Successful By Design

Successful

By Design

Citi Medina

Founder, Equal Space

Medina came to Newark with his own design and strategies agency, Design Haus, and ended up generously sharing his commercial space with other creatives who needed a space to work. At some point, he realized that half of the people in the space were not his teammates, and his co-founder pointed out that they were going to have to find a way to sustain this terrific community but also be financially viable. So he founded Equal Space (inspired by the phrase Equal Space and Opportunity For All).

Equal Space is not your typical co-working arrangement in which workers simply share a physical space. Medina’s team creates access and resources for its members who are multicultural, LGBTQia, and fem-identified-led. Among them are creatives, entrepreneurs, startup founders and advocates. Equal Space’s goal is to celebrate everyone’s cultural identity holistically, embrace them, help them build wealth, and break generational curses.

Equal Space takes a practical approach to helping its members: teaching them how to create a pitch deck or apply for a grant, offering promotion through its newsletter, and setting up free programming with investors or other change-makers. Medina provides the connections and expertise his members need to move forward and blossom.

“I want people to know that Newark is the place to grow your dream.”

“It has been a tremendously successful approach,” he says. Equal Space has now expanded to its second campus, a 48,000-square-foot space. They serve 30 small businesses on the original campus and will serve over 50 in their new space. They are also building an event space.

An even bigger win for Medina: getting Equal Space to be a place where everyone feels affirmed and celebrated. He is passionate about supporting the marginalized and talent-rich, and he is constantly impressed with the diverse members of his community as well as their talent and innovations. 

For Medina, entrepreneurship and authenticity go hand in hand. “I started this journey such a long time ago—so unsure and uncertain—and there’s still a lot of that as a part of the journey, but the more that I embrace and love these different parts of me, the more I bring them into my businesses, and success happens because of that. Only entrepreneurship can be that kind of vehicle for a person.”

He is manifesting his dream by being his unique self, and then, in turn, helping other people to do the same. And he feels Newark is the perfect place to do it. “It is a place that supports you, keeps you grounded, wants you to succeed and yet doesn’t let you forget you are a part of the community.”

Newark Favorites:

Weequahic Park to walk his dog.