The backbone of San Francisco

Erin Williams grew up amid the rich food culture of Bayview-Hunters Point, a San Francisco neighborhood where recipes play a vital role in celebrating the community’s shared heritage. Local restaurants and stores, with their specialty dishes, helped form her culinary tastes. But Erin’s biggest influence was her mother’s Creole-influenced cuisine. “I always believed my mom was the best cook in the world,” she says. “And I believed in feeding people with love. My mom fed the church her gumbo, her cornbread dressing. Everybody came over to pick up a plate at Thanksgiving.”

As an adult, seeking to give back to her neighborhood, Erin became a social worker. But food remained her true passion: “Feeding people is a love of helping people too,” she says. After attending culinary school, she founded her own small catering business, WeFeastSF. She became an increasingly visible member of the local small-business community. She networked tirelessly.

That’s how Stacy Dickinson, Business Banking Area Manager and Executive Director of JPMorganChase’s San Jose office, first encountered her—at a local networking event, where Erin’s energy and fearlessness, and her pride in her product, made a strong impression. “She comes out with her basket of jambalaya mix,” Stacy recalls, “and she is literally selling it to every person at this event.” It was clear, she says, that Erin “didn't want to just cater. She didn't want to just sell at a farmer's market. Her goal was for a mass audience to enjoy her food.”

Stacy grew up in the Bay Area herself, and it’s her passion to find and develop local entrepreneurs. Small businesses, which employ about 360,000 workers in the city, play a vital, sustaining role in the economy of San Francisco. They also play a crucial role as both community and commercial hubs, and bolster the city’s cultural districts.

Over the course of the following months, Stacy kept in touch with Erin and offered advice. When Chase and the Golden State Warriors launched the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small- business training and mentorship program, she immediately recruited Erin. The Accelerator brings together entrepreneurs from underserved local communities to learn how to grow their businesses. “When I told her about it, she got quiet,” Stacy recalls. “Then she said, ‘I’m in. What do I do?’”

For seven weeks, Erin attended workshops both in person and over Zoom—about accessing capital, managing cash flow, marketing online and in person, pricing, and hiring. About fraud and cybersecurity and merchant services. Participants pitched their products every day to each other, to local business owners, and to workshop leaders. The objective was to implement what they were learning into their businesses immediately, in real time.

“We worked on the things we were lacking in,” says Erin, who describes classes on financial literacy, taxes, sales projections, and using social media, among others. “They taught us how to redirect what’s working and what isn’t, and how to create more revenue through what is working. They helped us connect with people at Chase Bank” for additional guidance and prospective funding. “And we uplifted each other as a whole cohort.” The program enabled her to focus her business plan for the first time. “It made me rethink my demographics,” she says. “It made me find my lane—because I was in every lane.”

When the Accelerator’s participants were told that executives from the Warriors would join them on the last day of workshops, Erin decided to bring in a batch of her peach-cobbler nachos. This recipe is a twist on the pie her mother used to make (after extensive experimentation, Erin discovered that deconstructing the recipe helped maintain the crispness of the crust). “Everybody tried my nachos,” she recalls. “They were tearing it up, even people that didn’t like desserts. It was overwhelming.” She boldly announced that her goal was to serve the nachos at the team’s home court, the Chase Center.

She was in luck. Erin applied for and was accepted into the arena’s F&B program, which features small businesses in the area; this allowed her to showcase her peach-cobbler and apple-pie nachos throughout the Warriors and Valkyries seasons.

“I think the program allowed her to continue to build her confidence,” Stacy says. “Now she goes for everything. And if they tell her no, she asks again.” With 270,000 small business clients in the Bay Area, JPMorganChase is committed to supporting local business owners and entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey. Stacy speaks with the program’s alumni regularly; she joins them at milestone events for their businesses. And the participants themselves stay in touch via social media. The Alley-Oop Accelerator’s next cohort will run in tandem with the Golden State Valkyries season. Going forward, Stacy says, the intention is to host the program at least twice a year. “It’s so important for these business owners to take a chance on themselves,” Stacy says. “And this program creates the opportunity for people to do that.”

Erin is currently working to introduce her products into cafeterias at San Francisco public schools. She’s also pursuing the possibility of serving her nachos at Oracle Park, where the San Francisco Giants play.

The small businesses of her childhood helped shape Erin’s culinary ambitions and curiosity. Her goal now is to offer her products to the biggest possible audience. “I want to be worldwide,” she says, “in all the stadiums.”

The testimonials are the sole opinions or experiences of those featured and not those of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. or any of its affiliates. These opinions or experiences may not be representative of what all may achieve. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. or any of its affiliates are not liable for decisions made or actions taken in reliance on any of the testimonial information provided.