A large segment of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners lack adequate and equitable access to resources to start or scale their ventures. Research shows that, in particular, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and female entrepreneurs are systematically underrepresented, underfunded and under-considered.
Why We Do What We Do
Our Mission
Envolve USA is a 501(c)(3) organization that works with underrepresented founders to build a community and platform that advances equity and access in the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Our efforts are currently focused on serving Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and female founders.
Our Vision
Envolve strives to contribute to rebuilding and reshaping the entrepreneurship landscape into one that reflects the wealth of diversity that is the cornerstone of America’s identity. Our efforts are centered around community, equity, and uplifting the voices that have been left out for too long.
Our Values
Founder First
We support locally-driven solutions and are not prescriptive in our approach.
Our founder community guides
our programming.
Equity
Investments in underrepresented founders and communities are smart investments, not charity, that make our economy stronger.
Representation
We don’t speak for our community; we put our founders into spaces where they can share their stories.
Community
Alongside our partners and friends we are working to build new networks of support around founders who work to the needs of their communities.
Responsibility
We endeavor to act sustainably, with respect, and with cultural competency.
Founder Forward believes that through diversification of opportunities and greater access to resources for entrepreneurs, we can eradicate barriers in underserved communities, revitalize them, and bring people together to induce change. Our approach is two pronged and is supported by our programmatic pillars:
We work at the macro level to advocate for diverse voices and experiences to be heard and considered by those who influence policy and norms. We do not lobby specific policies, but rather help facilitate conversations between policymakers and entrepreneurs, so that policymaking better serves its constituents.
We work on the community level to help close the opportunity and access gaps for individual entrepreneurs and empower them to be a driving force for change in their communities. At the crux of this is fostering founder to founder connections and networks of mutual peer learning and support.