Derrick A. Parson

I build ecosystems that change who gets access, who gets funded, and who gets to win in entrepreneurship. For me, entrepreneurship is not only business creation, it’s economic freedom, community transformation, and legacy building.

Brooklyn raised me with grit. Buffalo shaped me with purpose. Today, I serve as Executive Director of The Exchange at Beverly Gray, Western New York’s first entrepreneur hub dedicated to advancing BIPOC founders. Under my leadership, we’ve grown from a one-person initiative into a major regional support system, helping hundreds of entrepreneurs access education, coaching, networks, and funding pathways that move ideas into reality and build wealth on Buffalo’s East Side.

I am also the founder of GrabALatte™, a mentorship innovation company helping organizations strengthen leadership pipelines, develop talent, and expand opportunity from within.

My work sits at the intersection of:

• entrepreneurship development

• community wealth building

• systems and program design

• capital access and economic mobility

I convene partners across government, philanthropy, higher education, the corporate sector, and the startup community to build stronger support environments for founders, especially those who have historically been excluded from access.

Increasingly, my focus is evolving toward community capital models, funding pipelines, and strategies that put resources directly into the hands of entrepreneurs.

I speak, teach, advise, and build with one philosophy in mind:

“If you want things to be different, you must be willing to pour into yourself differently.”

If you’re working on economic transformation, supporting founders, designing systems, or expanding access to capital — let’s connect. That’s the work I live in every day.