Luke Buckovich
What an honor it was to meet Luke Buckovich today! Luke is the Executive Director of UnBoundRVA whose mission is to provide talented individuals from low-income communities a path to entrepreneurship. They envision a city where every person can utilize their potential to create opportunity for themselves and their communities. UnBoundRVA invests in high potential individuals from low-income communities whose talent is being underutilized, connecting them to the resources, training and support needed to become successful entrepreneurs. HIGH FIVE UNBOUNDRVA! THIS IS GREAT WORK!
H5RVA: Congratulations on your new role as ED of Unbound RVA! What's your first priority for the organization?
Luke: Thank you! My first priority is to get a good lay of the land and identify the important areas for us to focus as we continue to grow. We've got an incredible team and awesome support from the community, so we are pumped about this next chapter for UnBoundRVA!
H5RVA: What do you wish more people knew about Unbound?
Luke: At UnBound we believe so deeply in the power of opportunity. Our tagline is Opportunity Lives in Richmond, and that is how we approach our work every single day. By being the medium through which this opportunity is shared to those who may not have had it before, we are able to create positive change in low income communities. Our program offers intensive education, training, connections, partnership and support, but I think one of the most important things we do for our entrepreneurs is simply open the door to opportunity and let them get after it.
H5RVA: Can one person's success affect an entire community? How?
Absolutely! Every entrepreneur that comes through our program creates a ripple effect. When we see an entrepreneur succeed through our program, we don’t just see one successful business. We see an entire family that has a new horizon that alters the trajectory for each family member. We see a role model and leader in the community that will lift up countless others, paying that opportunity forward. One person’s success leads to another, and then another, and soon all of those ripples creates a pretty awesome change. And in the process, we believe that relationships will be created that will create a more unified and thriving Richmond. Once you use them, refer them to someone else!
H5RVA: What are some of the ways people can support the work that UnboundRVA does?
Luke: There are many ways the people of our great city can support UnBoundRVA! The easiest and one of the coolest ways is to simply use one of our businesses. We've got a wide variety of businesses that meet many different needs! By becoming a client of an UnBoundRVA business, you are going to get a great service and at the same time you become an important part of changing lives and impacting our city.
As a small staff of 5, we rely very heavily on our volunteers to help us provide the most qualified guidance and support to our entrepreneurs. We are so lucky to have an incredible network of uber-successful business professionals in the city that are smarter than we are. We have a ton of opportunities for people to plug in and help, from helping facilitate workshops to serving on a advisory board for a business owner-and a lot in between!
Lastly, as a nonprofit organization we are able to do our work because of the generosity of our financial supporters. A donation to UnBoundRVA ensures the door to opportunity stays open in Richmond for every entrepreneur that comes through our program.
H5RVA: What are you going to do with your High Five?
I am going to high five all of our entrepreneurs with my foam hand! They provide so much inspiration to everyone who touches UnBound, and I feel so incredibly honored to play a part in their success.