Update Snapshot - Our Success is Your Success!

Performance Update - Our Success is Your Success!

Glenda & David Regenbaum Center for Entrepreneurship

We are honored to relay the success of our first full academic year with our new name, thanks to Glenda and David Regenbaum and their generous $100,000 endowment of our Center at HCC Northwest. Thank you David for dedicating your time and experience to help us develop and grow our programs.

Thanks to Dr. Zachary Hodges, President, HCC Northwest for starting entrepreneurship at HCC and remaining one of our strongest leaders and ongoing champions! Thanks to the HCC Northwest Leadership Team and all staff and faculty supporting our offerings and spreading an entrepreneurial mindset to and through our community.

Thanks to Dr. Kurt Ewen, Chief of Staff and Vice Chancellor of Strategy, Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, HCC District, for leading and empowering us to strategically plan and grow entrepreneurial offerings across the HCC System. You help drive our growing contribution to creating greater economic opportunity and equity for talented, diverse and motivated aspiring and existing entrepreneurs across Houston.

Thanks to Dr. Maya Durnovo, Chief Entrepreneurial Officer, HCC, for being there from the start to launch our center and for supporting and growing entrepreneurship over the years throughout the HCC system. With 14 signature programs in all now, our national award for 2020 Entrepreneurial College of the Year from NACCE and our new Open for Business grant, we are looking forward to more great accomplishments together with all of our internal and external partners.

2020-2021 Fiscal Year – Our success comes from three primary signature programs: three cohorts graduated from the Small Business Success Series by HCC^© ; our 14^th Annual HCC Business Plan Competition; and the roll out of the HCC Mattress Mack School of Selling:
Fall 2020 - 33 events with 1,163 in attendance.
Spring-Summer 2021 - 47 events with 4,134 in attendance.
HCC Business Plan Competition – A series of 13 events from January through June – Awarded $26,000 in prize money to the top five teams, and in-kind prizes valued at $ 43,700 to 24 graduating teams.
Small Business Success Series by HCC^© - We graduated Cohorts 2, 3 & 4 in F2020/21 and moved swiftly to collaborate and deliver more in Fall 2021.
HCC Mattress Mack School of Selling^© - Rolled out this new 6-session series, delivered twice with total attendance of 1,209 in March and 1,178 in August.
Total Attendance - Fiscal YE 2020-2021: 80 events 5,300.
The above includes our three signature programs and other small business events, such as our Digital Marketing Clinics with Beth Guide.
Since 2016, our Glenda & David Regenbaum Center for Entrepreneurship has delivered entrepreneurial training events attracting 12,750 attendees in collaboration with 30 strategic partners

YEAR END UPDATE – Wrap up of 2021 and preparations for Spring 2022 for our three signature programs: January events for the HCC Business Plan Competition; in Fall 2021 we graduated another three cohorts of the Small Business Success Series by HCC^©; and plans are underway with Jim McIngvale to announce a Spring Schedule for the HCC Mattress Mack School of Selling^©
The HCC Business Plan Competition is going into it's 15th year! Profound thanks to our original partners at Newspring for the legacy you've helped us create and carry forward. Director, Sandra Louvier has been involved in the competition for the last 12 years. Since then, 271 teams (571 contestants) have graduated from the competition. We have raised and awarded: $312,000 in seed money to 60 finalist teams; and in-kind prizes valued at $169,000 and $171,000 in membership discounts to 271 graduating teams. Volunteer hours for 12 years, contributed from competition leaders, trainers and 50-60 advisors annually are valued at $2.275 million. In total, over 12 years, the HCC Business Plan Competition has delivered an estimated impact to Houston entrepreneurs of $2.9 million.
Small Business Success Series by HCC^© - This Fall, we graduated Cohorts 5, 6 & 7. Congratulations to our graduates! Our Digital Cohort 5 graduated in October. Our onsite Cohort 6 was held at University of St. Thomas, thanks to a collaboration between Dr. Patrick Woock and David Rebgenbaum. We were also honored for Cohort 7 to be the inaugural offering in HCC's new Open for Business Grant sponsored by Wells Fargo. Kudos to our facilitators and delivery team, the HCC Office of Entrepreneurial Initiatives team, and to the new Open for Business grant team; Tamala Austin, Carola Medina and Karen Sharp, who joined HCC this fall and moved at warp speed to graduate Cohort 7 on December 9th! A schedule for the next cohorts will be announced soon.
HCC Mattress Mack School of Selling^© - We have planning meetings underway for an open access digital offering in March 2022 for this 6-session series, like the ones we offered in 2021. We are also planning a smaller application-based cohort with an April, 2022 start date to be held onsite at Gallery Furniture for applicants pursing a career in sales. More news on this soon!

Star Staff - Special thanks yet again to Sabiha Dholkawala and Flora Renteria who joined our team last year during the pandemic and hit the ground running! You are entrepreneurial, open-minded and have an outstanding ability to pivot, develop and implement solutions and come to work ready to have fun, deliver results and shine!
Star Facilitators, Entrepreneurs in Residence and Volunteer Advisors & Alumni: Special Thanks to: David Regenbaum, Austin Tenette, Ned Mueller, Kimberly Penn, Dr. Kimberly Burroughs, Thea Goldin Smith, Nanette Ray, Rebecca Schultz, Ashely Small, Leeanne Aguilar, Beth Guide and all the volunteer advisors, alumni and panelists who support our programs and give invaluable advising and training to our proposed, startup and existing entrepreneurs!
Special Thanks to our Sponsors and Partners: We have more than 30 in all and you’ll see them mentioned throughout the year in our newsletters. Special thanks to our recurring sponsors Wells Fargo Bank, Wallis Bank, LiftFund, Allegiance Bank, Tehrani and Associates, LLC, our Business Plan Competition Alumni Circle Sponsors and our internal and external entrepreneurial eco-system partners such as the SBA Houston District, SCORE Houston, City of Houston-Mayor’s Office of Business Opportunity, local management districts and chambers and so many others…. Our success is your success!

About the Glenda & David Regenbaum Center for Entrepreneurship

HCC Northwest

OUR MISSION: To help entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. We do this by offering workshops, seminars, summits, classes and competitive training and advising, while also providing practical knowledge, resources and connections.

Houston Community College

2020 Entrepreneurial College of the Year

October. 6, 2020: The Houston Community College System was selected as the winner of the 2020 Entrepreneurial College of the Year award by the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) at NACCE's annual conference, where entrepreneurial colleges from across the U.S. gather to share best practices. On behalf of all of our entrepreneurial programs and staff, we thank all of the entrepreneurs, partners, sponsors, volunteers, students, and HCC faculty and staff who have contributed to our efforts! Without your support and dedication to our programs, this wouldn't have been possible!

Houston Community College Receives 2021 Diversity In Business Award from the Houston Business Journal!

Congratulations to all students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs (aspiring & existing); and to all our community participants, supporters, volunteers, partners and sponsors who collaborate with us to make awards like this possible! Congratulations also to all of the other honorees and awardees!

#WeAreHCC # HoustonStrong #HBJDiversity