A Community Driven Approach to Business Incubation
Economic Development Solid Gold Neighbor
by Jeremy Vickers, Associate Vice President, External Affairs
Startup Waco, a partner of Baylor University, is a local nonprofit whose purpose is to help create and sustain an ecosystem of entrepreneurship in order to help businesses start, build, grow, and ultimately thrive in Waco. In its first two years of existence, its already become a hub of activity, programs, resources, and connections to help small businesses and startups. Today, we recognize Startup Waco’s IncubateX254 program for truly innovating how it approaches business support.IncubateX254 is “an initiative aimed at addressing the fundamental needs of small businesses with a distinct emphasis on women and minority owned enterprises” as the marketing materials highlight. The program supports business by putting together cohorts of like-minded entrepreneurs within similar industries and stages with content, curriculum, mentorship and subject matter experts over a multi-week program. These entrepreneurs will gain skills and knowledge in areas of marketing, business development, sales, leadership, management, finance, accounting, strategy, and other core business skills that they may not already possess.
In its kickoff this fall, IncubateX254 is running to concurrent cohorts each with between seven and ten active businesses in Waco. Cohort 01 is focused around small and micro businesses in the food services space. With Waco blossoming as an emerging hub of local food concepts, Startup Waco eyes the opportunity to seed and feed the next generation of food entrepreneurs! Cohort 02 is working with companies that are a little further ahead of Cohort 01, who are currently in or are nearly in a brick and mortar space, and extends their industry focus to include both food services and retail!
Kicking off in mid-September, IncubateX254 rapidly assessed and supported these two cohorts of entrepreneurs through custom deliverable development, active peer and mentor discussion time, and work sessions to support progress in milestones for business success. Keep an eye out for the closing night ceremony on October 22, 2020!
To learn more, support these companies, become a mentor, or apply for the next cohorts visit www.startupwaco.com.