05.28.19
Business Builder Program Accelerates Tech Start Ups and Growth Companies
Tammy Y. Allen, Director, Marketing & Programs, The NIIC
WEOC Launch Women Business Builders Photo provided by The NIIC
Registration Open for Next Cohort
May 28, 2019, Fort Wayne, Ind.—Female founders starting, growing and innovating tech businesses can now register for Women’s Entrepreneurial Opportunity Center (WEOC) Launch Women Business Builder Program cohort four (click here to register). The program helps level the playing field for women in tech by increasing access to entrepreneurial tools, mentoring, growth resources and access to capital.
There is no charge to those accepted into program due to generous donors and The NIIC Ideas@Work Movement. Business builders receive one-to-one personal and virtual coaching, peer-to-peer mentoring, shared workspace at The NIIC, access to NIIC Navigator® Learning Management System, potential funding to fuel business growth, etc.
Cohort four is limited to 10 companies. “These women meet each week and build their own cohort community. Despite working full-time jobs, caring for aging parents, delivering children or experiencing trauma, they support each other and give each other the courage through absolute transparency. Technology companies are not quick turn startups,” said Leslee Hill, WEOC Director at The NIIC.
Companies successfully completing phase one of the program may have the opportunity to proceed with the program for up to one year. “This means they could have the support of WEOC and their cohort community for an entire year to help ensure their success,” said Hill. Upon completing phase two of the program, there is an opportunity for funding.
“My favorite part about this program is that as a cohort, they think and dream bigger. If they come into the program thinking about a local business concept, they morph into a national or global idea before the second phase is done. It is absolutely wonderful,” said Hill.
Seventeen companies have been served through this program since it launched in January 2018. These companies include apps for realty, rideshare and interior design markets; online membership sites for education and wellness industries and online stores.
Registration remains open through September 20, 2019, with an announcement of accepted applicants and program launch the week of October 7, 2019.
For more information, visit the WEOC website.
About The NIIC
The NIIC is a non-profit, vibrant entrepreneurial community. We help business builders and entrepreneurs launch and grow successful business ventures. We are located in a designated U.S. Small Business Administration HUB Zone, and in April 2018, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb designated The Northeast Indiana Innovation Park Campus as an Opportunity Zone through the U.S. Treasury. Formed in 1999 by a consortium of community and government leaders and organizations, The NIIC was recognized by Entrepreneur magazine in 2013 as one of the top four under-the-radar incubators in the country. This basically means Entrepreneur magazine, with the help of International Business Incubation Association, picked four U.S. incubators to highlight, and we were one of them. In their words, we “stand out in a state not always perceived as small business friendly.” The NIIC is the country’s only ISO9001:2015 registered business incubation and acceleration program. TheNIIC.org. Click here for The NIIC press kit.
About WEOC
The Women’s Entrepreneurial Opportunity Center (WEOC) serves Northeast Indiana women at all stages of their business ventures. WEOC responds to the unique needs of women entrepreneurs through business growth coaching, training and entrepreneurial education, connectivity and access to capital. In October 2017, the name changed to Women’s Entrepreneurial (instead of Economic) Opportunity Center to more accurately reflect what WEOC does. WEOC is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. As the Host Organization, The NIIC also provides funding and supplemental and complementary resources for WEOC, an SBA designated Women’s Business Center—one of two in Indiana. For more information, visit www.inweoc.com.
