*The latest episode of our new podcast For the Record features a conversation with Oakland born-and-bred entrepreneur Trevor Parham, the founder and director of co-working art space Oakstop.
The 100 percent black-owned and operated venture is celebrating five years of providing affordable workspace, event spaces and arts programming in downtown Oakland. “As an entrepreneur, I saw an opportunity to offer a unique experience to black professionals that does not really exist anywhere else,” Parham said. “We focus on offering jobs to black residents, particularly artists, who are often the first to be displaced in gentrifying cities.”
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Parham tells For The Record host Lee Bailey about the origins of his ambitious venture, early challenges of launching the space without outside capital and convincing non-believers that there was a real market for affordable shared access to a workspace.
“No one really believed that this was something that was going to last five years, or scale to multiple locations,” he says.
Parham, who currently runs two Oakstops in The Town, has plans to open a third in the East Bay this spring and at least two more within the next year.
“The black community in Oakland needs to be in charge of its own destiny when it comes to controlling and maintaining space that is for our benefit.”
Listen to the entire interview with Oakstop founder Trevor Parham in the latest episode of our “For the Record” podcast below:
You can get in touch with Trevor Parham via: [email protected]
or: www.oakstop.com, facebook.com/oakstop, twitter.com/oakstop, instagram.com/oakstop.
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