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. 

While our program markets to 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 work together to  support vibrant small business community. 

Since 2007, we have:

• Trained over 17,000 clients
• Helped over 250 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 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 2023-2024 Program Year*, weVENTURE WBC:

• Served 994 unique clients TOTAL. Counseling, education, and group trainings
• Assisted 381 Start-up businesses, helped 23 clients launch their business and worked with 219 aspiring entrepreneurs
• 32% client diversity.  weVENTURE WBC is intentional about keeping services low- and no-cost so our services are accessible to underserved constituencies.
• Clients created 126  NEW jobs and 4,230 jobs were retained 
• Assisted clients with accessing capital, including private funding and SBA loans
• 529 clients attended at least one our 53  group training sessions, Peer Groups or webinars
• 601 clients received 1:1 counseling for a total of 1,261 hours of direct counseling
• 71% of our clients were female and 29% were male clients or husband and wife partnerships
• IGNITE 360® programs were busy, serving 26 Business Mentoring clients, 20 CEO Peer Group clients, 40 clients participated in 3 cohorts of Pathways Business Launch class, and 8 women graduated from the inaugural cohort focused on childcare industry, in partnership with the Early Learning Coalition
• Four unique business summits provided tailored programming and purposeful networking: A Small Business Summit for new entrepreneurs, Hispanic Business Summit held entirely in Spanish, Techcelerator Summit for innovators in high-tech sectors, and the annual IMPACT Summit business leadership conference for corporate professionals and more established business owners. 
• 26 emerging leaders participated in the ATHENA Leadership Program.

View the 2023-2024 weVENTURE Annual Report

*Our SBA program year runs October through September.