Keeping up with the season, SourceLink Director, Rob Williams wore his Santa hat to kick off our final SourceLink Affiliate Quarterly Conversation of the year on December 11. We are excited to welcome our guest speaker, Victor Hwang, founder of Right to Start, a campaign fighting to expand entrepreneurial opportunity for all. But first here are a few highlights from our network in 2024.
Highlights from the SourceLink Network in 2024
Reflecting on the tremendous work we have been able to achieve together:
- SourceLink completed engagements with the Small Business Administration (SBA) Community Navigation Pilot Program (CNPP) and the National League of Cities City Inclusive Entrepreneurship program. In addition, we co-produced the first ever collaboratively driven e.Builders Forum in partnership with InBIA, Third Eye Network, and KCSourceLink.
- We welcomed new affiliates joining our community from Hawaii, Virginia, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado and Michigan!
- New websites were completed for two current affiliates.
- More regions were added to the ecosystem from the great state of Louisiana and continued growth with our longstanding partnership with the National Urban League resulting in multiple new centers coming online.
- After diligent work over many months, the development and activation of SourceLink℠ Enterprise with Third Eye Network rolled out the first of its kind collective impact CRM for ecosystem builders across the country and will expand our impact to many more entrepreneurs in tremendous ways this coming year.
Congratulations to Affiliates celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), November 18-24, 2024. So many showed innovative ways to celebrate, from an all-Spanish track in Kansas City to an Economic Development Summit in Upstate New York! Plus, our own Maria Meyers, SourceLink founder and Executive Director of the UMKC Innovation Center, joined our friends in North Texas on their podcast, sharing her story of how she builds entrepreneurial ecosystems around the country. Maria shares so much wisdom about how local ecosystems work and how entrepreneurs find the resources they need in their communities.
Get Involved with Right to Start
A big thank you to our guest speaker Victor Hwang, founder and CEO of Right to Start who fired up this group to support this campaign to help entrepreneurs! Right to Start seeks to level the playing field by lifting the voices of everyday entrepreneurs, grassroots mobilizing and organizing and engaging with policymakers at all levels. Victor is also founder and CEO of Victor & Company, an economic growth consultancy.
Previously, he was Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, At Kauffman, he led initiatives that impacted over 200,000 entrepreneurs. His co-authored book, The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley should be required reading for everyone doing the work that we do.
Victor comes from an entrepreneurial family. His parents immigrated to the United States from Taiwan and started a business. Although it was successful, he saw how hard it was for them. Realizing the system really doesn’t look out for the everyday entrepreneurs and business owners, he’s spent the last 25 years starting businesses and helping people start businesses.
Why is entrepreneurship important? New companies create new jobs. About seven new jobs are created by each microbusiness entrepreneur on a county-level and there is a strong correlation between higher rates of entrepreneurship in a region and a significant reduction in poverty levels. Research shows a one percent increase in statewide entrepreneurship is associated with a two percent decrease in the poverty rate, meaning that as the rate of entrepreneurship rises by 1%, the poverty rate tends to fall by 2%.
At Right to Start, their approach is to 1) change minds by elevating the importance of entrepreneurial opportunity though media and storytelling; 2) change communities by mobilizing citizens to take actions that expand entrepreneurial opportunity and 3) change policies by advocating for entrepreneurs by engaging policymakers and civic leaders at all levels.
Launching four years ago, Right to Start has rapidly expanded reaching 71 Right to Start ambassadors, advocates, team members, board members and advisors in 31 states and Washington D.C. Forty-one pieces of legislation supporting entrepreneurship have been introduced and six states have implemented Right to Start’s recommendation to put a person in charge of entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship has the power to unite across party lines. From the Right to Start polling data, a majority of Republicans, Democrats and Independent parties would be more likely to support a candidate who emphasized making it easier to start and grow a new business. However, leaders don’t know how to talk about this issue. Our job is to give them the tools to get the word out.
Victor encouraged us to get involved by joining the Right to Start’s community, host a celebration of entrepreneurship event and build a coalition to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses. To join and for more information, visit Right to Start online.
SourceLink Affiliate Quarterly Conversations
SourceLink Affiliate Quarterly Conversations are a benefit for SourceLink clients. Agendas include topics, speakers and discussions suggested by our community of network and ecosystem builders and is an opportunity for the SourceLink network to share best practices and with one another. For more information about becoming a SourceLink affiliate and to join our conversations, please contact Krista Markley, kmarkley@joinsourcelink.com.
