‘The Edge’
county,: said County County Councilman John McBlain at the rollout event. “Delaware County has been leading the region coming out of this last recession, surpassing our counterparts in nearby counties in job creation. Part of the reason why we are successful in doing that here is due to the strong and diverse small business community. The Delaware County Edge Accelerator will propel our small business community even further.”
Through the Accelerator program the Commerce Center will sponsor qualifying start-ups and small businesses to use Headroom facilities to incubate and develop their businesses with the ultimate goal of creating employment in Delaware County. SCORE will provide counseling and training to applicants to help them grow their business.
“One hundred volunteers in Score will bring broad and deep business experience to aid new businesses through one on one business mentoring, workshops, seminars and other services,” said John Lippman, co-chairman of Delaware County and Chester County Chapter of SCORE.
Successful applicants will receive full use of both HeadRoom facilities in Media and Wayne for 50 hours per month. HeadRoom will provide state of the art offices and conference rooms for one on one meetings, team meetings, workshops and presentation. They will receive mentorship and assistance from SCORE, and the HeadRoom staff. This will give the business owners the ability to network with the broad range of local businesses currently using HeadRoom.
HeadRoom has built a community of 70 diverse and dynamic businesses in Delaware County during the last two years.
“Companies engaged in our ecosystem benefit from cohabiting with a very broad range of subject matter experts and fellow entrepreneurs focused on growing their business,” said John Tooher, managing partner of HeadRoom.
Applications for the first sponsorship of the Delaware County Edge Accelerator are being accepted through Dec. 1, 2016. Small business owners can apply online at www. delcoedge.com/accelerator Applications will be reviewed by committee composed of members a of the Commerce Center, HeadRoom and SCORE. The goal of the program is to create sustainable employment in the small business sector. Companies likely to be accepted will have a focus on job creation to make a contribution to the local economy. Companies can remain in the program for a maximum period of 36 months provided they can demonstrate on time and successful completion of key milestones in their business plan as presented in their original application. No tax dollars are being utilized for the grants. Applications are ongoing. The next application deadline will be March 1, 2017.
The creation of the Edge Accelerator is a concrete example of how creative and public partnerships can be used to address the need of the business community in a cost effective efficient manner, said Killian, director of the Delaware County Commerce Center.
“This is so exciting for so many. To give them an opportunity and professional advice to grow their small business is the next step to growing more businesses,” said Trish McFarland, president of Delaware County Chamber of Commerce.