Ilana Preuss founded Recast City in 2014 to help build communities where small-scale manufacturing businesses could thrive. The challenges, she found, were steep. “6½ years ago, when I talked about small-scale manufacturing and product businesses, nobody knew what I was talking about,” she recalls. City support for small manufacturers was limited; zoning often didn’t support their needs for space; inclusive job pipelines were not common. Given the challenges present for small manufacturers across the board, it was even harder for manufacturers of color and from marginalized communities not only to start a successful business, but help build wealth in communities that have historically been marginalized.
One opportunity Preuss identified “is that [small scale manufacturing] is not an…
