The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) as a part of the Entrepreneurial Investment Awards program. The grant will support the Corridor in launching additional entrepreneurial development programming through videos, outreach and networking events. Corridor Senior Vice President Brian Dalziel envisioned the initiative, wrote the grant application and led the presentation to the review panel.
In the past decade, the Corridor has assisted 228 early-stage ventures, 99 of which were startups. Services have supported clients to raise $14.3 million to fund these businesses which provide employment to 1,090 individuals. The IEDA grant funds will be used to further the programming and reach of the Corridor entrepreneurial services. One program is Startup Skillup, a streaming video series, to be produced in both English and Spanish to deliver educational and mentoring programming to entrepreneurs utilizing a talk-show format.
“The Startup Skillup streaming video series is the next step in a progression of mentoring programs offered to entrepreneurs by the Iowa Lakes Corridor over the past 10 years,” states Dalziel. “Startup Skillup builds on the success of the Prepare to Launch live workshop by delivering entrepreneurship services on-demand via streaming videos on the web. Entrepreneurs who view these videos will be eligible for mentoring from members of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Mentor Network that consists of over 500 business professionals who volunteer their time to help entrepreneurs grow as well as one-on-one coaching services.”
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about the grant and Entrepreneurial Services at the Corridor.
