Atlanta’s economic development agency is considering creating a small business incubator — with $830,000 in city seed money — devoted to cultivating female entrepreneurs and their companies.
The proposed Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship would focus on developing early stage, women-owned companies into financially viable firms that can create jobs and “commercialize new technologies,” according to a document from Invest Atlanta.
The matter is on the board’s agenda for its meeting Thursday. However, an agency spokesman said late Wednesday it is not likely to be voted on until next month. The funds would be used for operations of the center, including a staff of two and for educational programs, but would not be invested directly in any startup firms, officials said.
City Council also must approve the expenditure, a spokesman said.
If approved by the board, the incubator would lease space in an office building on Pryor Street at Underground Atlanta, which was formerly Invest Atlanta’s headquarters.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and the City Council have made development and recruitment of startup companies and high-tech workers priorities in the push to grow jobs in the city, where unemployment remains above the national average.
Atlanta was rated the No. 6 city in the U.S. for entrepreneurial women by personal finance website Nerdwallet.com. Georgia had among the fastest growth in the nation in the number, employment and revenue of female-owned companies, according to a study this month by American Express OPEN.
The Atlanta center would help train women to develop their products and companies, pitch their products to potential investors and consumers, among other essential business skills, said Eloisa Klementich, managing director of business development at Invest Atlanta.
The center is believed to be the first incubator in the metro area geared to women, Klementich said.
Incubators afford small firms economies of scale on things such as rent and often help connect startups with sources of financing and investor cash as well as a place to collaborate, said Roger Tutterow, a Mercer University economist.
“If you think about where a lot of job creation is occurring… a lot of time it can be traced back to entrepreneurial efforts that are started in incubators,” he said.
Atlanta-based nonprofit StartupChicks was the sole respondent to a request for proposals to run the center. StartupChicks is a networking and mentoring organization led by several high-profile female entrepreneurs, and currently runs “accelerator” programs that helps graduates move their companies to more advanced stages of development.
The consulting contract would run through April 2017 to establish the center.
The leadership of StartupChicks, founded in 2009, includes Jennifer Bonnett, a veteran of the Advanced Technology Developement Center at Georgia Tech and a web and mobile technology entrepreneur. StartupChicks has been doing the work of an incubator without a permanent home, Bonnett said.
The center will also offer programs from other business organizations and help women sell the economic potential of their own companies.
“Women tend to build businesses that relate to other women,” Bonnett said. But often the financial backers getting the pitch are men.
An incubator for women can help empower female business owners as well as connect them with other resources, such as potential board members and mentors, said Melanie Brandt, chief operating officer of the Technology Association of Georgia.
“Successful entrepreneurs in Georgia, regardless of gender, mean jobs in Georgia,” said Brandt, a founder of StartupChicks who is no longer on the organization’s board.
Much of the city’s financial support would come in the early years. Klementich said the center would need to become self-sustaining, attracting paying tenants, members, sponsors and grants from corporations, nonprofits and government entities.
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