March is Women’s History Month, and in celebration, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms wore a shirt to her State of the City address that read, “She believed she could, and so she did.” Mayor Bottoms spoke about how the quote encapsulates the spirit of Atlanta. This spirit is alive and well within our city’s many women business owners, entrepreneurs and proud government employees.
Four out of every ten Atlanta-area businesses are women-owned, and Atlanta is a top global city for fostering women entrepreneurship. Atlanta had the third most women-owned businesses on last year’s Inc. 5000, with 15, and the state of Georgia had the second-fastest growth rate from 2007 to 2018 in terms of the number of women-owned businesses.
The Mayor, the City of Atlanta, and Invest Atlanta are working every day to continue to open up opportunities for our female founders. In 2015, Atlanta became the first U.S. city to fund and launch a business incubator for 100% women-owned ventures, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI). WEI is currently providing its second cohort of participants with access to financial, thought and human capital.
Invest Atlanta has provided many female-owned businesses with support in recent years. Clean energy company Emrgy benefited from a close partnership with the City and Invest Atlanta. “We have a very supportive city government,” CEO and Founder Emily Morris told us. “We believe Atlanta is the best place to start a business given these various support activities they city can and does actively do for startups.”
Charlie Whitfield, CEO of Whitty IT Solutions, has gone from running a single-person operation to managing 16 employees, thanks to support from Invest Atlanta.
And a small business loan helped two women expand The Nest, a neighborhood nursery school in Grant Park.
“[Invest Atlanta wants] to help you, they want to support small businesses and make our larger community better,” said Nest co-founder Mandy Palmer.
We wish you all a wonderful Women’s History Month, and as Mayor Bottoms said earlier this month:
“Atlanta, I believe we can, and so we will.”
- Dr. Eloisa Klementich, President & CEO, Invest Atlanta