weVENTURE

We Venture to Ignite the Economic Power of Women

We strive to be the leading voice and resource for professional women and female entrepreneurs on the Space and Treasure Coasts. We fulfill our mission by providing the following services:

• FREE one-on-one business consultations
• Low and no-cost business education seminars and workshops
• IGNITE 360® Mentoring Program and Peer Groups
• Purposeful networking events
• Leadership development opportunities for professional women
• We elevate the profile of women leaders and advocate for economic opportunities for women

Established in 2007, our non-profit program is part of the Nathan M. Bisk College of Business on the campus of Florida Tech and is funded in part by a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.  Since then, we have:

• Trained over 16,000 clients
• Helped over 200 business owners grow and expand their businesses through the IGNITE 360® Mentoring Program
• Helped clients to create and maintain local jobs
• Helped clients to increase revenues -  an average of 40% for IGNITE 360® graduates
• Worked with clients from Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, and Martin counties.

Our team of 6 staff members and over 75 volunteers work to support clients from diverse backgrounds and industries to launch and grow their businesses.

In 2022-2023 Program Year*, weVENTURE WBC:

• Served 907 unique clients TOTAL. Counseling education, and group trainings
• Assisted 333 Start-up businesses, helped 16 clients launch their business and worked with 147 aspiring entrepreneurs.
• 38% client diversity.  weVENTURE WBC continues to increase the number of ethnically diverse clients we serve by focusing our outreach and partnerships to make our services more accessible to underserved communities. 
• Clients created 127  NEW jobs and 1607 jobs were retained. 
• Assisted clients with accessing capital, including private funding and SBA loans.
• 354 clients attended our 82  group training sessions, Peer Groups or webinars.
• 475 clients received 1:1 counseling for a total of 1,147 hours of direct counseling. 
• 78% of our clients were female and 22% were male clients or husband and wife partnerships.
• 16 IGNITE 360® clients graduated the program in 2022-2023, and 42 clients graduated from IGNITE 360®  Pathways Business Launch Program
• 300 people attended the sold out 2023 IMPACT Summit, the annual leadership development conference hosted in October. 
• 28 emerging leaders participated in the ATHENA Leadership Program.

View the 2022-2023 Annual Report

View the 2021-2022 Annual Report

View the 2020-2021 Annual Report

View the 2019-2020 Annual Report

*Our SBA program year runs October through September.