New Downtown Center Hopes to Bolster Small Business

A San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that helps small business is opening a new training center in Marin County at 1115 Third Street in San Rafael.

With the some financial help from Marin Community Foundation, Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center’s Third Street location hopes to bolster local business with a drop-in co-working space, a commercial kitchen and an area that will be rented to local partner organizations. The center will open on June 13.

“We’re excited to bring this program to a county that’s well-known for its entrepreneurship, and where there’s a need to help low-income people thrive,” Renaissance CEO Sharon Miller said.

Classes and workshops will be offered on such topics as developing business plans, marketing, management, operations, finance and record keeping. The center will be called Renaissance Marin.

“The businesses that have started with Renaissance’s guidance have dramatically improved the financial well-being of the entrepreneurs who started them. And, they have in turn hired additional people to work in these businesses,” Miller said.

Since 1985, Renaissance clients have started and grown over 6,500 businesses. Of those who worked with Renaissance, 90 percent were very low-to moderate-income, 65 percent were people of color and 72 percent were women.

“This effort is a key component of our overall strategy to end the cycle of poverty in Marin—in this instance, to help people thrive by starting their own small businesses,” Marin Community Foundation CEO Thomas Peters said.

Peters also noted that a recent report found that having stable, good-paying jobs is key to reducing the disparities in income and overall well-being that exist in Marin.

owner Neal Gottlieb is a graduate of the center and said that their resources and support were valuable when he started his business. Gottlieb opened the Three Twins Terra Linda location in 2005. Now, there are three other stores in operation, one in Larkspur, one in Napa and one in San Francisco, a wholesale factory in Petaluma and in mid-May they started selling quarts nationwide via Whole Foods. Currently their pints are enjoyed in grocery stores in 37 states.

 “I would encourage all prospective Marin entrepreneurs to take advantage of Renaissance's resources now that they are in Marin and would also encourage established entrepreneurs to give back by becoming part of the Renaissance community,” he said.