Mayor Eric Adams sat down with local businesses Tuesday afternoon to discuss the challenges they’re facing and how the city is helping entrepreneurs to overcome them. 

“There’s all these great programs subsides, business registrations. One of the things that is really important is just removing all the red tape,” said President of Shopify Harley Finkelstein.

What You Need To Know

  • Shopify President Harley Finkelstein held an informal conversation with Mayor Eric Adams at the company's SoHo location

  • To cut red tape for businesses, Mayor Adams said he has two points of focus access and unnecessary fines for businesses

  • The city launched a $75 million public-private loan program in January called the Opportunity Fund which received overwhelming interest

Harlem Chocolate Factory, co-owners, Jessica Spaulding and Asha Dixon say a large hurdle for businesses is raising capitol.

“There’s not a single business out there that doesn’t struggle with raising [the] capitol, right? Especially with non-traditional founders — women, minorities. There’s a difficulty,” Spaulding said.

The duo applied for a piece of a $75 million public-private loan program launched by the city in January called the Opportunity Fund. But overwhelming interest from local businesses forced them to a waitlist.

“Non-traditional founders struggle with capitol and getting capitol into their business, so we absolutely need non-traditional pathways to raising capitol,” Spaulding said.

Finkelstein held an informal conversation with Mayor Eric Adams at the company’s SoHo location.

To cut red tape for businesses, Mayor Adams said he has two points of focus: “Number one: give access to [the] capitol. Number two: stop taking money out of the pockets of small businesses where you don’t have to,” Adams said.

Adams said his administration is giving people more chances to avoid fines from clerical violations.

The mayor also mentioned the launch of the Opportunity Fund which he said received overwhelming interest.