Westchester County is moving ahead with its Launch1000 program after helping 218 businesses and nonprofits get launched during 2021. The second season begins in earnest in March when the County Office of Economic Development starts accepting new applications from county residents who want help in getting their new businesses or nonprofit organizations off the ground.
Launch1000 had its roots when the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic were beginning to be felt and the county determined it would be helpful to offer residents the opportunity to obtain critical business knowledge and connect with mentors. As the name implies, the program was designed to help jumpstart 1,000 new businesses and nonprofits in Westchester. The county also went a step further by offering something tangible in the form of a $1,000 grant for each participant completing the program to help in covering start-up costs.
On Feb. 10, the second season of the program was announced with a new feature added: all of its programming will be available in both English and Spanish.
“What we”™ve understood now over the last number of years, particularly with the advancement of technology, is that small is the new big,” Westchester County Executive George Latimer said in referencing how small business is playing an important role in today”™s economic development.
“This initiative of Launch1000 is one of a number of different innovative programs that have come out of the work that Bridget Gibbons (Westchester”™s Director of Economic Development) and her team have constructed to try to figure out how best to help grow businesses in Westchester County,” according to Latimer. “I”™ve often said that, when I was a young boy growing up in the county, economic development was a function of big corporations leaving Manhattan homes and putting their corporate campuses here in Westchester County.”
Latimer said that its not enough to have an idea about starting and developing a business or an organization to serve the community.
“It is not enough to have an idea or a skill. That idea or skill in order to become a profitable business requires marketing, it requires a host of different operational understandings germane to that particular business or field,” Latimer said. “It requires financial expertise as well as capital to be able to do this. From the individual that takes on the creation of a business no matter what size it is, a very small one, a very large one, it takes a leap of faith.”
Gibbons explained that Launch1000 is designed to help entrepreneurs go from having a concept to actually bringing a business into being.
“We know the program made a difference in people”™s lives,” Gibbons said. “Last year we had 218 people who graduated from the program and that included everyone from a locksmith to a person who developed a tech platform for musicians to meet each other and collaborate and schedule rehearsal space.”
Gibbons said that 47% of the participants were African American and, of those that completed the program, 67% were women.
“Only 7% of the participants identified as Latinos,” Gibbons said, “We know we need to do better and that”™s why this year we are launching a dual language cohort; the curriculum will be in both Spanish and English. The coaches and mentors will be bilingual. We think this will make it easier for our Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs to participate in the program. We think this new offering will make a very big difference in our ability to reach into the communities and find more budding entrepreneurs.”
Gibbons said that 82% of the 218 graduates from the first session of the program are generating revenue or have raised money through investors.
“The program will result over time in the creation of 428 jobs, approximately $23 million in earnings, $63 million in sales, so we know this program is a home run in terms of launching new businesses but also growing our economy,” Gibbons said.
Typical entities that were developed through the first round of the program included:
NoNo Markets LLC in Irvington that imports gluten-free pasta from Italy and resells it through Amazon and the company”™s own website;
Breakthrough Fitness Company in Hartsdale that welcomes all clients seeking to improve their fitness and places special focus on ensuring equal access for the special needs community;
Marianne Campolongo Photography in Chappaqua, specializing in photography at hospitals, nursing homes and other places where the use of images has been shown to help with healing;
First Steps to Heal, a nonprofit based in Elmsford that provides assistance to survivors of domestic violence who live in Westchester;
My Assistant Barber, located in Sleepy Hollow, whose founder Jose Hidalgo owns a barber shop and created a hair clipper that cleans, disinfects and cools itself;
Bloom Healthy, based in Mount Vernon with pop-up shops in other communities, offering fresh fruits and vegetables to families experiencing food insecurity.
The Launch1000 program involves seven phases with the phases taking as few as two and as many as eight weeks. It took a typical participant from six to eight months to complete the program in 2021, according to the county.
Deborah Novick, the county”™s director of entrepreneurship and innovation said that the second session of the program will open for applications in March and the activity will begin in April. She said that the program”™s website has both English and Spanish content and invited those interested in volunteering to help in the program to contact her.
Helping with the program is Carola Otero Bracco, executive director of Neighbors Link, a nonprofit headquartered in Mount Kisco that is focused on assisting immigrants to become part of the community. She noted, “A program such as this that respects an entrepreneur”™s home language serves to further a person”™s level of understanding of very critical business concepts.”
Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins said, “Small business is the lifeblood of the economic engine around the country and certainly Westchester is no different.”
