BCG is thrilled to partner with First Women’s Bank to help empower women entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders by offering equitable access to capital—a core pillar of BCG’s Equity Empowers program that promotes women’s equality.
What is creativity? How do you even begin to define it?
For artist and entrepreneur Kate Vrijmoet, creativity is about building something that matters — to you and to others. “Creativity is a combination of seemingly disparate parts made into a new and useful whole,” she explains. That whole could be a book, a film, a song, a painting, or even a business like Vrijmoet’s coffee enterprise, necessary & sufficient coffee®.
In early 2023, Vrijmoet expanded her vision by opening her second café in Chicago. The warm, bright space embodies her lifelong dream to build and support community. Her expansion was supported by First Women’s Bank, the only bank in the United States with a strategic focus on the women’s economy. The collaboration was vital, especially given the stark contrast in funding opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
“From my first contact with them, it was like, these are my people,” Vrijmoet says. And she’d had plenty of bad experiences seeking investment for comparison. More than once, she’d heard promises made but not seen them kept. That’s not terribly surprising. In 2021, 49 percent of new businesses were started by women, but women-owned businesses receive only 16 percent of conventional business loans.
First Women’s Bank was formed to close the gender lending gap. It employs a strategy that combines Small Business Administration and conventional lending with deposits from mission-aligned individuals, organizations, and corporations like BCG to create accessible financing for small businesses. “The potential for the bank to drive social change and to bridge the gender lending gap is enormous,” First Women’s Bank CEO Marianne Markowitz says.
Vrijmoet’s journey to becoming a business owner is a testament to both her creative spirit and the importance of women having equal access to capital. With experience as a creative director, adjunct professor, community organizer, and artist, her passion for solving problems and building community has been a recurring theme throughout her life.
When Vrijmoet opened her art studio in Logan Square, a Chicago neighborhood with much potential despite an economic down cycle, she saw an opportunity in the 230-square-foot storefront attached to her studio. While not big enough for large-scale paintings, the space was big enough for something. Vrijmoet talked to her neighbors and realized there was a need for a coffee shop. That’s how necessary & sufficient coffee ® was born.
“As an artist, I spend more than 50 percent of my time doing research,” Vrijmoet says. “So I just dove right down that rabbit hole, and I loved it. I loved the social mission of specialty coffee, the people in specialty coffee and how deeply they care about the ecology.”
Established in the fall of 2019, the walk-up coffee shop quickly became an integral part of the neighborhood, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. With walk-up service only, there was no space to close. People were able to make connections in the neighborhood while socially distancing, fostering the community engagement Vrijmoet had envisioned and hoped for.
In 2020, she joined Let’s Talk Womxn, a group founded by restauranteur Rohini Dey, to grow the “camaraderie, counsel, visibility, bargaining, and economic power” of its members—women entrepreneurs working in the food and beverage industry. It started with 15 members in Chicago. Today, there are members in 15 cities across the U.S. and Canada.
“At necessary & sufficient, we work almost exclusively with small, local, women-owned businesses as our vendors,” Vrijmoet says. When planning a second location, she found her perfect partner in First Women’s Bank, a financial institution aligned with her values. This kind of partnership, marked by mutual respect and shared goals, is one that fosters success.
Vrijmoet’s story is more than just one of business success. It’s also a narrative of creativity, community, and the empowerment of women in business.
“Women, especially women in business, share a bond,” Vrijmoet says. “That opens the door to camaraderie when we find our people.”
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