Helping young entrepreneurs start on a path to success is a long-term strategy to building a diverse, resilient economy.
That’s why Innovation Works developed a pilot program three years ago to teach a diverse group of high school students the skills to design and build products and companies. With the help of multiple funding and program partners, that pilot developed into a program called Startable Pittsburgh which teaches teens ages 16 to 18 how to design, prototype, build and market products. Startable Pittsburgh engages a diverse mix of teens from different backgrounds, demographics and experience levels to help create an on-ramp for entrepreneurship that is inclusive and broad.
Today, we’re happy to announce that Startable Pittsburgh is being sustained by a significant new commitment from the BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, which is contributing $150,000 in funding to help grow the program. They join the Hillman Foundation (our first major contributor), as well as the Grable Foundation, Pittsburgh Foundation, Dollar Bank, EY, PNC Charitable Trusts, The Helen Ruth Gordon Charitable Trust and ReMake Learning, who all help make Startable Pittsburgh possible.
During the Startable Pittsburgh summer program, teens earn a stipend while working with Innovation Works’ AlphaLab Gear accelerator, Tech Shop and City of Play to learn entrepreneurial and maker skills, identify market opportunities, design, prototype and build commercially appealing products, and market the goods with retail partners and through other distribution channels. Last year, the Startable Pittsburgh cohort of young entrepreneurs included 36 students — most from neighborhoods near AlphaLab Gear’s and TechShop’s locations in East Liberty. A goal of the program is to make the world of technology, business and ‘makership’ more accessible to all. To reach that goal, deep outreach helps to attract young women and students from minorities underrepresented in technology fields. About three-fourths of last summer’s Startable students were young people from racially diverse groups and more than one-third were female.
Startable Pittsburgh is part of a larger effort at Innovation Works to support diverse ideas, entrepreneurs and teams. We are committed to programs and policies that further inclusive innovation and to partnerships that will make Pittsburgh one of the nation’s most welcoming and productive environments for all entrepreneurs. Innovation Works promotes these values by investing in and assisting a diverse group of founders and technologies as well as providing programs that nurture tech entrepreneurship at all levels — from high school students to startup companies to innovative manufacturers.
Entrepreneurship is about seeing opportunity that no one else is currently addressing and filling that gap. With the help of BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania and other program supporters and partners, Startable Pittsburgh is seizing the opportunity to build an inclusive and accessible on-ramp to entrepreneurship. Together we’re building the next generation of great entrepreneurs and Pittsburgh companies.
Rich Lunak, Innovation Works
