23-Year-old Rae’Mah Henderson means business at Alabama energytech accelerator
Rae’Mah Henderson said she will always have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Henderson, 23, founded several entrepreneurial ventures, but now, works to bring other entrepreneurs to Birmingham. She serves as program manager and investment associate at the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator in Birmingham.
Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator focuses on supporting startups working within the scope of the energy field – including climate technology, clean technology and energy efficiency. Alabama Power is among its key supporters.
“I work with Techstars to bring 12 companies here every year to Birmingham. We invest $120,000 into each of their companies,” Henderson said.
Ultimately, the founders of these startups come to the Magic City for a 13-week program, which means they relocate temporarily, with the hope that some of these companies will choose to make Birmingham their new headquarters.
Last year’s Techstars Alabama cohort included companies from nine states and the nation of Latvia. Founded in 2020, the program so far has hosted 42 companies from across the U.S. and beyond.
Not including the latest graduating class, Techstars Alabama companies have created more than 200 jobs. Of that number, 32 positions have remained in the state, helping expand Alabama’s innovation economy.
Henderson assists by planning the entire “founder experience” for the three months cohort members are in the Magic City. This includes everything from operations and programming, to bringing in high-impact speakers and former founders, … “or something as simple as taking them horseback riding … (or) to see the countryside,” she said. “Overall, I am responsible for the execution of the program – events and trainings.”
Henderson has quite an impressive resume already. She was accepted into the Goldman Sachs Women’s Possibilities Summit 2023 cohort. She also completed the Create Birmingham CO.STARTERS program.
Her path to her passion at TechStars hasn’t quite been a straight line.
Just before the TechStars position came open, she actually told a friend she wanted to do something with energy and investments and – shortly afterwards – the opportunity came along. She said she wasn’t looking for it.
“A friend from the previous company I worked for informed me of the position and thought I would be a good fit,” she said.
Henderson has been around startups all of her life, working with her entrepreneurial mom even as a young child.
“My mother started her business selling clothes basically off the front porch of our Section 8 home in Fairfield. Every weekend, before I was even in preschool, I’d be up there with her at the Bessemer flea market, too, in the heat, working for a snow cone.”
She finished high school (she was a home-school student) and had a desire to go right into business. Her first venture, right out of high school, started in 2017 when she began to market Salads Express.
The idea for Salads Express came after a road trip with her family in which she noticed there was no access to fresh, healthy food. Henderson said she pitched the idea and had everything she needed, except for capital. It never got off the ground.
“My last venture was a dessert store in The Riverchase Galleria mall, but we unfortunately had to close down in 2020 due to COVID.”
She also partnered with her mother to run a candy apple business. The experience “proved to me that I am capable of the relentless hustle sometimes required to be an entrepreneur,” she said. “However, it left me so burnt out that I have had to retrain myself around working smarter and understanding I don’t have to push my body to its limit to succeed. I’m much more of a conscious achiever now.”
Henderson has experience working for other organizations as well, including T-Mobile (2018-20) and the Birmingham startup Landing (2021-22).
She then went to Atlanta in 2022 to work for a short time at The Plug, a digital marketing company, before coming back home to Birmingham for TechStars last year. “Now, I am on the other side of the table,” she said, helping to nurture startups.
Indeed, instead of thinking of herself as a traditional entrepreneur, she now calls herself an “intrapreneur … someone that can provide entrepreneurial support.”
Looking To The Future
Looking ahead, Henderson said: “I very much like to attune myself to recreate.”
Whether it’s her career, hair or her look, she said she will give herself permission to change, to do things differently, and to be different with absolutely no guilt.
“I have no shame around that anymore, and I think that’s because I had good people advising me – that there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Her advice for those seeking to start their own ventures: “What’s very important for an entrepreneur to have is being able to see the different iterations of yourself.” And, don’t be afraid of failure.
“That’s my biggest thing if I can pass on – learn your lessons quickly and move on to the next.”
As for her own entrepreneurial future: “I feel it is on the horizon for me, and I think I’m welcoming that next phase of my life whenever that bubbles up. I definitely will be pursuing it.”
A version of this story originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.