Jonathan Kersting. With the Pittsburgh Technology Council and vibrator you bring you the one mic stand telling awesome stories like these every single day.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai