Lessons from Augusta
Over the last year we participated in the National League of Cities City Innovation Ecosystems program with the Augusta Economic Development Authority. Through this program, we partnered with commercial capital providers to launch a local workforce training program to provide Certificates in Entrepreneurship that improve access to capital for historically disadvantaged entrepreneurs. This program is currently expanding statewide based on the lessons learned in Augusta.
Lessons from Augusta
Startups are more than just tech. Georgia wants to be a hotbed of exciting new tech firms, but companies in other sectors will be critical to its growth as well. Augusta’s ecosystem of entrepreneurial support caters both to small, Main Street businesses and to companies in its burgeoning cybersecurity sector.
Geographic inclusion, not “hub and spoke”. While there will always be an important economic relationship between Atlanta and Georgia’s smaller cities, Augusta and its like-sized city partners will collaborate on efforts to promote bottom-up, entrepreneurship-led economic development with a focus on social innovation, and racial and gender equity.
Access to capital and mentors are key ingredients to new business formation. Underrepresented entrepreneurs often struggle to access pools of startup capital that people with accumulated personal or family wealth do. Augusta is identifying ways to make small, early investments in under-represented entrepreneurs’ ideas while providing them with access to experienced mentors.
