emerge West Michigan
we called thIS "emerge"
West Michigan had a very fragmented entrepreneurial ecosystem -- many governmental, non-profit and private organizations servicing entrepreneurs across multiple regions with much overlap. With all this overlap, entrepreneurs had trouble identifying what organizations were effective and of benefit navigate growth.
In 2013 we started to profile entrepreneurial support organizations in West Michigan. Placing a face to the name, we identified how they could help small business, where they were located and make financial/metric-based institutions seem approachable.
We got the site launched in Summer of 2013 with 30+ organizations profiled when the site was live. The site grew to over 50 organizations publicized where each organization had a 2 minute dedicated video filmed and edited by us, showcasing who they are.
Email marketing and web analytics was definitely a "thing" with Emerge. We grew the list from 0 to over 5000 subscribers. Large networking events with tons of free food and drinks helped achieve this...
In 2015 Emerge was acquired and incorporated into Start Garden, a DeVos operated venture firm and entrepreneur service provider.
I pretty much worked on everything except for the initial web build-out and fundraising.
Forgot to mention above that multiple programs came subsequent to the Emerge web portal:
Emerge Mentor Connect
Mentoring program for West Michigan entrepreneurs
Emerge Xcelerate
Cohort-based 6-Month business accelerator program where each company received $20,000 in grant funding
Take a peek (outdated)...
I'll gladly share website analytics upon request.