The Lab’s mission is to help diverse small businesses scale. With major support from the U.S. Economic Development Agency and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, we’ve made significant progress in actualizing that mission this past year.
Count the ways!
In March 2023 we launched the second Inclusive Entrepreneur Fellowship Program with 11 ‘main street’ entrepreneurs selected. The majority of our current 2022 and 2023 IE fellows are female entrepreneurs (9 out of 11) and BIPOC (6 out of 11). We expect the incoming 2024 cohort of fellows to fully engage with range of opportunities to develop themselves as leaders and their companies.
We have completed more than 60 managerial assistance projects, serving small businesses in Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island, by matching their projects/business challenges with teams of students and faculty members at Northeastern University. A prime example is Tatum Robotics, a path-breaking Boston-based company. College of Engineering students supported the company’s efforts to develop an innovative robotic arm to enhance DeafBlind communication.
The Lab conducted two major research projects in 2023. The first analyzed 114 higher education websites in New England. What we discovered was that very few institutions provide a virtual window into their procurement practices – a major barrier for diverse suppliers. The second focuses on the perspectives of procurement professionals in higher education. That report will be published in early 2024.
The second annual Symposium on Supplier Diversity in Higher Education on June 22 brought together a wide range of stakeholders committed to helping diverse small businesses navigate the higher education procurement process. Student teams played a major role in outlining educational resources that will be made available to small businesses in 2024.
This work would not be possible without the support of Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies, the university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and the many advocates of diverse small businesses in higher education and beyond. I’m so grateful for contribution of our small, but big-thinking Lab team.
I look forward to sharing updates on our work in the coming year!
Francesca Grippa
Associate Dean for Research and Executive Director of the Lab for Inclusive Entrepreneurship
College of Professional Studies
