With JP Morgan Chase, Dayton Area Chamber offers opportunity to diverse entrepreneurs

Applications are open. The project will select 50 companies nationwide to participate.

“JP Morgan Chase really approached us,” Belinda Matthews-Stenson, vice president, business inclusion, for the chamber, said in an interview.

The proposition was simple. “Can you help us target minority, women, LGBTQ, disabled veterans to help scale their businesses?”

The focus here is on established companies with annual revenue of $1.5 million to $5 million, businesses with a solid history and growth plan, poised for the next level.

The JP Morgan Chase executive instrumental in helping to create that focus is an executive with a work history at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, someone familiar with the Dayton area.

Ashley Hawkes has served as small business vice president for military and veterans affairs for JP Morgan. A Wright State University graduate and former Air Force acquisition program manager, Hawkes today is an executive for Chase in the Richmond, Va. area.

While other chamber programs can be focused on new businesses and start-ups, this one is aimed at mature companies with clear value propositions.

“We’re looking for their story, their ability to scale and having a business plan that speaks to what their next steps are,” said Gail Francis Johnson, a business consultant with the chamber’s Minority Business Partnership. “It’s about helping them get to their next level.”

“We’ll be sharing with them techniques on how to be ready to do business with a big business,” she added.

Participants will be introduced to opportunities to win government contracts, although the program web site cautions that contracts are not guaranteed. There will be training on revenue growth, mergers and acquisitions and other areas.

Applications are due July 26. Three cohorts or groups will be selected, with virtual training dates in late September and October.

“We can accommodate 50 applicants, and that’s a total for the program, nationwide,” said Matthews-Stenson. “It’s an application process. We encourage people to really complete the application to the best of their ability.”

Applications and more information are available at https://daytonchamber.org/projectaccelerate.