NYPACE is proud to announce that we have received a second grant of $30,000 from Capital One to support the recently launched Entrepreneur Sprints program, which provides strategic support for our entrepreneurs in a new and exciting, short-form model – NYPACE ENTREPRENEUR SPRINTS AND WRAPAROUND SERVICES: Short-Term Engagement, Long-Term Impact. NYPACE programs mobilize volunteers, recruited from top firms, to provide customized, pro-bono guidance to help local small businesses become more profitable and sustainable. In our Flagship Program, each entrepreneur is paired with a team of 2-4 volunteers, working together to tackle operational, financial, marketing, and/or strategic business challenges over the course of eight weeks.

The Entrepreneur Sprints program will allow us to rapidly meet real-time business challenges for entrepreneurs. Volunteer advisors and entrepreneurs meet over the course of four hours, through a structured and replicable impact-framework, facilitated by an NYPACE employee. Together, they will address the entrepreneur’s specific business challenges by ideating on opportunities and preparing a strategic implementation plan with best practices for execution.

NYPACE Executive Director, Ibrahima S. Souare states, “NYPACE is grateful to important partners like Capital One for investing in the ongoing education and support of underserved, local entrepreneurs. Through this grant, NYPACE is primed to further guide entrepreneurs toward the pathway of sustainability and growth.”

Our program can accommodate five teams per session. The short-term engagement will have lasting impact for the businesses, including:

-Confidence to meet financing goals

-Revenue strategies built for profit

-A hiring plan with retention power

-Networks to survive on owner terms

Early impressions are promising. After a pilot program (also funded by Capital One,) one entrepreneur states, “I love the structure of talking about my business problems/goals and having that higher level conversation winnowed down into specific action items I can take.” Another wrote, “The sprint solidified some of my considerations and gave me the confidence to move forward with my financing plan for a second location.”

Through this new grant, are able to:

Invite 20 entrepreneurs to participate in a Sprint next year

Fund a workshop series, with our entrepreneur alumni as presenters and speakers

Create networking events for entrepreneurs to develop informal peer mentorships and capitalize on B2B opportunities

About Capital One:

Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., had $307.9 billion in deposits and $440.3 billion in total assets as of June 30, 2022. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has branches located primarily in New York, Louisiana, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “COF” and is included in the S&P 100 index. Visit Capital One About for more information.

About NYPACE:

New York Professional Advisors for Community Entrepreneurs (NYPACE) is a non-profit organization formed to stimulate job creation and sustainable economic development by providing pro bono consulting to under-represented, under-resourced entrepreneurs in New York City. NYPACE provides a unique opportunity both for entrepreneurs who aspire to realize a strategic vision as well as for volunteers who seek to effect change through a community service context. The NYPACE program strives not only to support the development of community-based entrepreneurs, but also to engender an open dialogue between two disparate communities with the ultimate goal of improving both.