Get to know: EDai

What inspired you to found EDai?

My passion has always been about creating economic opportunities for others, especially those who have been economically disadvantaged. I believe in the power of business and government working together to create well-paying jobs for residents across the country, but those opportunities aren’t always available to all residents in a community. I’ve tackled this in K12, in workforce training, and in consulting.

Most recently I was working on the proposal for Amazon HQ2 in Northern Virginia and I saw all that goes into individual communities applying for these opportunities. It was clear that there was room to improve the process for every party involved.

It is ironic that, for an industry dedicated to supporting business growth and prosperity, economic development is so conservative, relying still on tools like property tax abatements, which have been around since the time of Alexander Hamilton. The economic development industry has long needed a push to evolve alongside the businesses and communities it supports - I want EDai to be that push.

“The economic development industry has long needed a push to evolve alongside the businesses and communities it supports - I want EDai to be that push.”

What do you hope to get out of Lighthouse and acceleration?

We launched in January of 2021, so we are still in the very early staged. Prior to joining Lighthouse Labs, we had a demo but we couldn’t fully put it in peoples hands yet.

Lighthouse will give us the mentor connections to help us bring the product to scale and to market - connecting us to people who have done it before, firms who can develop it, and a cohort to support us along the way.

Learning from people who have previously been in my shoes and learning with people who are currently in my shoes will provide value that is hard to overestimate.

How did you and your team meet and how do you divide and conquer?

My three advisors are Taylor Croley, Terron Ferguson, and Elijah Lowe.

Taylor supports EDai in our marketing strategy - she’s also my wife! We got married in December of 2020 and moved to Richmond together a few years ago. Taylor still has her full-time job and we can rely on those benefits. Having safety nets like that are important and, with EDai, we want to make that possible for more people with better job opportunities. Too many great ideas go by the wayside because people can’t take the risk.

Terron serves in a general counsel role, helping with both legal and general strategy topics and Elijah has a PhD in computational biology and provides oversight and advisement for our AI efforts. I met both Terron and Elijah during our freshman year of college and we’ve been friends ever since. We all have different backgrounds that complement each other and we’ve been thought partners since the beginning.

What are the most exciting moments of your entrepreneurial journey thus far?

Hearing people, other than our team, say “Wow, I see your vision!”. Evaluators at Lighthouse Labs were among the first people to validate the idea and we’re excited to get the product into more hands.

Also, going full-time on EDai was a big milestone. I recently completed PhD in the field and over the summer of 2020 I was wondering what was next. I had the time and blessing to think about bringing the various experiences I’ve had and combine them with technology to bring new solutions to scale. So - I quit my job in January!

What founders or companies do you admire?

I’m an academic so I gravitate towards people like Opportunity Insights and The Eviction Lab, they take an academic perspective, do the research, write the papers, and then turn their research and work into action. I also admire the big consulting groups - and I come from that world - they’ve invested a ton of time and money into research and they take their expertise and apply it to tough issues.

What is your personal approach to entrepreneurship?

I believe in hitting singles not home runs - doing a small thing right, being disciplined, and going base-to-base. I played baseball as a kid and was never a home run hitter - but doing the small things matter.

I also want EDai to be a compassionate business. We are about creating economic opportunity. We’re trying to make good decisions for as many people as possible. There are no easy answers but our team is full of great problem solvers who use technology to find solutions.

How can someone support EDai?

We’re always looking to connection with folks who have made location decisions. You can check out our website at econdev.ai or email us at info@econdev.ai!