BWISE STEM Entrepreneurship Training

To address the continued underrepresentation of women of color entrepreneurs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE) is submitting this proposal MIT Solve Gender Equity in STEM Challenge. While this demographic is making significant strides in entrepreneurship and are among the fastest growing group of women-owned businesses, their revenues and ability to raise capital remains dismally low. In order for minority women to begin to approach parity with the financial performance of men business owners, they must build companies in emerging technologies that create innovative products and services that generate millions in sales and profit.  These firms will then have the ability to not only create a significant number of well-paying jobs, but also to encourage more girls and women to work and start their own companies in STEM fields.

Currently, women hold only 20% of STEM jobs, and less than 5% of them are entrepreneurs. This is due to the unique challenges of working in technical fields combined with the significant barriers of economic resources and opportunities that are faced by all women entrepreneurs, but especially minority women. This project proposes the creation of an innovative business incubator called “The Nucleus”; with the intention of training and developing a cohort of ten minority women STEM entrepreneurs. These women have already demonstrated prior success in their STEM careers, whether in industry, government or academia.  They are an untapped source of technical knowledge and experience that are now on track to excel in new areas of business. The program includes a curriculum of critical startup information (marketing, operations, technology and financials), business mentorship and the cultivation of strategic industry contacts for potential client referrals and capital investments. (“Gender Differences…” 1)

Technology continually pushes forward innovation and sustains development in emerging areas, yet the pressing need for more diversity and inclusion in technology has not been addressed. According to a research study by Joshi,  Inoyue, and Robinson1 and the National Academy of Sciences, there is low representation of minority business enterprises (MBEs) in federally funded (SBIR/STTR) innovation programs. They also find that MBEs are less likely to successfully commercialize their technology.

We are proposing the support of Black women entrepreneurs in STEM seeking to create innovative technologies to address this disparity.

Most startup incubators are designed and tailored for the needs of men. However, our solution addresses the needs of this particular demographic that we feel have the greatest opportunity to create high growth minority women owned businesses, those in or related to STEM.  These founders differ from the traditional woman entrepreneur, in that they tend to have higher levels of professional experience, education (with many holding masters or PhD’s in science and engineering) and potential for significant company annual revenue greater than $1million vs. the average of $68,982 for all minority women owned business annual revenue. (“2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses”

Creating a positive environment of social and emotional support for women is just as important as the professional training that they will receive. Entrepreneurs in general report high levels of loneliness and isolation, and this is especially true for minority women.  The journey of an entrepreneur is filled with ups and downs that are best understood by people who have walked along that same path.  Our program includes informative weekly sessions on topics to ensure that our members have access to world class experts in well being, as we feel that the founder’s health is critical to the overall well-being of their firms.

Specifically, our solution is to train and develop Black women STEM professionals through a pilot program to introduce the concept of entrepreneurship and the SBIR/STTR program as a source of non-dilutive funding. In order for women from diverse backgrounds to participate in these funding initiatives, a framework of support needs to be established.

We propose the creation of an “on-ramp training” program from Black women STEM professionals with technical experience. The goal of this in-person and virtual training will be to: a) create awareness of the SBIR/STTR program; b)  provide comprehensive education and training about the SBIR/STTR application  process; and c) provide mentoring and coaching through the SBIR/STTR application  process.

More diverse leaders in STEM and innovation are needed to address the lack of women and people of color and to impact significant and sustainable change into all areas of technology. Currently, Black women make up less than 3% of the STEM workers in leadership positions, and thus are an optimal group to support in addressing the disparity in this field. It is critically important that African-American girls and women around the world have role models, mentors, and champions in the workplace of the future that look like them.

Organizations with more women executives are not only better performing, but necessary to increase the pipeline of women in STEM fields. By training diverse women already in technical roles to become leaders, the entire ecosystem, from girls to women, benefits.

Additionally, increasing the number of Black women STEM entrepreneurs will have a multiplying effect on several levels, e.g. it will create an economic ecosystem that will enhance the personal wealth of African-American female entrepreneur as a business owner; generate revenue for her family; and provide jobs for people in their respective minority communities. In turn, this will help reduce the financial inequities between Black women and other groups.

Minority firms are a vital part of the U.S. economy. Their importance will continue to grow as the minority population continues to grow and minority entrepreneurship rises. Currently, at least 40% of all businesses in seven states are minority-owned. However, SBO data shows that minority businesses continue to face significant employment and sales disparities.

On average a minority-owned firm’s revenue is only 32% that of a nonminority-owned business. Non-minority firms are twice as likely to be employers and hire 50% more workers as minority firms. These disparities persist among every major racial and ethnic group. 

First, minority businesses tend to be in industries with far lower sales as compared to nonminority groups. Almost 50% of all minority businesses are in the 20 industries with the lowest sales, compared to only 30% of all nonminority businesses.

Second, while minority-owned firms comprise 29% of all businesses they make up only 17% of the businesses in the top 20 employment industries and 13% of the top 20 revenue-generating industries.

Last, to start or expand their businesses, minority-owned businesses are less likely to procure financing from private banks or financial institutions. The  datas show that regardless of demographics, businesses that procure funding are more likely to have higher sales and employment. 

Partnering with BWISE will provide an excellent opportunity to reach a large cohort of highly qualified African-American women who have the potential to become STEM entrepreneurs. Specifically, the partnership with BWISE provides an ideal opportunity for outreach, awareness to their global 2,500 membership community of Black women STEM professionals. From that group, we hope to attract a minimum of 10-12 women who would like to participate in our coaching/mentoring program to assist them with the preparation/submission of a SBIR/STTR grant application. 

BioTechnical Communications, Inc (BTC) has a track record of success --winning SBIR/STTR grant awards. Moreover, BTC is currently involved in mentoring and coaching minority tech entrepreneurs/innovators through the SBIR grant application process. BTC maintains a team of professional writers and consultants with extensive  experience in preparing SBIR/STTR grant proposals. Moreover, our team can assist with resolving many of the roadblocks that often hinder minority women from submitting an SBIR/STTR application.



 

BWISE currently has a network of over 30,000 followers on social media, 2,500 members and more than 3,000 users on our career platform along with the broader BWISE community with quarterly career and professional development events.

BTC currently has 3 clients, with an additional 4-6 clients scheduled through the remaining year. Given the intensive hands-on assistance BTC provides and the varying agency application, the number of clients is limited.

BWISE and BTC are seeking funding to continue a pilot to demonstrate the viability of a collaborative program that combines BTC and BWISE resources and expertise to effectively reach, train, and engage Black women in STEM and entrepreneurship.

We have studied and discussed the lack of diverse STEM entrepreneurs ad nauseam, yet the problems persist. It’s time to convert our frustration into ACTION. We need innovative programs and networks to support women in all industries, and through out their careers in order to accomplish this. Nowhere is this more critically important than in medicine today, because the past two years have shown us that access to proper healthcare is not available to everyone. In addition, we have to fix the conditions that our front line health workers, doctors and nurses, are working in, to try to keep us all safe. This includes creating innovative and cost effective solutions to problems that are effective for the WHOLE society, not just those traditionally represented.

In a world ridden with health disparities and social inequities, the scholarship and innovation of Black women will help establish healthcare and research institutions that adequately serve all members of society. Indeed, Black women are holding up the sky in the fields of medicine, research, and biotechnology, despite being grossly underrepresented.  

When I founded Black Women in Science and Engineering 8 years ago, it was to help bridge the leadership gap for Black women in STEM. And we are still doing this, as our work is far from being done. But as we evolve, our mission must evolve too. We understand that the path to wealth in this country is entrepreneurship. It will be impossible to close the Black wealth gap without the creation and ongoing success of organizations focused on the most profitable and sustainable industries.

Erika Jefferson is a Black woman and chemical engineer by training who has worked in industry at Fortune 100 companies for more than 20 years. After noticing that not enough women were advancing in their careers in STEM, she created Black Women in Science & Engineering (BWISE), with the mission “to empower Black Women through career and entrepreneurial development, insight, and training. Now in its 9th year, BWISE not only puts on corporate and entrepreneurship programming to support Black Women in STEM, but also consults and provides services for companies seeking to increase diversity and inclusion in their organizations. 

Ms. Jefferson founded BWISE in 2015, and it was originally started as a local Houston group, to meet the needs of minority women in the Oil and Gas industry, but soon grew to chapters in Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Research Triangle Park, Austin, TX, Chicago and beyond. From the beginning, there was an incredible amount of interest around the need to support underrepresented women through networking, mentorship and career development.  The organization is dedicated to addressing the issues around the lack of diversity across all technical fields and has corporate partners, such as AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, Genentech, FDA, NIH, United Airlines, the Federal Reserve Bank and Los Alamos and FermiLab national research laboratory, and many others, that are focused on addressing the systemic issues causing this.  It is currently the only organization in existence that targets mid- to senior-level minority women in STEM and provides a platform and a space to share career experiences and be empowered. The BWISE focus is always on career advancement and entrepreneurship through personal and professional development.

Over the last three years, BWISE has worked with women in STEM by supporting their career growth, launching and sustaining business ventures, and pivoting into high-tech opportunities.

Our solution is innovative in that it not only focuses on a demographic that traditionally has not been seen in STEM entrepreneurship, but also that we provide innovative and wholistic means to support them and their businesses.  To date, no other comprehensive program focused on EXPERIENCED women of color entrepreneurs in the fields of science, engineering and technology exists.  The vast majority of programs targeting women are for early career and are not always inclusive.

Through investment of time and resources into 4-5 women each year from around the country, we will enable the formation of up to 20 new STEM companies led by underrepresented women over five years. These emerging CEOs will in turn hire teams; we expect that these 20 women could create an additional 20 jobs by the end of year 5.

We will provide the support and infrastructure around the talented women and the ideas they come into the program to solve. We anticipate that some of these women will create solutions to healthcare gaps that impact their communities such as women’s health, chronic disease management, and population health, spaces which have been overlooked and require new solutions to address. Our support of these women will be sustained beyond the formation and launch of their companies. We will continue to provide access to space, strategic mentors, clinical advisors, and other resources as they grow and scale their businesses.

In addition, women in our program will have access to our vast network of resources across the country, including our partners; Texas Medical Center Innovation (Houston, TX), mHUB (Chicago, IL) and ATDC (Atlanta, GA).

Because there is so very little diversity in the STEM entrepreneurship space, the success of our program for underrepresented women will have a significant impact on both industries, and also on the startup space in general. Once these first “pioneers” are able to succeed, this will cause the market to take notice and things will begin to change to allow EVERYONE the opportunity to be supported.

Our impact goals for the next year are to successfully launch this first cohort of 4-5 Black women STEM entrepreneurs and provide them the technical, commercial and emotional support to take their various companies to the next levels.

We will accomplish this with our curriculum designed to provide them with the specific resources and guidance that they will need for their first year in business.  Our program will be a model for other organizations to emulate to develop their own programs to support other underrepresented demographics in STEM.

Our objective is to form four new companies each year. All of these companies will be led by women who are underrepresented in STEM fields, and at least half will be led by Black and Brown women. We expect each of these companies will file additional intellectual property, build prototypes, and test them in human clinical trials. By the end of year 5, we expect that at least 5 of the companies formed will be performing human feasibility studies.

The teams leading this grant are comprised of women and women of color that will further enable the community support to recruit and support these women. We are also building a curated mentor and advisor community for this program with Black women in order to create additional mentoring and community benefits.

Through these considerations, we will identify great candidates, illustrate access to resources and community that will empower them to start a business, and surround them with the support to help them get a head start in forming their business.

Progress of each individual founder will be measured through regular interaction with the leadership for the lifetime of their business. Continued mentorship will ensure that obstacles will be addressed in a timely manner and resources continue to be accessible as the company grows and needs change.

For each company we will track metrics such as funding raised, and full-time employees hired as a proxy for growth. In addition to these universal metrics, we will also measure traction per company through the completion of milestones such as intellectual property filed, federal grants received, functional prototype developed, benchtop testing, animal studies, first-in-human, FDA clearance, etc.

Success of this program will depend on our ability to identify, recruit, and retain talented underrepresented women who have a desire to form a medtech startup.

Through our collaborative partner, we have access to over 1,500 women in middle management STEM fields. We will also leverage our other networks of incubators and accelerators with Black leadership and entrepreneurs, including ATDC in Atlanta, whose leadership is eager to help with recruitment of candidates and mentoring selected participants.
Women who are identified to be excellent candidates may not feel empowered to pursue a high-risk venture while losing their corporate salary. We have designed the program with the Black mid-career STEM professional in mind, including virtual Phase 1 to help them see the value of the program before quitting their day job. 

Only 24% of STEM graduates are women and 86% are white or Asian. Fewer than 4% are Latinas, and less than 3% are black. Of total VC funding over the past decade, Latinx women-led startups have raised only 0.32% while black women have raised only .0006%. This program is designed to empower all women to solve the science and engineering  problems while creating undeniable value for investors. The support from the established community of professional technical, clinical, and investment expertise will enable these women to overcome the barriers that have led to such poor statistics. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to place this entrepreurship studio in the direct flow of innovation and investment within the largest medical center in the world while infusing diversity, equity and inclusion into the start-up world.

Supporting data:

https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/entrepreneurs/celebrating-black-women-founders-in-stem/

https://www.inc.com/rebecca-deczynski/all-the-hats-black-female-entrepreneurs-industry-firsts-business-advice.html

https://www.goldmansachs.com/our-commitments/sustainability/one-million-black-women/

Our solution leverages technology to support the women STEM entrepreneurs that are enrolled in our program.

We will use the Brazen Technologies platform to deliver training m content and other resources to our participants.

Most of the women in our program are working with technology in their startups themselves, and we will provide technical support as needed for their business.

Full time staff: 3 people

Part time staff: 3 people

Contractors: 1

BWISE first began working on this program in 2018 (5 years).

Our entire team is made up of Black women and our advisory board consists of both men and women scientists and engineers who are Asian, Black and White.

The goals of our team are to maintain our current high level of diversity and ensure that we are inclusive of all the women we support as well as our partners, collaborators and others in the community.

Key Resources:

- Program Administrative Staff

- Federal government grants (NSF, NIH, EDA)

- Industry expert consultants 

Partners + Key Stakeholders:

- ATDC (Atlanta incubator)

- mHUB (Chicago (Medtech incubator)

- TMC Innovation (Houston incubator)

- Universities 

- Federal agencies

- Corporate venture funds

Key Activities:

1) Program includes training in;

- finance

- marketing 

- business operations 

- intellectual property/trademark 

- regulatory affairs

2) Industry Mentorship

3) Cultural Inclusion/support

Cost Structure:

Top Expenditures;

- Curriculum costs (fixed)

- Program marketing costs (May increase with scaling)

- Administration costs  (May increase marginally with scaling)

Type of Intervention:

- Weekly in person & virtual training workshops 

- Scheduled meetings with potential investors and clients 

- Monthly business overview review

Channels:

- Universities

- Industry incubators

- BWISE members

Surplus:

- Profits will be reinvested in the program

Segments:

Beneficiary;

- Women in science/engineering/technology/medicine in industry 

- Women in science/engineering/technology/medicine in academia 

Customer;

- Healthcare, Medtech and biotech industries looking for novel solutions

Value Proposition:

We will demonstrate social impact by increasing the number Black women STEM entrepreneurs 

Our program participants want industry and financial support in launching their startups and cultural support in being able to sustain the business

Revenue:

Funding sources;

Federal grants: 50%

Corporate donations: 25%

Other donations: 25%

We have already received prior funding through grants (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) and donations from partner corporations.

We will continue to receive these funds to support this program, in addition to receiving government STEM grants and a small amount of capital from the business that are part of the program.

In 2022, BWISE received $200,000 in funding from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).  As a current grantee, we will apply for grants that are available to us.

In addition, we have corporate partners (AbbVie, GSK, Genentech, Eli Lilly, Alcon) that provide revenue to our BWISE business that we will donate up to $50,000 to this program.