2 days Ago By Kenton Tsoodle
Accelerator programs help local entrepreneurs and small business owners gain access to capital, secure funding for their businesses, connect with other business owners and gain valuable training and skills development to grow their businesses. The Alliance for Economic Development has provided American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for several local accelerator programs, including Real Deal , StitchCrew , Progress OKC’s Generation Impact , gener8tor , and Oklahoma City Minority Founders Accelerator (OMFA) , underwriting the cost of participation. These accelerators also serve as platforms for BIPOC leaders to learn and grow while providing meaningful connections with other successful business leaders.
Already, we have seen that success stories from the accelerators are interconnected and city-wide. For example, from the first OMFA cohort, the Notis Studios founders collaborated with OKCThunder Films, the Thunder’s film and broadcast studio, to produce the Emmy-award-winning documentary, Seeds of Greenwood. Through participation in these cohorts, entrepreneurs are supported and encouraged to connect with other entrepreneurs to create even more innovative projects like the Notis Studios’ documentary.
Generation Impact offers participants the chance to pitch their aspiring or existing businesses to rooms full of professionals as part of their program graduation. After receiving the training and strategy support the program offers, these participants can share their growth plans and business ideas with other entrepreneurs across the city. Public “pitches” like this facilitate resource-sharing, awareness and collaborative idea exchange.
Local entrepreneurs’ success stimulates the economy, supports job growth and supports a strong local small business culture. When we designated ARPA funding for these accelerators, we invested time into creating an interconnected network and helped foster an ecosystem of support across OKC. The leaders of these accelerators put their care and dedication into supporting fruitful programs and partnerships to uplift our small and minority-owned business community.
The entrepreneurship ecosystem and their collaboration should be an example to future leaders. As we continue to learn the impact of these programs, we will continue to see a widespread positive impact, both on a social and an economic level. Kenton Tsoodle is the president of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City .
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