These programs are especially popular at community and technical colleges like Hillsborough. Community colleges serve the majority of students from underrepresented groups, said Martha Parham, senior vice president of the Association of American Community Colleges.
For example, historically Black Bowie State University opened a $42 million startup academy in August, including space for student businesses and a residence hall for more than 500 students.
Some entrepreneurship educators argue that higher education institutions should focus on helping existing Hispanic businesses expand rather than encouraging new ones. Jerry Porras, professor emeritus of organizational behavior and change, coordinates the Latino Startup Initiative at Stanford, which helps expand established Hispanic businesses with at least $1 million in revenue la. It provides a seven week program on how to scale a business and provide mentors, connect with potential investors (although there are no guarantees on loans or investments), and connect with a network of people-owned businesses. Spain owned.
Porras said businesses owned by nearly 800 alumni of the Latino Startup Initiative at Stanford have combined annual revenue of about $5 billion, more than 39,000 employees, and operations in 31 states.
Even seasoned entrepreneurs face long odds that won’t necessarily improve over time. About a third of new businesses failed within two years, half within five years and two-thirds within 10 years, according to a U.S. Small Business Administration analysis of new business survival rates from 1994 to 2018.
Minority entrepreneurs face additional challenges; On average, they have fewer household assets and less access to grants, loans, and mainstream equity investors, and they often serve less affluent communities than do entrepreneurs. business owned by whites.
Startup programs can help them get loans, grants, and investments. Eighty-two percent Hispanic alumni of the Stanford program receive SBA-backed Paycheck Protection Program loans such as in the midst of a pandemic, while overall only 28% of whites own and 18% of businesses are owned by Spaniards similarly sized received loans, the Stanford study found.
Hillsborough Professor Beth Kerly says the Hillsborough startup program Tiffany Bell attended has mentored and provided seed funding for Bell and 25 other entrepreneurs over the past two years, including five Hispanic students, seven black students and 14 female students.
These entrepreneurs share one attribute: They’re all still in the game. According to Andy Gold, another Hillsborough professor and a former Wall Street investor, who was on the same program as Kerly, despite launching just before or during the ongoing pandemic, and one of them. sold.
He cites “ridiculously intrusive mentoring” as the key to this success.
Gold, Kerly, and a set of mentors volunteer to check in with their students upon graduation. “Before we talk about all the good news for your company, you have to tell me what your monthly revenue is and how that number compares to last month, year after year. , while also answering a host of other financial questions,” said Gold.
Family traditions led some black and Hispanic Americans to start their own businesses. Dewayne Kimble, 52, graduated from an entrepreneurial training program offered by Syracuse University’s Institute of Veterans and Military Families in partnership with Hillsborough Community College. After leaving the Department of Veterans Affairs, Kimble, who is black, founded a veterans benefits consulting business that now has nearly 150 clients, he said.
Many of Kimble’s aunts and uncles from southeastern Missouri are businessmen. “One of those siblings bought a bus,” he said, “fixed it and started providing bus service… Then he started buying used cars, fixing them up, and selling them. they. And then my grandmother had two other brothers who owned the land and farmed. And another sibling, an older sister, has a women’s clothing store on the South Side of Chicago. “
Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs also started businesses with the aim of benefiting their communities. David Favela left his global business management job at Hewlett Packard in 2018 to work full-time on the side business he started in 2013, Border X Brewing in San Diego. Border X brews and serves Mexican-themed drinks like Blood Saison, a tart, bright red beer inspired by Mexican hibiscus tea, in three dining rooms in elite Hispanic neighborhoods. workers in Southern California.
