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We Venture at Florida Tech pitches free coaching and local partnerships to support Melbourne small businesses
Summary
Catherine Rudloff of We Venture (Florida Tech) presented the center’s free business coaching, training and grant programs, and suggested collaboration opportunities with the city’s economic development efforts.
Catherine Rudloff, representing We Venture Women’s Business Center at Florida Institute of Technology, told council members the center provides free business coaching, low‑ or no‑cost training and fee‑for‑service programs designed to help businesses at every stage of growth across the Space Coast and Treasure Coast.
“We offer free business coaching,” Rudloff said, emphasizing that We Venture’s one‑on‑one coaching and group programs are available to community members across the region. She described programming that includes mentorship, CEO peer groups, bilingual business launch classes, leadership courses and an annual direct‑grant program; Rudloff said We Venture has given away $30,000 in direct grants in recent years to help small businesses access capital.
Rudloff provided performance figures for the center’s most recent program year: she said We Venture worked with roughly 1,000 unique clients, helped create about 126 new jobs, retained more than 4,000 jobs and reported client sales of more than $21 million. She described a local model of partnering with municipalities to vet applicants before city‑run forgivable‑loan programs — citing a prior Cocoa partnership — and said We Venture has a memorandum of understanding with Port St. Lucie for similar services.
Rudloff said the center is funded in part by a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration and that federal support requires a local match; she described total annual program revenue last year in excess of $800,000 and said the SBA grant portion was about $150,000. She encouraged the council and economic development staff to consider formal collaboration to support Melbourne small businesses and offered to return to discuss specific programs.
No council vote or formal action was recorded. Rudloff answered questions about service scope and partnership examples and invited city staff to refer prospective business clients to We Venture’s free coaching.
