Chin Weerappuli, a first-generation Sri Lankan-American immigrant, visited a local black-owned restaurant in Summer of 2020. At his arrival, the restaurant was closing despite being listed as open for another hour on Google. “Oh we haven’t been able to get those changed for months,” a staff member said. That moment inspired our mission & served as a call to action to help small businesses.
Chin immediately drafted his plan to connect local businesses to professional resources, applying for a 501(c)(3) in order to help businesses with the financial burden already exasperated by the pandemic. Joined by VPs, Derrick Knudsen and Darian Nocera, The Underdog Family rapidly grew with the support of other volunteers that believed in the mission and wanted to help. TUF has since served over 20 small businesses with free technical services, and has partnered with many other organizations and other non-profits across Denver to bring the community together and do good things.