A five-week business support accelerator for businesses in Farmington, New Mexico, to assist with COVID-19 recovery is accepting applications.
Powered by the New Mexico Gas Company, an Emera Company, and the State of New Mexico, New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Center and San Juan College have partnered to offer a free business accelerator that incorporates a tailored curriculum geared to address transitioning your business to online spaces.
Applications for BizSprint Farmington are being accepted until Sept. 30. The cohort will begin Oct. 15. This accelerator will help participants explore potential new markets through a customer discovery process and will provide participants access to a network of experts in a variety of fields for free advising. With BizSprint, participants will gain a team of consultants, one-on-one sessions with Arrowhead Center staff and connections to industry.
Some of the experts the participants will have access to include:
• Elizabeth Wechsler Mata, who practiced patent law for 22 years with Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C., an intellectual property law firm based in Concord, Massachusetts. Mata assisted clients in the biotechnology field and counseled on strategic patent prosecution and enforcement internationally as well as in the United States.
• Leah Messina has more than 18 years of experience in developing digital marketing strategies and campaigns for a wide range of brands including GEICO, Black & Decker, Ace Hardware and A&E Television.
• David King, a serial entrepreneur, who has helped start and found numerous startups, and worked with businesses across a wide range of industry including tech startups, banking and legal services, and software development. He was co-founder of Fusion Mobile, a prepaid cellular service company that specialized in providing turnkey programs to retailers.
• Micaela Brown, founder of an event marketing company with a social media reach of more than 100,000 followers. She specializes in event marketing, marketing, branding and entrepreneurship. Her work has been featured by Forbes Travel, the New York Times and more. In 2016, Micaela founded Blush & Whimsy LLC, a skincare and cosmetics company that has been featured in the Grammy and Oscars awards gift bags.
BizSprint Farmington is part of Arrowhead Center’s Community Entrepreneurship Program (ACEP). ACEP’s goal is to level the playing field for all entrepreneurs everywhere. To fuel and accelerate this goal, ACEP shares best practices, tools, staff time, networks and programs with New Mexico community leaders to launch place-based accelerators.
Upon program completion, participants will receive a micro-grant of $650 thanks to the support of New Mexico Gas Company and the State of New Mexico. To apply and learn more, visit https://arrowheadcenter.nmsu.edu/program/sprints/acep/farmington/.