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Marquita is a known figure in Oregon’s entrepreneurial and startup community. She has extensive experience working with local companies, both pre and post-investment, through her work at PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment), where she served as the Community & Program Manager. PIE is a long-standing accelerator for technology-based startups in Portland, with a focus on manufactured products, SaaS, and CPG, via BUILT Oregon partnership. Marquita was involved in various programs at PIE, including PIE CoWorking, PIE Shop, PIE, and Slice of PIE. These accelerator programs provided support to startups in various ways including co-working spaces, virtual access, mentorship, capacity building and in some instances access to capital.

Later, Marquita joined NuProject, where she served as the Community & Program Director. At NuProject, Marquita unapologetically focused on helping BIPOC entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry to access capital, education, mentorship, and careers. Marquita helped to set up various programs at NuProject, such as NuFuel, NuSchool, NuNetwork, and NuProfessional. These programs provided emergency relief grants, tax support grants, zero & low interest loans, personalized business development support, mentorship, and networking opportunities to cannabis founders. In July 2022, Marquita joined the BFM Fund as a Principal on the Portfolio Management Team, ensuring investments are resourced and can capitalize on relationships made in the industry. Overall she has several years of experience working closely with founders and their companies and currently leading the Emerge Initiative to provide concept stage companies with the tools they need to build a sustainable business whether their pathway is VC or not.