DU-Supported Accelerator Boosts Local Businesses

Faculty from the Daniels College of Business support Denver startups

More than 14 years ago, when Lorena Rodriguez started her business, Emily’s Boutique, she couldn’t have imagined the journey that was in store. She’s learned business best practices on the fly, put in countless hours tending to her customers’ needs and fostered the boutique’s growth as if it were her child. In some ways, she says, it was.

Everything she knows, she learned the hard way. But earlier this year, Rodriguez was approached with an opportunity to build on her business knowhow through a 14-week business accelerator program called Building Success. The program—led by a powerhouse partnership between the Mile High United Way, the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business and the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce—was designed to connect women- and minority-owned businesses to capital, training and consulting services to help them achieve their goals.

“The Denver community features so many bright entrepreneurs; some just need a boost to make their idea a success,” said Vivek Choudhury, dean of the Daniels College of Business. “Supporting the community and working for the public good are pillars of what Daniels stands for. Partnering with the Mile High United Way and Black Chamber of Commerce was a tremendously rewarding experience.”

The program’s robust curriculum was designed exactly for entrepreneurs like Rodriguez. “The target audience for this was businesses that have been around and are just looking for a way to take that next step—maybe hire more employees, open up a second location or get help with their business plan and finances,” said Patrick Giron senior business advisor at Mile High United Way. To do this, participants met virtually every other week for the duration of the program. They took on new topics during each class, two of which were led by Neil Pollard, a Daniels teaching assistant professor. In between classes, students tackled assignments and met up in person to network and hear from guest speakers.

Neil Pollard

“There are all kinds of folks that are out in the community working hard to make their dreams come true,” Pollard said. “If we can be a small part of that by sharing some entrepreneurial perspective, by sharing some startup tools and stories with them, then we should. Mile High United Way works with amazing people that have really cool ideas and incredibly diverse backgrounds and they are always so engaged and positive about their new companies.”

Altogether, 13 business owners participated, representing a variety of industries, from hospitality and imports to trucking and health care. Despite the differences in their business needs, the cohort formed a strong bond that allowed them to push their education even further.

“It was really amazing to see that there were partnerships happening,” Giron said. “This became a really tight group which, for me, was really kind of heartwarming. They were supporting each other in so many different ways. In addition to all the skills and knowledge that they acquired, they really became a tight-knit community.”

The expertise shared through the program has been critical for Rodriguez, who hoped to gain the knowledge and insight necessary to help her decide on a direction for her boutique’s future and start preparing for it. She’s currently weighing the pros and cons of either expanding or selling the business and says what she’s learned has been instrumental in setting her up for success, no matter how she chooses to proceed.

“They included everything. I mean, they went from basic knowledge of how to start a business and how to keep the accounting to how to do the marketing,” she said. “They pretty much touched base on all the main points that a business needs to develop or grow.”

For business owners from underrepresented communities, support like this can make a significant impact, giving them a tailored opportunity to form critical networks of support, build their knowledge base and work toward generational wealth building.

“BIPOC- and women-owned businesses oftentimes don’t have access to programs like this or aren’t aware of them,” Giron said. “It’s about wealth building at the end of the day. That’s how folks who maybe come from less than others can start making or building that wealth and passing it down to their heirs.”

Rodriguez echoed the importance of a program designed for business leaders who have been historically marginalized: “I think this kind of program really empowers you and gives you the knowledge that you need to have for you to start big and have a good base.”

That sense of empowerment has led her to be a strong advocate for the program, which will continue next year under a new name: Mile High United Way Small Business Accelerator. It’ll be shortened to 10 weeks, with a smaller time commitment to allow more flexibility for its busy participants. The program will also be held in a hybrid format, to increase in-person opportunities, and it will now have three tracks, to meet business owners or prospective entrepreneurs wherever they are in their journey. Even with these format changes, the goal remains the same. Through partnership and education, the program seeks to strengthen the small business community for generations to come.

Daniels fit into the program naturally, Giron said, given its demonstrated service to the local business community and its deep expertise.

“DU is such a well-known entity with quite a great reputation, especially in the entrepreneurship and small business community. They’re just the experts at accelerators and pitch competitions and that curriculum piece,” Giron said. “And they are really serious about working with community organizations to help the community at large. They’ve been great partners.”

Pollard, the Daniels entrepreneurship professor, says the partnership truly goes both ways.

“It helps me as a Daniels faculty member understand and appreciate the fire that is burning for entrepreneurship in our community and to see it from the perspective of that mom that’s working hard to build a life for herself and her family, or the two brothers that see an opportunity and know they can do ‘it’ better than it’s being done now,” he said. “I get to bring those stories back to my classroom here at DU and share them with our students. So, in the workshops I get to do with Mile High United Way, I learn and take as much from them as I hope their attendees gain from me. It’s truly a privilege.”