Meet Benjamin Vann: Entrepreneur & Social Innovator | COSIGN Award Nominee

Name: Benjamin Vann
Instagram: @iam_Benjaminj

Who is Benjamin Vann?

I am an entrepreneur, social innovator, visionary leader, connector, and public servant

What void does your business fill in your current industry?

My business, in the industry of coworking, fills a void in offering community, education, access to resources, and more in undeserved communities of predominantly African-Americans and Hispanic residents. Having a physical place for entrepreneurs, organizations solving some of the most pressing challenges in our city together poses as a powerful and transformational asset to a community in need.

Tell us three lessons you’ve learned while operating your business.

When building a team hire for character first, skill second.
Build your business around a problem and work your ass off to find everyone who shares that problem.
Entrepreneurship is a battle of the mind. Don’t let outside distractions cause you to lose focus on WHY you started.

Mentorships are vital, if you could be mentored by anyone in the world who would it be and why?

Daymond John.

Tell us one thing majority of people don’t know about you.

I played NCAA College Football, Professional Indoor, and coached High School Football. Self taught musician of 4 instruments.

Why do you feel that you should win a COSIGN Award?

I feel that being apart of “the culture” presents an opportunity to highlight the multi-facets of our community and how all fronts are needed to progress as a people. The majority of my work revolves around impacting policy, resources allocation, and bringing overall equity to the city of Dallas and sometime this work is not as glorified as a promoter or designer. However, because of the work done behind the scene by the so called change agents, a lot of the everyday things you never think about like what resources are given to particular communities, or site and release, public school funding, voter Id law, etc. are able to keep society in its natural order so that people are able to live their best lives by being successful at what they do that is primarily profit focused.

Who do you #COSIGN and why?

I #COSIGN the City of Dallas! There are so many amazing, talented, bold, and passionate people here. This city has shown me what i’m made of and it continues to challenge me in ways I never imagined.