Underserved Communities Incubator & Accelerator

accelerator

Central New Jersey, hosted at Monmouth University's Leon Hess Business School. Serves underserved communities.

Entrepreneurship incubator and support program funded by a $640,000 federal earmark (FY2023 omnibus spending bill, secured by Sens. Menendez/Booker and Rep. Pallone). Aims to develop, educate, and accelerate entrepreneurs from underserved communities in central New Jersey. Includes: (1) intensive summer bootcamp for local high school students hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship, (2) ongoing technical assistance for program graduates, and (3) accelerator-style programming for existing entrepreneurs ready to scale (business plan evolution, elevator pitch design, networking skills).

• High school entrepreneurship summer bootcamp
• Ongoing technical assistance
• Accelerator programming (business planning, pitching, networking)

$640,000 federal appropriation. Programming-focused rather than direct equity investment.

Multi-component: summer bootcamp (high school) → technical assistance (ongoing) → accelerator (business scaling).

High school students from underserved communities (bootcamp track). Existing entrepreneurs from underserved communities (accelerator track).

• monmouth-center-entrepreneurship
• monmouth-hawktank