Defy Ventures is helping rewrite the narrative of American prisoners by giving them a real shot at success.
Seth Sundberg is one of those Americans who has big stories and big dreams. A one-time NBA player, Seth fell into some money trouble in 2010 and spent the next several years locked up behind bars. To deal with life behind bars he started making his own – but with granola because it’s delicious and metal is not. Not surprisingly they were a hit with other inmates.
Once free, Seth found Defy Ventures and pitched them his idea for a company. Defy gives Entrepreneurs-In-Training (EITs) training, tools, and support – like parenting education and reintegration assistance – that enable them to build their own businesses.
“We prefer to focus on who they are today, and who they’re becoming,” he says.
They helped Seth create a strong business model and together they launched Prison Bars – bomb granola bars made exclusively by ex-inmates.
Prisoners make up 2.2 million of the US population. That’s a lot of people. Support networks are nigh and recidivism is high. But Defy knows these people have a lot of positive potential and they want to show them how to tap into it. Because, as Seth says:
“The degree of separation between someone behind bars and someone that’s not is much less than I ever thought. Once you start hearing those stories, you think, ‘Wow, that’s not too different than an avenue I could have gone down.’”
