Startup mentorship program has secured 100 Spartanburg jobs

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Three Spartanburg startups will benefit from a $15,000 peer-based loan fund as part of the Start: Me Spartanburg program launched by the University of South Carolina Upstate’s George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics and the Northside Development Group.

Loan winners will be announced on May 1 at the fifth annual Start: Me Graduation and Showcase following a 14-week training program from 14 micro-entrepreneurs in Spartanburg’s Northside community, according to a news release. The graduation will be held at the Hub City Farmers’ Market at 489 Howard St. near downtown, where entrepreneurs will market their goods and services from 8 a.m. to noon. Graduation will begin at 9 a.m.

The Start: Me program provides business training, mentorship and early-stage financing to promising micro-entrepreneurs with one to four employees to develop viable and sustainable businesses, according to the release. Entrepreneurs supported one another while competing for peer-selected loan funds from a $15,000 pool.

Micro-businesses represented in the 2021 Start: Me Spartanburg cohort include professional concession and catering services, beauty products and services, medical billing services, boutique clothing, personalized gifts and books, among others.  All startups included in the 2021 cohort were minority women-owned enterprises.

Overall, 99% of all participants in the Spartanburg program were minority entrepreneurs; 77% have been women. The effort has created or retained 100 jobs over the past five years, according to the news release.

Thirty mentors volunteered from many local businesses, including Grace Management Group, Milliken & Co., TD Bank, Michelin North America, United Way of the Piedmont, and Start: Me Spartanburg alumni companies.

The program is offered annually by the JCBE in partnership with the Northside Development Group. Other local partners, including the Northside Voyagers, Spartanburg School District 7, Carolina Foothills Federal Credit Union, and CommunityWorks Carolina, which played a key role in supporting Start: Me entrepreneurs, according to the release.

The year’s cohort marks the fifth year of the Start: Me program in Spartanburg’s Northside. To date, the program has supported more than 70 local businesses and awarded nearly $100,000 in capital investment to the community through peer-selected loans and matched savings.

The national Start: Me network includes programs run in five neighborhoods in Spartanburg, Atlanta and Cincinnati. Nationally, Start: Me has supported more than 375 micro-entrepreneurs and awarded more than 50 start-up loans and grants, according to the release.