weVENTURE

We Venture to Ignite the Economic Power of Women

We strive to be the leading voice and resource for professional women and support all 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 
• 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. 

While our program markets to the fastest growing segment of new businesses, female entrepreneurs, because we are federally funded, we do not discriminate based on race or gender and our services are available to ALL entrepreneurs. weVENTURE WBC is part of a network of SBA funded small business support organizations that include Small Business Development Centers, SCORE, Veteran Business Development Centers, and Minority Business Development Centers. Entrepreneurs are welcome to work with whichever service provider is most convenient to them, or work with multiple SBA resource providers. We are a team that works together to support a vibrant small business community. 

Since 2007, we have:

• Trained over 17,700 clients
• Helped over 300 business owners grow and expand their businesses through the IGNITE 360® Mentoring Program. Most impressive, 100% of program graduates are either still in business or have had successful exits.
• 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 7 staff members and over 80 volunteer mentors and subject matter experts work to support clients from diverse backgrounds and industries to launch and grow their businesses.

In 2024-2025 Program Year*, weVENTURE WBC:

• Served 784 unique clients TOTAL. Counseling, education, and group trainings.
• Assisted 345 Start-up businesses, helped 18 clients launch their business and worked with 184 aspiring entrepreneurs
• 29% client diversity.  weVENTURE WBC is intentional about keeping services low- and no-cost so our services are accessible to underserved constituencies.
• Clients created 66 NEW jobs and 2,136 jobs were retained.
• Helped 66 clients access $5.5 million in capital infusions, including private funding and SBA loans.
• 328 clients attended at least one our 61 group training sessions, Peer Groups or webinars.
• 575 clients received 1:1 counseling for a total of 1,858 hours of direct counseling.
• 77% of our clients were female and 23% were male clients or husband and wife partnerships.
• IGNITE 360® programs were busy, serving 21 Business Mentoring clients, 23 CEO Peer Group clients, 19 clients participated in 3 cohorts of Pathways Business Launch class.
• Three unique business summits provided tailored programming and purposeful networking: a Small Business Summit in partnership with the City of Cocoa and Historic Cocoa Village main street, an Hispanic Business Summit held entirely in Spanish, and the annual IMPACT Summit business leadership conference for business professionals and entrepreneurs. 
• 35 emerging leaders participated in the ATHENA Leadership Program.
• Clients reported earning over $120,000,000 in gross revenue, a significant contribution to the local economy, as small business dollars recirculate through the local economy 2-4 times more than money spent at national chains.

View the 2024-2025 weVENTURE Annual Report

View the 2023-2024 weVENTURE Annual Report

*Our SBA program year runs October through September.