The Enterprise Center

Jordan Bradley wowed our audience with Highnote's innovative audio collaboration tech as a competitor in our Visionary Pitch Competition last June. We're excited to share that they've clearly wowed TEC Capital's Seed Fund team, too, as they just made a $250,000 investment in Highnote. Congratulations, Jordan! #investment #seedfund #capital #growthcapital #seedcapital #philadelphia

Our nationwide 22 city Cocktails and Economics tour closed out for 2024 in style at J.P. Morgan's headquarters in New York City. While we encountered everything from snowstorms to hurricanes to an event that had to be canceled because of the NBA playoffs, we are pleased to report that Cocktails and Economics NYC went off without a hitch! Sponsor J.P. Morgan's Jason Patton opened the evening by welcoming everyone to the space, recognizing the significance of this 2024 Cocktails and Economics finale event, and reminding attendees that J.P. Morgan doesn't just support small businesses through sponsorship of events like Cocktails and Economics but also through hands-on business growth support services. Next, our President & CEO Della Clark (who has emceed every single Cocktails event), thanked her two inspirations behind the series, who happened to be in the room: Gabriela Santos and Richard Vague. Their enthusiasm for economics was infectious, spurring Della to hit the road and spread the word to our nation's diverse small business owners: keeping tabs on economic indicators will help your bottom line! Then, the effervescent Travis T. Mack interviewed Keiron Bigby & Troy Bigby of K Street Spirits because, "When Della calls, you show up." Keiron and Troy shared the story of their entrepreneurial journey, inspired by their mother in Islip, Long Island 10 years ago. Presently, their biggest challenge as business owners is capital: marketing for spirits is extremely expensive. While each of our events had an economist guest speaker, this event took the economics portion to the next level: we assembled an all-star panel of economists (Richard Vague, William Michael Cunningham, MA, MBA, and Kristen Broady, Ph.D.) who had participated in at least 3 of our events, moderated by JP Morgan's Gabriela Santos. The panel touched on several pressing economics issues of the day: the labor market, disparities in access to capital, the national debt, AI/automation, and - the hottest topic - the imminent change in the USA's presidential administration. Our audience was extremely engaged, and we hope everyone left the event better prepared to weather macroeconomic changes in the future. Of course, we couldn't end the event without the series' biggest crowd-pleaser: Della's "Changing Our Lingo" slides, which implore entrepreneurs to think bigger and better about how they talk about themselves and how they operate their businesses. This is not the end of Cocktails and Economics, though: Della was taking the pulse of diverse entrepreneurship as she traveled the USA, and we will be releasing a report with our findings in February. Stay tuned for further details! In the meantime, we'd like to thank everyone who attended our event, our generous sponsors JPMorganChase & Comcast, our NYC co-hosts Business Outreach Center Network and OLIM Lifestyle Management Consulting, and last but not least Bellevue Public Affairs: the best event planners in the business.

I had a great time last week visiting Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, NJ. They have an amazing and dedicated team and beautiful property. The Borgata’s purchasing team, Bryon Harley and Zoe Rivera, and I had the opportunity to present and partner with Brian K. Oglesby, Meg Markley, PMP , and Brittany Rivera with the Eastern Minority Supplier Development Council on “Up Next with Borgata”. During the webinar we presented our vendor onboarding process, DGE vendor gaming compliance, MGM’s Supplier Diversity Mentorship Program, some procurement opportunities, and how to register in our database. We also had the opportunity to meet Victoria L. H. , Executive VP of The Enterprise Center (TEC) and Director of New Jersey MBDA Business Center. TEC promotes racial and economic equity by supporting the growth of diverse small businesses. They assist with resources, general business advising and planning, access to capital, development, connecting small businesses with procurement opportunities, and certification. We are looking forward to working with TEC. #FocusOnWhatMatters #Borgata #MGMResortsInternational

Had a wonderful time speaking at J.P. Morgan Corporate Headquarters with The Enterprise Center supporting small businesses from across the nation. Della Clark and her 22 city tour advocating on behalf of small businesses was a true inspiration and I was happy to support and participate while sharing my knowledge in the space.

Many thanks to Della Clark and The Enterprise Center for organizing and inviting me to share my research during Cocktails & Economics in Detroit, Denver and the finale in New York! What an awesome, educational, motivational program series!

We are so proud of Victoria L. Hosendorf, MS for receiving this honor from the Philadelphia Business Journal for her work in Greater Philadelphia/New Jersey. Congratulations, Victoria! #philadelphia #newjersey #smallbusiness

Love to see our PA MBDA Project Director Howard Brown meeting with an NFL legend at National MED Week (even if he was a Dallas Cowboy ??.) #MEDWEEK #NFL #Entrepreneurship

Well, I am back from my first GPLEX in San Diego and I’m still absorbing the experience. For those who are unfamiliar with GPLEX (Greater Philadelphia Leadership Exchange), it’s a multiday conference hosted by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia that aims to “build Philadelphia’s civic muscle”. I struggle to sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time, so I appreciated all of the active and interactive components; I was never bored at GPLEX and I met and made genuine connections with so many fantastic people! My top 10 highlights: 1. Seeing the amazing adaptive reuse work at Naval Base Point Loma 2.?The focus on housing, which is a crisis facing many communities across the USA. From Andy Toy’s breakout session on Housing and Caring for the Unhoused to the conversation that I had with Maleda Berhane about financing affordable housing, I leveled up my knowledge 3.?Learning about giraffe conservation from the team at San Diego Zoo Safari Park 4.?Real talk about disinformation and the threats facing our democracy with Richardson Dilworth, Jeff Hornstein, Morgan Berman, Heather Keafer, Saloni Tandon, Maria W., Jeffrey Abramowitz, and Akshara Vivekananthan 5.?The visit to San Ysidro, the border neighborhood between the USA/Tijuana, Mexico. Some issues facing our communities seem to be universal, such as housing unaffordability, parking concerns conflicting with housing development, business vacancy, and environmental racism. 6. Being metallic fashion twins with Alyssa Andress at the evening reception on the Star of India: the world’s oldest active sailing vessel 7.?An insightful conversation with Alain Joinville about how to ease tensions between longstanding community members and new immigrant groups 8.?All of the amazing food 9.?My excursions to La Jolla, Balboa Park, and Underbelly Ramen with Tish Lewis 10. Seeing the big picture. When I saw that Greg Vicino from the San Diego zoo was delivering our keynote, I thought to myself “Hm. This will be interesting. I wonder if any of it can apply to my own work…” and one slide from his amazing presentation made everything click in my head. There are facets to delivering a high quality program or project that apply no matter what the project is: involving key stakeholders from the beginning, developing and implementing solutions that are sensitive to the local context, and a solid plan for either long-term stewardship and sustainability or project closeout. I’ve always enjoyed pulling insights from seemingly unrelated domains into other domains to help solve problems, so I can safely say that I left GPLEX 4 days older and much wiser Shoutout to the Economy League (Kejsi Shahaj, Jeff, Saloni, Kenyatta James, and everyone else) and Myth teams who put on an extremely well-run and amazingly curated conference, and infinite gratitude to The Economy League and The Enterprise Center and Della Clark for supporting this professional development opportunity. #GPLEX #GPLEX2024 #Philadelphia #SanDiego

A heartfelt thank you to The Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE) and Amazon’s Global Procurement Organization leadership team for the gracious tour and enriching experience! Located in the heart of Atlanta, RICE is a thriving hub for Black entrepreneurs, inspired by the legacy of Herman J. Russell—one of the city’s most impactful business pioneers. As the Director of the Pennsylvania MBDA Business Center at The Enterprise Center, I am continually inspired and humbly reminded of the legacy and shoulders I stand on as we strive for economic development. The mission at RICE resonates deeply: Build. Black. Business. Hearing Keith Moore explain to me the historical parallels between RICE and the Enterprise Center was a powerful reminder of the collaborative spirit we all share in fostering entrepreneurship. Let’s keep energizing our communities! #EconomicDevelopment #BlackEntrepreneurs #CommunityImpact #NMSDCconference #DefiningNewNorms #MBDA #MEDWeek2024 #SupplierDiversity