BriGette is a graduate student at Georgia State University pursuing a PhD degree in Instructional Technology. Please read more about her and her startup idea below.

What is your startup idea?

My idea is to create a digitally integrated multichannel supplier diversity pipeline and network that develops black, native persons of color, disabled veteran business owners over 50 years of age for contracts of $250k and below.

What type of social justice issue(s) does your startup idea focus on?

My startup focuses on the silver economy (over 50), disabled, BNPOC and Veteran entrepreneurs. It aims to remove barriers for them by streamlining the entrepreneurial contracting space.

How does your startup idea promote equity for its target audience?

The business platform I will develop will put together businesses, entrepreneurs, contracting authorities, and procurement officers and offers curated content, services support and contract opportunities in a cloud based integrated networking environment.

How will your startup advocate for its target audience (people/community for which you are aiming to promote equity)?

It will reduce the business friction starting the process for business by connecting resources and contracting in one place. Furthermore, it will close the diversity supply gap, connect civic tech to support user accessible technologies, and give direct access to a portion of the billion dollars contracting under $250k.

Developing a product that seamlessly increases diversity in procurement spaces helps the mission of contracting authorities, purchasing officers, and businesses which also helps to increase visibility and opportunities for the business owners in the network.

How did ITEP help you with your entrepreneurship journey?

ITEP is an exceptional program that gave me a place to develop beyond an entrepreneurial thought to an articulated business idea. My mentor helped me pick apart, teste and refine while offering significant mentoring safety net, and professional insight. The cohort leaders and key speakers were informative and gave information that could be incorporated to improve the idea. In addition, the entrepreneur peer group was there for support. I gained confidence and got to test my knowledge and skills each week; developing public interest technology product that will serve a diverse market gap.

Do you have any other comments?

ITEP has helped me to bridge my business knowledge and idea with my desire to improve conditions for entrepreneurs with a focus on innovative public interest technology. Having a dedicated mentor in the initial stages helped me feel more comfortable discussing my idea. My mentor helped me through discovery and challenge my bias for my idea thereby improving my ability to conceptualize my minimum viable offering. The weekly sessions of disability and business startup subject matter experts and content were illuminating. It was a lot of new information to integrate, however, now I have a repository of information that I can refer back to when I need to iterate a process and a host of leaders who want to see me succeed.