SPARK LAB

A youth pre-accelerator

Colorado is developing one of the most dynamic entrepreneurship ecosystems in the country.

This includes sectors from energy and agriculture to advanced manufacturing and deep tech. However, Colorado youth, especially those in rural and underinvested urban communities, have limited pathways into this ecosystem.

Our goal is to change that.

What is Spark Lab?

The Spark Lab Pre-Accelerator is a free, 6-week program designed in partnership with Startup Colorado.

Startup Colorado is the state’s leading nonprofit provider of entrepreneurship supports to rural entrepreneurs. Among other programs, Startup Colorado has been successfully delivering a pre-accelerator model, the Idea Factory, to entrepreneurs across the state. Now Homegrown Pathways and Startup Colorado are collaborating to refine the Idea Factory pre-accelerator to a youth-specific audience, including those with only an initial business concept. The framework has the potential for state-wide scale via AmeriCorps. 

Spark Lab is a 12-15 hour, non-technical experience, focused on the outcome of a 3-minute pitch presented at a culminating Pitch Competition event. A cohort of 10-15 youth participants will selected for each implementation.

Spark Lab Goals

Provide focus for your business’ strategic direction, including financing and customer demand. 

Create relationships with other early stage youth founders in rural Colorado for peer-to-peer support. 

Build your social capital and awareness of local and state funding and implementation resources that can support your future growth.

Develop your own entrepreneurial mindset and real-life experience in preparing your ideas to be pitched to a professional audience. 

Gain the confidence and skills that can help you move forward in launching your own business and/or further position you as an innovator and “intrapreneur” through career pathways with other regional businesses.

Through this experience, we will connect young entrepreneurs to other regional resources, including those provided by local chambers of commerce, SBDCs, colleges and universities, and workforce centers as well as state and national resources, including through the Colorado Office of Economic Development and Startup Colorado.

Homegrown Pathways’ model will pay participants through a $200 gift card (completion required). This is not only a tool to encourage strong engagement, but more importantly, a tool to communicate to young people the value and importance we place on their ideas and solutions. A pool of seed funding of $3,000+ will be competitively available to selected youth through the pitch competition event. We encourage donors interested in growing this seed funding pool to reach out to us (click here). 

Participants in Spark Lab will also be connected to Startup Colorado’s network of over 2000 entrepreneurs from across the state who can further support young entrepreneurs on their business development journey. This network creates an exceptionally unique social capital network for young, rural entrepreneurs and innovators.

Building the Youth Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

Our vision is to scale this model state-wide, in partnership with Startup Colorado, and thereby create additional direct pathways for youth into Colorado’s broader entrepreneurship ecosystem. We aim to develop an inter-connected network of youth entrepreneurs, while leveraging AmeriCorps (local talent) to build and maintain that network. Our goal is for Homegrown Pathways to have a central role in building the state’s pipeline of future innovators from across the state’s rural and underinvested urban communities.

a 6-week Pre-Accelerator Model

  • Week 1

    Intro to Entrepreneurship

    Participants learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and spark new ideas.

  • Week 2

    Exploring Rural Entrepreneurship

    Fan the flame with inspiration from local funders and founders.

  • Week 3

    Develop your Pitch

    Sharpen your message and refine your "ask" for the Pitch Competition.

  • Week 4

    Seed Funding 101

    Learn how to creatively and practically fund your ideas.

  • Week 5

    Pitch and Networking Prep

    Polish your pitch and learn how to build powerful connections as we break down the fundamentals of networking.

  • Week 6

    Pitch Week

    Present your refined pitch at our final Pitch Competition in front of peers and industry pros. You have the opportunity to win seed funding for your business idea!

Economists estimate that if women, people of color, and young people from rural and low-income families became inventors at the same rate as men from high-income families, innovation in the United States would quadruple. Homegrown Pathways aims to support this vision and not only build pathways into existing businesses, but also to foster entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship.