Washtenaw County and Ann Arbor Spark awarded RealKidz $50,000 — the fund’s maximum award — toward operating expenses, including the hiring of a director of sales.
“That was the missing piece,†said Merrill Guerra, founder and CEO of RealKidz, a direct-sales company that makes clothes for plus-size girls age 5-12. “We have the product and the quality, now we have someone to lead our team to sales.â€
The fund provides loans from $10,000-$50,000 to Ypsilanti-based startups with growth potential, national or international market opportunities and some or close-to-some sales revenue, said Skip Simms, Ann Arbor Spark’s managing director of business acceleration.
RealKidz has “pent up demand paired with an innovative idea,†said Tony VanDerworp, Washtenaw County’s director of economic development and the fund’s project manager.
Logo from RealKidz