Just weeks before opening Vine Street Brewing Company in the Historic 18th and Vine District, Kansas City musician and entrepreneur Kemet Coleman was invited to the White House to talk about his plans with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Coleman was watching Netflix one night when Mayor Quinton Lucas sent him a text about representing Kansas City at the Young Men of Color Roundtable on minority entrepreneurship.
"Honestly, it was it was an equal an honor to be at the White House as having the mayor of Kansas City select me to represent Kansas City," Coleman says.
Coleman says he could relate to what the other entrepreneurs were saying about access to funding, especially for small minority businesses.
"We don't have a lot of that generational wealth that a lot of business owners that are not minorities have access to," Coleman says. "That was kind of the story around the table: How do we make that first jump? But then after we make that first jump, which a lot of us at that table have made, how do we scale from there?"
Coleman joined KCUR's Up To Date to discuss what it’s like to rub shoulders with the vice president of the United States, and preparing to open his new business.
- Kemet Coleman, owner and founder of Vine Street Brewing Company
