Defy Ventures Southern California

Defy Ventures is an employment, entrepreneurship, and personal development training program that supports the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated to become successful, legal entrepreneurs and employees.

By offering personal and leadership development support, competition-based entrepreneurship training, executive mentoring, and business incubation, Defy empowers participants to become the CEOs of their new lives. Our programs harness and redirect innate, entrepreneurial talents toward the creation of legitimate businesses and careers. Through engagement of top corporate executives, investors, and entrepreneurs as volunteers, Defy catalyzes personal and economic opportunities for the currently and previously incarcerated and shatters widely held perceptions of one of the most stigmatized and overlooked populations in America.

Defy Ventures Southern California serves participants in 7 California state prisons; and welcomes mentors who are willing to volunteer their time at one of our Business Coaching Days or Business Pitch Competitions.