National Resource Providers

1 Million Cups | Taking place on Wednesday mornings in over 115 cities across the country, 1 Million Cups is a free program that brings together entrepreneurs and their communities over coffee and conversations. During each event, one to two entrepreneurs share their journey, including challenges and successes, to the audience, which is followed by a Q&A session centered around the question, “What can we as a community do to help you?” 1MC events are always free and open to the community to attend and participate.

500 Startups | 500 Startups is a Silicon Valley-based organization that invests in and accelerates early-stage technology companies. We are a global team with a presence in over 10 countries and over 1,800 investments in over 20 countries. In addition to supporting startups, we create programs that strengthen the ecosystem, such as mentorship, investor education, and corporate training programs.

Angel Capital Association (ACA) | The Angel Capital Association (ACA) is the professional association of angel investors across North America and offers education, best practices, public policy advocacy, and significant benefits and resources to its membership of more than 13,000 accredited investors, who invest individually or through 240 angel groups, accredited platforms, and family offices. For more information, visit: www.angelcapitalassociation.org or at @ACAAngelCapital.

ACA’s members are in all 50 American states and 6 Canadian provinces. These angels are proud to be part of their local innovation ecosystems and look forward to new ways of working together to support high-growth, innovative startups with financial and intellectual capital.

ACA has a series of services and events that are open to the broader ecosystem, particularly educational webinars and the Knowledge Center on our website. The ACA Summit, the world’s largest professional development event for angels, is also open to ecosystem leaders.

Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) | The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is a global membership network of organizations that propel entrepreneurship in emerging markets. ANDE members provide critical financial, educational, and business support services to small and growing businesses (SGBs) based on the conviction that SGBs will create jobs, stimulate long-term economic growth, and produce environmental and social benefits.

Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) | The Association of University Technology Managers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing research to life by supporting and enhancing the global academic technology transfer profession through education, professional development, partnering and advocacy. AUTM’s more than 3,200 members represent managers of intellectual property from more than 300 universities, research institutions and teaching hospitals around the world as well as numerous businesses and government organizations.

Babson Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Project (BEEP) | In 2010, Daniel Isenberg created the intervention-oriented Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Platform (BEEP), which launches and operates regional economic development projects to demonstrate with tangible impact on economic indicators that the critical economic development variable of entrepreneurship is not how many new firms are started, but how many firms start new growth. BEEP’s underlying premise is that regional economic growth is positively stimulated by more local companies growing (scaling up) more and more rapidly, and that an “ecosystem” aligned with this objective is needed to systematize, scale, and sustain the growth. To this end, BEEP has developed concepts and methodologies intended to motivate a broad range of actors to recognize and support new growth, each in ways specific to those stakeholders, and each of which addresses those stakeholders’ idiosyncratic needs. BEEP’s modus operandi has been to demonstrate the regional economic impact of achieving new growth in a critical mass of regional firms, while simultaneously stimulating the growth-driven engagement of the ecosystem actors.

Blackstone Foundation | Founded in 2007, the Blackstone Charitable Foundation is committed to inspiring entrepreneurship globally. By leveraging the resources and intellectual capital of Blackstone, the Foundation empowers entrepreneurs, generates job growth, and supports the communities in which we live and work.

Case Foundation | The Case Foundation invests in people and ideas that can change the world. Established by tech pioneers Jean and Steve Case, we apply a Be Fearless approach to catalyzing movements around social innovation. We are currently working to catalyze two movements: impact investing and inclusive entrepreneurship.

Impact Investing: At the Case Foundation, we envision a future where all business is responsible and all investing is with intentionality. We look to continue our work to scale the impact investing ecosystem by driving more actors—across different investor segments—to engage, support, and scale a burgeoning data-driven ecosystem and build necessary on-ramps for a wider range of investors, asset owners, and catalytic actors.
Inclusive Entrepreneurship: We are committed to expanding our support to democratize entrepreneurship by reducing barriers to entrepreneurship faced by diverse founders, scaling local pilots into national programs serving women and entrepreneurs of color and focusing on entrepreneurship ecosystems that are intentional around inclusion. By increasing access to social capital, financial capital, and inspiration capital for diverse entrepreneurs, we are building a world where all entrepreneurs have an equal opportunity to succeed, no matter their race, gender, or geography.

Center for Rural Entrepreneurship | The Center for Rural Entrepreneurship’s mission is to help community leaders build a prosperous future by supporting and empowering business, social, and civic entrepreneurs. With our roots and hearts in rural America, we help communities of all sizes and interests by bringing empowering research together with effective community engagement to advance community-driven strategies for prosperity. Our Solution Area Teams—Entrepreneurial Communities; Community Development Philanthropy; LOCUS Impact Investing—empower community leaders and place-focused foundations to find their own answers to the economic development and philanthropic challenges and opportunities they face.

Change Catalyst | Change Catalyst empowers diverse, inclusive, and sustainable tech innovation—through education, mentorship, and funding. Our Tech Inclusion programs explore and develop innovative solutions to tech diversity and inclusion. We partner with the tech community to solve diversity and inclusion together through conferences, career fairs, strategic consulting, and training. Our work spans the full tech ecosystem, including: Education, Workplace, Entrepreneurship, and Policy. Our Change Catalyst Startup Fellows Program supports and showcases early-stage underrepresented entrepreneurs. Our highly vetted early-stage entrepreneurs receive funding opportunities, introductions to key investors, mentorship, curriculum, storytelling, networking opportunities, and more.

CO.STARTERS | CO.STARTERS has extensive experience equipping local leaders, problem solvers, and unconventional starters with the best tools and resources needed to accelerate culture and empower communities. We help communities build vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems in three ways. First, we connect community leaders with one another to collaboratively solve problems and identify solutions, thus exponentially increasing their effectiveness. Second, we connect communities with proven models and tools. By partnering with the most innovative leaders in the nation, CO.STARTERS curates the best tools for startup communities and connects leaders to them to better serve the specific needs of their communities. Third, we develop our own programs and tools to address gaps in entrepreneurial ecosystems and help communities better support their entrepreneurs, including underserved populations. Our flagship offering is a nine-week, cohort-based program that equips entrepreneurs of all kinds with the insights, relationships, and tools needed to turn ideas into action.

Communities of the Future (COTF) | Communities of the Future (COTF) is a self-organizing network of people, organizations, and communities in forty-seven states and twelve countries that has evolved since 1989 to help prepare local communities for a different kind of future that will be constantly changing, interconnected, interdependent, and increasingly complex. As a result, all of the work of COTF is research and development for what is called “comprehensive community transformation.” A key emphasis of the work of COTF is to collaborate with local areas to learn how to develop “capacities for transformation” and build ecosystems able to promote and spread transformational thinking and action. Ongoing ideas (capacities) that have emerged from this work of twenty-eight years are Transformational Learning/Future Forward College; Transformational Leadership/Master Capacity Builder; Creative Molecular Economy; Mobile Collaborative Governance and Polycentric Democracy; “pH Ecosystem (Preventive Healthcare Ecosystem); and Second Enlightenment. A recent book, “Preparing for a World That Doesn’t Exist – Yet,” introduces and develops each of these concepts.

Edward Lowe Foundation | Established in 1985, the Edward Lowe Foundation is a national, nonprofit organization that advocates entrepreneurship as a strategy for economic growth and community development. As an operating foundation, we use our endowment to run programs, rather than give grants, and our focus is on second-stage entrepreneurs—companies beyond the startup phase that seek significant, steady growth. Key programs:

Educational retreats, held at the Foundation’s headquarters in southwest Michigan, that help second-stage leaders and staff with strategic direction and leadership development.
PeerSpectives, a unique CEO roundtable format that enhances leadership abilities and improves decision-making.
Economic Gardening®, which provides second-stagers with customized, strategic information in five areas: core strategy, market dynamics, qualified sales leads, innovation, and temperament.
Companies to Watch®, an awards program recognizing high-performing second-stagers, which is currently conducted in Colorado, Florida, and Michigan.

We also work with communities and other support organizations to help them better understand how to work with second-stage entrepreneurs and develop the kind of supportive culture they need to flourish.

In addition, the Foundation has a mission of land stewardship and is committed to preserving the natural resources and historic structures at Big Rock Valley, its 2,000-acre home in southwest Michigan.

Endeavor Global | Endeavor is leading the high-impact entrepreneurship movement around the world. We work to catalyze long-term economic growth by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating the best high-impact entrepreneurs worldwide. Our research team, Endeavor Insight, also conducts city-level studies on how founders become successful individually at their firms and collectively within networks or ecosystems. From these studies, we identify how policymakers, philanthropic leaders, and entrepreneurship support organizations can best foster the growth of entrepreneurs in their communities.

Engine | Engine supports the growth of technology entrepreneurship through economic research, policy analysis, and advocacy on local and national issues. Founded in 2011 to harness the political power of the startup and tech communities, Engine is a policy, advocacy, and research organization supporting startups as an engine for economic growth. Engine’s nationwide network of advisors, supporters, and members includes entrepreneurs, startups, venture capitalists, technologists, and technology policy experts.

Kauffman FastTrac | Kauffman FastTrac® aims to lower the barriers to entrepreneurship by providing practical learning materials, delivered online and via teaching partners, to entrepreneurs. In doing so, FastTrac will encourage and equip more people to start businesses, contributing to increased startup activity nationwide.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City | The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City support entrepreneurship led economic development through its Community Development Department. It provides information, convenings, and speakers on the topic. This includes a bi-annual entrepreneurship-led development conference, and the support of ecosystem work around the region and nation.

Forward Cities | Forward Cities is a multi-city, national learning collaborative that seeks to develop more inclusive innovation ecosystems in our nation’s cities. In its first two years, Forward Cities sought to advance this work in partnership with four cities: Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans, and Durham. Drawing on this work and through the support of the Case Foundation and Kresge Foundation, Forward Cities is now working to develop a set of case studies on this work, codify a toolkit for cities interested in fostering inclusive innovation ecosystems, strengthen efforts to grow the number of locally, minority-owned enterprises in the original four Forward Cities, and build a national learning platform and convening strategy with partner organizations to carry this work to many more cities across the country.

Global Accelerator Network (GAN) | 6 continents, 100+ cities, 70+ accelerators—1 standard for entrepreneurial excellence. At the Global Accelerator Network, we set the bar for startup accelerators and founders with our short-term, mentorship-based programs and guidelines.

Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) | The Global Entrepreneurship Network provides a year-round platform of programs and initiatives aimed at creating one global entrepreneurial ecosystem. GEN helps people in 170 countries unleash their ideas and turn them into promising new ventures—creating jobs, accelerating innovation and strengthening economic stability around the world.

Ranging from efforts to inspire and educate nascent entrepreneurs to advancing research and connecting global leaders in person, GEN operates in all types of economies and cultures.

The globalization of entrepreneurship has brought an explosion of programs, startup communities and investment into a new field where there is a paucity of data around what works and what does not in supporting nascent entrepreneurs and new firms forming and trying to scale. Traditional business, education and government leaders have been eager champions, but they need more sophisticated tools, programs and research to help them most efficiently direct their attention and funds to areas that have the greatest impact on future economic growth.

GEN is a compass to help address these needs by identifying effective initiatives that positively impact whole societies, and interventions that target the most critical areas for entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world.

Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) USA | Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is a celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare. During one week each November, GEW engages hundreds of thousands of Americans—and millions more in 170 countries around the world—through local, national and global activities, events and competitions designed to help them explore and reach their entrepreneurial potential.

Thousands of activities, from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings, connect participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors—introduce participants to new possibilities and exciting opportunities. U.S. partners include hundreds of universities, chambers of commerce, government entities, community groups and other organizations that make it possible for startup ecosystems to flourish.

Launched in 2008, Global Entrepreneurship Week is made possible by support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Go Daddy | GoDaddy powers the world’s largest cloud platform dedicated to small, independent ventures. With more than 17 million customers worldwide and more than 71 domain names under management, GoDaddy is the place people come to name their ideas, build a professional website, attract customers and manage their work.

GoDaddy’s vision is to radically shift the global economy toward life fulfilling independent ventures. We live our vision by providing our customers the tools, insights and the people to transfer their ideas and personal initiative into success, however they measure it.

GoDaddy GoCommunities is GoDaddy’s social impact program equipping entrepreneurs in low-income communities with training, tools and peer networks to accelerate their journeys. Starting in the United States, in 2017, GoDaddy is partnering with leading nonprofits to roll out two community-based pilots in Phoenix, AZ and Cedar Rapids, IA; one virtual pilot with Kiva U.S. and locally-driven skills-based volunteer efforts nationwide.

Google for Entrepreneurs | Google for Entrepreneurs provides financial support and the best of Google’s resources to dozens of co-working spaces and community programs across 140 countries. We also create Campuses: physical hubs where entrepreneurs can learn, connect, and build companies that will change the world. To learn more about Google for Entrepreneurs, visit google.com/entrepreneurs or follow us on G+ and Twitter.

InBIA | InBIA is a 501(c)3 non-profit with a mission to help communities enable their entrepreneurs transform their dreams into innovative businesses that make global prosperity a reality. InBIA has grown into a network of over 950 entrepreneurship centers, including members in all 50 US states, that collectively serve over 30,000 small and early growth businesses annually.

InBIA facilitates authentic connections, mentorship and peer-to-peer collaboration between entrepreneurial ecosystem leaders to help them sustainably serve highly diverse populations of entrepreneurs in a broad array of communities. We host annual international conferences, leadership summits, and training programs to assist entrepreneurship center leaders as they strive to nurture the unique entrepreneurs in their communities, and we also provide a global virtual community for entrepreneurial ecosystem leaders to facilitate the sharing of best practices and innovative ideas for serving entrepreneurs across the globe. We believe in the collaborative economy and are the largest member-based network of entrepreneurship centers in the world.

Kauffman Fellows | Kauffman Fellows fosters a worldwide network of diverse venture capitalists, leaders, and innovators through education and inspiration. Established in 1995, and independently based in Silicon Valley since 2003, Kauffman Fellows develops leaders in innovation and capital formation through its 2-year program—a transformative opportunity designed to radically accelerate innovator success through self-reflection, peer learning, mentoring, and a structured curriculum taught by venture capitalists and global thought leaders. Nearly 500 graduates lead venture capital, government, corporate, university, and startup innovation efforts in more than 40 countries. The bonds that form among Fellows result in a close-knit, lifelong network unique in the venture community, the Kauffman Fellows Society, that encourages collaboration, friendship, learning, mentoring and giving back.

Kauffman Fellows has a strong commitment to diversity, and actively recruits women and minorities. We believe our community is stronger—and allows us to better serve entrepreneurs—with a multiplicity of viewpoints and backgrounds.

Inspired by Ewing Marion Kauffman and his legacy of shared ownership, accountability, and experimentation, we measure success in enduring new businesses that generate long-term returns for principals, investors, and society as a whole.

KCSourceLink | KCSourceLink’s mission is to make entrepreneurship easier. This mission is accomplished by connecting the individuals, organizations and institutions that support entrepreneurship to one another, to the community and to the businesses that need this help. KCSourceLink built an infrastructure for entrepreneurship in Kansas City and continues to foster and grow a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.

KCSourceLink has also been leading the effort to make Kansas City America’s most entrepreneurial city by coordinating great events for entrepreneurs, like Global Entrepreneurship Week and Battle of the Brands. KCSourceLink also helps fill gaps in resources and brings national resources to the community through grants such as the i6 Challenge and the University Center Program from the Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

Knight Foundation | Knight Foundation launched an effort in 2012 focused on helping build Miami’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Over the last five years it has made more than 300 grants aimed at connecting and propelling Miami’s emerging entrepreneurs and startups as a way of building community. This includes the launch of Endeavor Miami, The Idea Center at Miami Dade College, eMerge Americas, Black Tech Week, LaunchCode South Florida, Startupbootcamp Miami, Babson’s Women Innovating Now Lab, The Lab Miami, Miami Urban Futures Initiative and 500 Startups in Miami.

Lemelson Foundation | Based in Portland, Oregon, the Lemelson Foundation uses the power of invention to improve lives. Inspired by the belief that invention can solve many of the biggest economic and social challenges of our time, the Foundation helps the next generation of inventors and invention—based businesses to flourish. The Lemelson Foundation was established in the early 1990s by prolific inventor Jerome Lemelson and his wife Dorothy. To date the Foundation has made grants totaling over $200 million in support of its mission.

Living Cities | Founded in 1991, Living Cities harnesses the collective power of 18 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions to build a new type of urban practice. Together, we are working with cross-sector leaders in cities to develop and scale new approaches to dramatically improve the economic well-being of low-income people. Our investments, research, networks and convenings catalyze fresh thinking and combine support for innovative, comprehensive, local approaches with real-time sharing of our knowledge to accelerate and deepen adoption in more places.

Mass Challenge | We envision a creative and inspired society in which everyone recognizes that they can define their future and is empowered to maximize their impact. We are obsessed with helping entrepreneurs across any industry. No equity, and not-for-profit, we also give out over $2M in equity-free cash prizes—all to help high-impact and high-potential startups win. Through our global network of accelerators in Boston, London, Jerusalem, Lausanne and Mexico City and unrivaled access to our corporate partners, we can have a massive impact—driving growth and creating value the world over.

Our mission is to catalyze a renaissance. The startup renaissance is a rebirth of the creative and inspired society that challenges old conventions and strives primarily to create new value, instead of obsessing over extracting from what already exists. It’s a world in which everyone recognizes that he or she can define the future, and is empowered to maximize impact.

National Minority Supplier Development Council | The National Minority Supplier Development Council is one of the country’s leading corporate membership organizations. NMSDC advances business opportunities for certified minority business enterprises and connects them to corporate members. NMSDC accomplishes its mission by matching the more than 12,000 certified minority-owned businesses to their vast network of corporate members who wish to purchase their products, services and solutions. Our corporate membership includes many of the largest public and privately-owned companies, as well healthcare companies, colleges and universities.

National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps | The National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory, and accelerates the economic and societal benefits of NSF-funded, basic-research projects that are ready to move toward commercialization. Through I-Corps, NSF grantees learn to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs.

National Urban League (NUL) | The National Urban League (NUL)’s mission is to enable African Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights. NUL leads its affiliate network, comprised of over 80 affiliates in 36 states across the country serving 2 million people annually, by developing signature programs, conducting public policy research and analysis, and providing advocacy tools and training. Through its Signature Entrepreneurship Center (EC) Program, NUL manages national small business programs and grants funds, supporting entrepreneurs with the goal of increasing minority entrepreneurs’ competitiveness and profitability. NUL’s ECs provide training and support to entrepreneurs operating in sectors including service, manufacturing and retail in Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland, OH; Jacksonville, FL; Houston, TX; Kansas City, KS; Los Angeles, CA; New Orleans, LA; Philadelphia, PA; Greater Washington D.C. metro area; Las Vegas, NV; and Baltimore, MD.

National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) | As the voice of the U.S. venture capital community, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) empowers its members and the entrepreneurs they fund by advocating for policies that encourage innovation and reward long-term investment. As the venture community’s flagship trade association, the NVCA serves as the definitive resource for venture capital data and unites its member firms through a full range of professional services.

National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) | The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) is a non-partisan federal advisory council created in 1988 via the Women’s Business Ownership Act (H.R. 5050), to serve as an independent source of advice and counsel to the Small Business Administration, Congress and the White House on issues of impact and importance to women business owners. Members are prominent women business owners and leaders of women’s business organizations.

As the government’s only independent voice for women entrepreneurs, the NWBC’s mission is two-fold: to conduct and support groundbreaking research that provides insight into women business enterprises, and to share the research findings to ultimately incite action and present solutions. The Council uses a four-pillar research strategy, organizing efforts around the topics of data, access to capital, access to markets, and job creation and growth. In keeping with its mission, the NWBC regularly convenes women business owners and leaders, policymakers, bankers and investors, representatives of women’s business organizations, and other stakeholders of the women’s entrepreneurship ecosystem to share research findings and to promote bold initiatives, policies, and programs to support women’s business enterprises at all stages of development in the public and private sector marketplaces—from start-up to success to significance.

NetWork Kansas | NetWork Kansas is creating an entrepreneurial culture throughout the state and one of the most robust, collaborative networks in the country. With more than 500 partners, this network focuses on high connectivity, not just connections, to create a living and breathing ecosystem. The network connects entrepreneurs and small business owners to Education, Expertise and Economic resources (the 3Es) in their community and across the state. NetWork Kansas partners represent every segment of the 3Es, providing the breadth and depth needed to support every business. The result is a culture of connectivity that accelerates the infusion of resources to entrepreneurs.

Our resource partners also provide key support to our flagship partnership program—Entrepreneurship (E) Communities. With 59 E-Communities now represented, these innovative towns and counties embody the key strategy to fundamental, long-term change. The E-Community Partnership connects targeted resources to targeted entrepreneurs in a way that just wouldn’t happen without it. Empowered and led at the local level, E-Communities work every day to grow a flourishing, sustainable, entrepreneurial environment that supports startups and expansions of businesses in their community. The result is a community vision centered around utilizing entrepreneurship as a primary tool for economic development.”

Opportunity Hub (OHUB) | Opportunity Hub (OHUB), founded in 2013, grew to a 17,000+ s/f multi-campus entrepreneurial center that offered a co-working space, pre-accelerator and incubator. Over a 4-year period, over 15,000 people entered OHUB’s Atlanta based campuses each year to explore, work, learn and build. OHUB merged its physical campuses with TechSquare Labs in October 2015 to launch a 25,000 s/f technology hub and seed fund built on the thesis that inclusive companies yield a higher economic output. To date, TechSquare Labs’ portfolio companies have raised more than $300 million in venture capital and created more than 500 new high-demand jobs. Today, OHUB is expanding globally by partnering with colleges, municipalities, community organizations, foundations and influencers to continue its mission of creating a global inclusive innovation, entrepreneurship and investment economy for all. This is accomplished by its ecosystem building, early exposure, education and capital formation initiatives which will be featured in the MVP of its ecosystem app slated to launch soon.

Rise of the Rest | Revolution’s “Rise of the Rest” with Steve Case is a nationwide effort to work closely with entrepreneurs in emerging startup ecosystems. Our view is that this is the beginning of a new era for the entrepreneurship across the U.S.—high-growth companies can now start and scale anywhere, not just in a few coastal cities. The effort has been praised by leading Democrats and Republicans, as well as businesses leaders across the country. On each bus tour, we visit five cities in five days and Steve Case personally invests a total of $500,000 in local startups. Throughout the day we also visit the fastest growing local startups, hear directly from innovators, spend time learning from local policy and business leaders. Rise of the Rest is powered by Revolution, the Washington, DC based venture capital firm.

Revolution | A Washington, DC-based investment firm founded by Steve Case in 2005, Revolution¹s mission is to build disruptive, innovative companies that offer consumers more choice, convenience, and control in their lives. Revolution seeks to create significant value for companies that are attacking large, traditional industries with innovative new products and services. The Revolution team brings proven expertise in scaling up companies and helping to expand niche ideas into mass appeal. For more information, please visit our website or follow us on Twitter.

ScaleUp Partners | ScaleUp Partners is a national network of “bilingual” economic strategists who speak the dual languages of 20th century obsolescence and 21st century innovation. We can see where the proverbial puck of economic inclusion and competitiveness is going and help you develop strategies that move stubborn stagnant economic metrics to achieve shared prosperity. To maintain and improve our global economic leadership, America needs far more contributors, i.e., economic athletes: persons who demonstrate the skills mastery, agility, grit, and stamina to achieve sustained economic mobility, security, and prosperity, as well as life satisfaction.

For the first time, ScaleUp Partners links innovation development, economic inclusion, and U.S. competitiveness in our Innovation Economy. Our leadership creates new community systems (vs. singular, isolated programs) to address the national imperative to better equip women, Blacks, Latinos, and small-town and rural populations to be economically competitive in the 21st century. Of course, we have no magic that will instantly resolve generational disconnects and economic disparities. We do have a proprietary vision, strategy, and framework of Inclusive Competitiveness®—our deliverable is helping cities and regions to cultivate new economic outcomes that disrupt the inertia of stagnant or non-existent business productivity and employment opportunities in disconnected communities.

SEED SPOT | SEED SPOT is a catalyst for social entrepreneurship with a mission to provide entrepreneurs with the resources, tools, and networks they need to help solve the world’s biggest problems. SEED SPOT runs programs for adult entrepreneurs in Phoenix, AZ, and Washington, DC with plans for expansion to other cities in 2017. Since launching in 2012, SEED SPOT has supported 288 adult entrepreneurs, 82% are still in business. Collectively, these entrepreneurs have created 742 new jobs, raised 8.4M in capital, and impacted over 1.1M lives with their innovations. With a focus on diversity and inclusion, SEED SPOT is proud to report that 49% of founders are female and 45% are minority.

SEED SPOT also runs high school programs training the next generation of youth entrepreneurs through a school-based curriculum. SEED SPOT’s work in the youth market served 1,500 students and 47 teachers in the 2016-2017 school year with plans for rapid expansion in the next year.

SEED SPOT has been nationally ranked as “One of the Top 3 Social Impact Incubators in the United States” and “One of the Top 20 Accelerators in the World.” In 2016, SEED SPOT won an Emmy award for their partnership with Univision serving Latino entrepreneurs.

SourceLink | From Seattle to San Juan and beyond, SourceLink helps power the entrepreneurial infrastructure for communities across the globe. SourceLink’s goal is to make entrepreneurship easier, creating new jobs and wealth for communities. We do this by helping regions identify entrepreneurial resources and making those resources visible; connecting resources and entrepreneurs to a central hub; empowering champions to engage, listen, and collaborate to fills gaps and overcome obstacles in the entrepreneurial ecosystem; and measuring the economic impact of their work. We connect entrepreneur champions with each other, sharing best practices across the entire network. SourceLink is R&D for entrepreneurial ecosystem builders. We’d love to have you join us in the conversation!

SSTI | SSTI strengthens initiatives to create a better future through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. Since its inception in 1996, SSTI has developed a nationwide network of practitioners and policymakers supporting regional innovation economies. We strive to maximize the capacity of our members to deliver successful outcomes within the context of the complex innovation communities in which they participate. To best assist these initiatives, SSTI conducts research on common performance standards, identifies best practices, analyzes trends in and policies affecting tech-based economic development, and fosters greater cooperation among and between all public, private and nonprofit organizations encouraging prosperity. Specific activities SSTI performs to support innovation initiatives include the Weekly Digest (newsletter), Annual Conference, webinars, federal agency and legislative communications, technical assistance and research.

StartOut | Founded in 2009 and with 15,000 members, StartOut is the largest national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization fostering and developing entrepreneurship in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. StartOut helps aspiring LGBTQ entrepreneurs start new companies, supports current LGBTQ entrepreneurs as they grow and expand their existing businesses, and engages successful LGBTQ entrepreneurs as role models and mentors. StartOut’s goals are to support, educate, inspire and connect members of the LGBTQ community around entrepreneurship and business leadership.

Startup Angels (now Different Funds) | Startup Angels was founded with the mission of increasing the number of startup investors and the amount of capital available in markets across the US and around the globe. We help individual investors as well as wealth management professionals navigate this asset class as part of a diversified portfolio. Startup Angels has a network of investors, entrepreneurs and community leaders in 65 global markets, and growing. We provide Investor 101 Workshops, market profiles, and best practices.

Startup Champions Network (SCN) | Startup Champions Network (SCN) is a national community of practice of over 80 innovation ecosystem builders across the US. Founded in 2015, the mission of Startup Champions Network is to build a national network of best-in-class innovation ecosystem builders and connecting them to people, resources, and events around the nation to support their communities and their work. Through developing a diverse network of professional ecosystem builders around the country, SCN works to equip and empower ecosystem builders to provide best of breed solutions that enable local entrepreneurs to grow.

Startup Genome | Startup Genome is enhancing economic development by improving startup success and startup ecosystems everywhere. Our mission is to help forward-looking cities to catalyze their startup ecosystems and ensure that every region fully participates in the new technology-fueled economy. Founded in 2011 as the Startup Genome Project in collaboration with Steve Blank, we have partnered with Global Entrepreneurship Network, CrunchBase, hundreds of partners, and more than 10,000 startup founders—the Voice of Entrepreneurs—to build the largest body of knowledge on startup ecosystems. Together we enable our city members and other civic leaders to precisely identify the relative gaps of their ecosystems and take proven actions to address them.

Tech.co | Tech.Co is a vibrant media, community and events organization for creatives, entrepreneurs, and technology enthusiasts. Since 2006, its goal has been to amplify tech communities providing a place to get informed, connected and inspired.

Techstars | Techstars is a worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Startup Week brings entrepreneurs, local leaders, and friends together in cities all over the world for up to five days to build momentum and opportunity around the unique entrepreneurial identity of each of those communities. Startup Week is a celebration led by community leaders and entrepreneurs and hosted in the work and meeting spaces they love.

Techstars—Startup Week | Startup Week celebrates the achievements of entrepreneurial communities in cities across the globe. Our mission is to develop and support thriving communities wherever they may exist. The best way to do this is to bring entrepreneurs together in a way that they can connect, share and bond. Over the course of five days, participants in Startup Week can choose the events they’d like to attend. Typically these events are held at various venues across a city. Speakers from the community, and outside it, are brought in to share their story to motivate and inspire the entrepreneurial community. Local organizers select the tracks they feel are most relevant to their community and choose speakers based on those tracks. After Startup Week ends, participants find that they’re more connected to their community and no longer feel alone in their efforts. It’s this support network that can make the difference between closing up shop and pushing through to success.

Techstars—Startup Weekend | At Startup Weekend, you’ll be immersed in the ideal environment for startup magic to happen. Surrounded by smart, passionate people and with the best tools and approaches at your disposal, you’ll take giant leaps toward creating a business, becoming a founder, and connecting with the right people and resources.

U.S. Economic Development Administration—Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (OIE) | Housed within the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) works to foster a more innovative U.S. economy focused on turning new ideas and inventions into products and technologies that spur job growth and competitiveness while promoting economic development. OIE achieves this through three primary initiatives: the Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) grant program, the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), and serving as a coordinator and collaborator across Federal government innovation and entrepreneurship focused programs and offices.

The RIS program provides grants to organizations helping bring new ideas and businesses to market. The NACIE helps advise the Secretary of Commerce on issues and policies critical to driving the innovation economy. And OIE coordinates across innovation-focused federal offices to increase the effectiveness of federal programming and policies that support commercialization of new technologies and the formation, launch and growth of new businesses.

VentureWell | VentureWell is a non-profit organization that supports the creation of new ventures from an emerging generation of science and technology inventors and supports the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems that are critical to their success. We’ve funded or trained over 4,500 science and technology inventors and innovators and nurtured nearly a thousand of their startups reaching millions of people in over 50 countries. We are proud that leading institutions, from foundations to government agencies to major businesses, support our mission to transform higher education and technology entrepreneurship. We are recognized around the world for our powerful model for supporting emerging STEM innovators and for convening and strengthening the regional or national entrepreneurship ecosystems that are critical to their successes.

Village Capital | Village Capital is a global investment firm that finds, trains and invests in entrepreneurs solving critical challenges in economic empowerment and resource sustainability. We work with leading partners to build communities around entrepreneurs to improve business success. Our unique peer review model delivers better results for entrepreneurs and investors. We’ve supported over 600 entrepreneurs through 50 programs worldwide, and graduates have leveraged initial capital 15:1, created over 11,000 jobs, and served over 5 million customers. Our approach is proven. According to the 2015 “What’s Working in Startup Acceleration” report, entrepreneurs that we support, on average, generate 43% more revenue, create 43% more jobs, and raise over 8 times the investment capital when compared to a control group.