Ladies Who Launch Digital Resource Navigator

We propose the development of a Digital Resource Navigator - a free, centralized, easy-to-use repository of funding opportunities and educational resources specifically curated for historically underinvested-in women and non-binary small business owners. Within an SEO-optimized content hub, and an easily searchable database, we will aggregate and distill comprehensive topical educational resources, funding and financing options, and professional development opportunities—focusing on pressing needs and how to practically address them. The Navigator will be designed in partnership with and for small business owners, with learning paths available across business stages with accessibility as the highest priority.

The Navigator will grow to be a comprehensive library of resources on a range of business challenges, but the pilot phase will focus on our community’s highest need-access to capital. We will curate a database of grants, loans, and other financing opportunities, paired with educational resources and training on how to identify the right fit for a business. Ultimately, the goal is to set small business owners up for success, helping them understand the financing growth trajectory from grants to micro-loans via CDFIs, to banks and beyond.

While this repository will be centralized on the Ladies Who Launch (LWL) website, it will be driven by an extensive partner network of government, private and nonprofit entities with resources and programming to contribute. We envision working collaboratively with firms like banks, CDFIs, the U.S. Small Business Administration and more, curating the highest-quality, most reliable opportunities for women and non-binary businesses.

When small business owners use a search engine to find grants, loans or other funding opportunities, they receive an often overwhelming number of results that are impacted by sponsored content, exist on different pages and across multiple sources, and are not properly vetted or targeted to their needs. This is an inefficient, intimidating and overwhelming exercise, and ultimately a major barrier to access. 

The Ladies Who Launch Resource Navigator will be populated with pre-vetted opportunities, and the functionality will respond to the specific criteria provided by the user, whether it is geography, industry, or business challenge, and call up results tailored to their needs. In the short term, we are beta-testing a grants database built with an AirTable embed on our website. We will assess usage of this prototype to understand need, and pivot as necessary. The grants database will continue to be built out and enhanced using basic content structures using our existing site platform, SquareSpace, and will follow Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) guidance for web accessibility to ensure that this resource is able to be used by all The core technology that will power our solution at scale, is a custom-built database on a WordPress site, utilizing MySQL (or similar) query-based modeling. 

We will set up a server-side scripting language, connect to the database and enable query execution. Programmers will write code to handle search requests from the front end, and script SQL queries to fetch data from the database. Finally, we will build the front end, creating a user interface that maximizes efficiency and ease of access for the user. This infrastructure will require a larger investment, but will be scalable and customizable as our vision takes shape. The unique and powerful benefit of leveraging technology to solve for the challenges we’ve identified, is the ability to centralize, sort and search for this previously disparate information.

We recognize that the impact of this tool depends heavily on our ability to update and add to the repository in real time. APIs are not an option given the disparate formats that organizations and companies use to share resources and opportunities. In the short term, data management and hygiene will likely require manual support, using staff to manage data mapping software to import information to the database. In the long term, we are eager to explore AI-powered solutions to reduce manual processing, human error and costs. It is possible we may explore web scraping and data crawling powered by Natural Language Processing and machine learning algorithms to aggregate relevant information (grant deadlines, loan criteria, etc.) and map this into the Resource Navigator in a standardized format.

LWL is committed to empowering the most historically underinvested in women and non-binary small business owners. On a macro level, only 16% of small business loans go to women-owned companies, and less than half of women-owned businesses even apply for financing. The data is even worse for the community Ladies Who Launch serves - 73% of whom are people of color and 12% of whom identify as LGBTQ+. The market is saturated with support and programming for more affluent entrepreneurs with the financial resources to invest in memberships, or those operating in venture capital backable domains. Far less exists specifically for main street small businesses. Our 2022 landscape analysis illustrated a mismatch between available support and this group’s needs. Data collected from our 2023 grant program applications showed that 87% were self-funded or had bootstrapped, and 68% believed that lack of community and mentorship were top barriers to success. Our solution will curate support for those with fewer resources and who do not have formal business training or education. 

To understand our community’s needs, we survey our grantees and alumni regularly, as well as educational program attendees. We collect significant quantitative and qualitative feedback, asking about barriers and the extent to which support from LWL is helping to overcome challenges. We ask for real time feedback, fostering a culture of continuous improvement whereby our community directly informs our program development and expansion. Recently, new program applicants about their biggest barriers to growth. Of the twelve options provided, “fear”,”financial literacy”, and “access to capital” were most selected. As such, the first session of this program focuses specifically on the emotions behind finances, creating a safe space to share and confront fears. Ninety-two percent of participants gave the session a 5-Star rating.

The Navigator addresses two key problems identified via our landscape analysis, community surveys and conversations, aligning directly with the Challenges. First, there is no centralized location to find a comprehensive range of trusted funding opportunities with corresponding educational resources to support implementation. As such, under-resourced small business owners tend to not apply for financing, are frequently declined when they do, or are accepted by predatory institutions, jeopardizing the livelihood of their businesses. Morale, credit and growth suffer. Second, there is no free tool at scale that brings together a range of funders, vendors, experts and peers to support collective growth. The Navigator will fill these critical gaps in the ecosystem.

For example, an entrepreneur needs a working capital loan, and thinks that a bank is their only option. They apply without a full understanding of the criteria or their needs and are denied. They can leverage our tool to learn about other options (CDFIs, non-profit or online lenders, etc.), and access guides on assessing opportunities. They will learn about more sophisticated options like Truist Bank’s small business loan program, angel investing and beyond. The tool will enable better decision making, with users continuously leveraging the Navigator throughout their journey. The Navigator will be a post-program support for alumni from our annual grant program and place-based bootcamps. It will also allow us to serve our broader community of 20K+ small businesses more deeply and be a pipeline to LWL and partner programs.

Data collected via our aforementioned landscape analysis, showed significant need for education on accessing capital. We know the vast majority of our community bootstrap, and need working capital, yet do not understand how to identify the best opportunities for their businesses. Paywalls and membership fees are a significant deterrent and barrier to growth, as is fear, and a lack of financial literacy and confidence. Technology has not been leveraged enough to increase access and support small business owners, particularly the most underserved. Our free tool will:

• Reduce duplicative work

• Empower users to compare options centrally

• Elevate a diverse range of supports and services

• Connect small business owners to a broad network of support locally, regionally and nationally

• Break down barriers to access due to financial limitations

Pairing resources with learning paths and education to support implementation will:

• Ensure users are well equipped to make decisions 

• Reduce instances of predatory or negative experiences with loans

• Increase the number of loan-ready small businesses

• Increase the number of small businesses that apply to loans

• Increase the number of small businesses approved for loans

• Preserve the credit of small business owners

• Better position small businesses to scale

• Better position small businesses to sustain

Outputs

• Number of businesses reached

• Number of new educational content pieces published

• Website and page visits

• Time spent on site

• Downloads

• Educational webinar registration and attendance

• Number of pre-recorded educational session views

• Number of contributing partners

• Traffic driven to contributing partner programs and resources

• Number of loans applied to

• Number of loans accepted

• Total amount of loans distributed, etc.

Outcomes

Total Capital Deployed

• Rate of loan application submissions

• Rate of loan approval

• Number of dollars in loans made

• Number of loans repaid on time

• % of business owners who feel more confident to access capital
• % of business owners who feel more knowledgeable to successfully assess opportunities

Scalability

• Number of users who increase revenue annually 

• Number of jobs created at user businesses

• Number of customers served at user businesses

• % of business owners who feel more confident

Sustainability

• Number of user businesses in operation for 2 yrs

• 5 yrs

• 10 yrs

Ladies Who Launch currently reaches an audience of nearly 90,000 via our website, newsletter and social channels where we provide free resources, education and more. Those most engaged with us are the 17,000 long time subscribers to our digital newsletter. Recently we launched a prototype grants database, the first section of the Navigator, and have been promoting this beta-phase resource via our newsletter and social channels. Since it's launch in late June of 2023, more than 2,200 users have leveraged the resource. With the development and addition of the Digital Resource Navigator to our website, paired with LWL promotion via its newsletter and social channels, and ongoing partner promotion of the tool, our goal is to reach a total audience of 175,000 by the end of 2024. Any user who visits our website or social channels will have access to the tool, and resources available via the Navigator will be augmented by corresponding educational programming, which will provide another opportunity to connect prospective users with the support. In five years, assuming a 30% year-on-year increase we anticipate 204,000 annual users leveraging the Navigator specifically.

Our organizational strategy is driven by our community. We collect feedback before programs, in applications, in real-time and in post-program surveys, providing space for suggestions and constructive feedback. Inputs come from prior and current program participants, applicants, event and webinar attendees, as well as from organizations, speakers, and mentors that we partner with to deliver programming. To hone and implement our strategy, we work closely with our board, and experts. Our project was informed by our community, who shared their needs; conceptualized in partnership with consultants and experts; and is being operationalized with input from our board. Community feedback is the reason we are  focusing on funding and financing as phase I of the project. Other stakeholders include small business owners, business leaders, nonprofits, government entities, and corporate partners who share trends they are seeing in their communities and help us understand how we can best collaborate to maximize impact. 

Everything we do is relationship-based, and therefore dependent on establishing and maintaining trust. All of our services are free and we’re explicit about never selling to our community, or incentivizing them to purchase a product or service. We work with partners to elevate high-quality opportunities to help our community grow, doing so entirely through the lens of education. We build relationships with community-based organizations doing the work on the ground, elevating them in our programs. Our goal is to drive small business owners to local resources invested in their success. Our Resource Navigator will further enhance this ability to connect small business owners with resources in their neighborhoods, regionally and nationally. We create a safe, inclusive space where all backgrounds and experiences are welcomed, respected and valued. Our program environments are intentionally developed to ensure participants feel comfortable to be real and vulnerable-sharing fears, challenges and wins to maximize learning.

Our three north star impact goals are increasing access to capital, scalability, and sustainability for the small businesses in our community. The outputs and outcomes we shared earlier in this application apply to other program elements of LWL.

We completed a high-level short term strategy with a consulting firm, and are working to implement that in real time. We anticipate being prepared to develop a robust 3-5 year strategy in 2024.

We are a very small team, and all employees are tasked with filling a multitude of roles on any given day in pursuit of our mission and goals. We along with our core stakeholders all see that our mission and programming are resonating with women and non-binary small business owners across the U.S. and understand the potential of what we could do with more. As such, wraparound support from MIT Solve and the Truist Foundation would be game changing for us. Particularly, we would benefit from support with refining our business model with an eye toward organizational sustainability and scale. From a logistics perspective, we need to identify and implement a CRM, and integrate our management systems. From a human capital perspective, we need to build capacity on our team with expertise around monitoring and evaluation – and would benefit significantly from strategic support from the Truist Inspire program to help us plot this course. We feel confident in our theory of change, and have a solid, data-driven understanding of our community’s needs, but wraparound support would be essential in helping us plan for operationalizing this successfully. Additionally, given our ethos around collaborating with partners, we are also eager to be connected to both MIT and Truist, as well as the peer network to explore different ways for us to potentially work together in pursuit of shared goals.

We seek to develop programming and create resources with the highest impact for our community - helping to facilitate the growth of businesses, supporting economic empowerment and making the landscape more equitable. That said, we know we must invest in monitoring and evaluation, ensuring we are efficiently and accurately measuring program outcomes to assess impact as well as focus on continuous program improvement. We currently track data across our programs and services, but are unable to track the depth of participant engagement across our efforts, for example. We need support in developing the strategy and identifying the tools to help us achieve this goal. This includes support building a CRM, a data management system, integrating management systems and solidifying our impact measurement approach broadly.