Turning constraints into strengths: How JPMorganChase helps two unlikely NYC businesses thrive

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When Karen Robinovitz and Sarah Schiller told people they wanted to open a business celebrating the many textures and colors of slime, the response was predictable. "People did think we were nuts," Robinovitz recalls. Only a few years later, Sloomoo Institute is a multi-million-dollar enterprise with seven locations nationwide.

Colombian entrepreneur Steven Sutton may not have invented an entirely new business, as Robinovitz and Schiller have, but he has completely transformed an existing one. At his six wildly popular Devoción Coffee shops across New York City, he espouses a “farm to table” approach that challenges decades of coffee-selling practices.

In a city that has always been a magnet for entrepreneurs with bold ideas, Sloomoo and Devoción share two common threads: They saw an opening where others saw obstacles, and they turned to JPMorganChase for support.

Pivoting through crisis with financial partners who understand

In Sloomoo’s seven locations around the country, visitors can touch and stretch their own slime concoctions in soaring, spectacular spaces designed for hands-on play and genuine connection.

Sloomoo opened its Soho pop-up in fall 2019, planning to rent for six months. When 3,000 people showed up on the first day, Robinovitz and Schiller realized they needed to think bigger—until three months later, when the pandemic forced them to refund half a million dollars in tickets.

Rather than fold, they pivoted. Within two weeks, the company launched virtual classes in slime-making. What began as crisis management became community building—for kids stuck at home during lockdown and their grateful parents, as well as for major corporate clients. Throughout this turbulent period, JPMorganChase's business banking team provided more than standard financial services, say Robinovitz and Schiller: The bank called ahead when cash needed to be moved between accounts, streamlined the process of opening new accounts as Sloomoo expanded, and gave back precious time to founders who were racing to save their business.

Turning constraints into advantages—with the right partners

Sloomoo offers just one example of how entrepreneurs adapt and thrive with the right support. Another founder, Steven Sutton, faced his own set of constraints when launching Devoción Coffee as a 26-year-old living in Colombia. Chief among them: He didn't have the cash flow to stockpile green coffee inventory, so he had to roast his beans immediately and sell them—fast. His customers kept saying the coffee tasted different, he recalls: "I didn't really know why." Then came his epiphany: The coffee everyone else made, he understood, tasted old. “Once you taste fresh coffee,” he says, “you see that there’s this minerality. Everything’s very vibrant. It has every single note for you to taste.”

The coffee industry has long accepted that beans taste different after transport, says Sutton, even teaching buyers to "adapt to this." But he refused. Borrowing from the model of the Colombian flower-export industry, where he’d started his career, he arranged for Devoción to air-ship beans via FedEx, promising delivery, from origin to cup, in as little as 10 days. As his thriving business grew, Sutton found a crucial ally in JPMorganChase.

Support beyond traditional banking

"It's like having the best big brother or sister who always has your back," is how Robinovitz describes Sloomoo’s relationship with JPMorganChase. That relationship has evolved as the company has grown from a struggling pop-up to a business that’s flourishing in major markets across the country. "We know that as we scale even higher, or when we raise another round, that they're going to be the perfect partners," she adds. Schiller emphasizes the practical impact: “When you're small and running fast, having someone who knows you, trusts you—it makes business go faster. The most valuable thing to an entrepreneur is her time ."

Sutton’s relationship with JPMorganChase has been similarly transformative. "It's been a very human relationship," he explains. "They’re more like advisors than bankers." Invitations from the bank to networking events have given Devoción access to resources and connections that go far beyond deposits and withdrawals, he says.

A new era of NYC entrepreneurship

JPMorganChase has been instrumental in the growth of Greater New York City businesses of every size, from its 467,000 small-business clients to its medium-size and large clients, to whom it has provided over $1.1 trillion in credit and capital since 2019.

Both Sloomoo and Devoción emphasize advice that sounds simple but proves difficult in execution. Schiller's mantra: "Get it 80 percent right, and go." Robinovitz adds: "You cannot listen to the people who say no. If you see it, you can make it happen."

When facing New York's intensely competitive coffee market, Sutton felt no fear. "I had something that was objectively different," he recalls. "There was not a small doubt in our mind that we were better, and we were different, and we were going to succeed."

Both companies found that building something truly unconventional requires banking partners willing to understand what makes them unique—not just what makes them profitable. In a city of bold innovation, the businesses that stand out aren't always the ones with the most obvious path forward. Sometimes they're the ones that invent the path themselves—with the right team at their side.

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