The Tampa Bay Wave and Embarc Collective have teamed up to create a new program for women entrepreneurs thanks to a grant.
JPMorgan Chase announced Wednesday it would be donating $500,000 over two years, to be split between the two entities for a new program focused on raising capital and talent among women in the technology sector in Tampa Bay.
“The number of women-owned technology startups is growing at a record pace, but they continue to face a unique set of challenges when it comes to accessing capital and networks,” Michele Grace, South division director for Chase Business Banking, said in a statement. “By partnering with leading organizations like Tampa Bay Wave and Embarc Collective, we will help women entrepreneurs break those barriers and achieve that next stage of success.”
Linda Olson, executive director of the Tampa Bay Wave, noticed JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) donated grants in the past to women initiatives, "which is something I had a lot of interest in, as a woman with two daughters." While she was having discussions with the bank, Embarc Collective's CEO Lakshmi Shenoy was in discussions for her own program.
"The problem is big enough we need at least two organizations, if not more, working on this issue," Olson said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Business Journal. "And of course it's not unique to Tampa Bay, but it's a pretty large community and we welcome the opportunity to partner with Embarc."
The two eventually partnered to create the "Growing the Impact of Entrepreneurship Through Inclusion" program, which launches this fall. Applications will be taken this spring.
"Ensuring that early-stage entrepreneurs have access to the collective resources of a community and breaking down silos between support organizations will help Tampa Bay’s entrepreneurs, specifically our women tech entrepreneurs, move forward faster,” Shenoy said in a statement. “We are grateful to the support from JPMorgan Chase for supporting this collaboration to create a more impactful and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Members will go through a 90-day accelerator program, which the Wave will take the lead on with mentorship and business development training. Embarc Collective coaches will help the participants by measuring business milestones and gaining access to capital and investors.
"I saw this as an opportunity to not only do something incredibly impactful with Embarc, but hopefully to change the narrative in the Tampa Bay community that entrepreneurial support organizations are competitive or duplicative," Olson said. "We wanted to combine the community networks and resources that Wave has built and the resources Embarc is bringing to the region, all for the benefit of the underrepresented groups in our system, specifically women."
The program will also have a "glaring gap summit" to bring in outside experts to further discuss how to lift women in technology and innovation.
"Before we can prescribe solutions, we have to diagnose what they really are," Olson said. "The glaring gap summit is about having these conversations here, bringing experts from the outside."
Olson acknowledges while the program will help shine a light on the problem, it is the first of many steps needed to be taken to solve the issue.
"Through this grant, we plan to shine a light on the problem and on the women already finding success — we need to break the myth that it can't be done," she said. "But I suspect when we get into diagnosis, it's not going to be a quick fix. In some cases, it will be systemic. Organizations like the Wave and Embarc will have to look at our own programs, to make sure, 'Are we doing enough ourselves?' To make sure founders of any gender have the opportunity to succeed."
