EMERGE COMMUNITY BUSINESS ACADEMY | Cohort Graduates
By INDIA YARBOROUGH | Photos by JOHN BURNS
According to Michael Odupitan, founder and CEO of Omni Circle Group, which is facilitating the Emerge Academy, the program’s first cohort originally consisted of 12 participants representing 10 businesses. Throughout the program’s 12 weeks, the number of entrepreneurs narrowed to 10, representing nine businesses. This drives home Odupitan’s point that entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint of heart.
“We lost one group,” he said. “I think part of that was them just recognizing where they were, which is what the program is designed to do. You don’t step into a business venture if you’re not ready. Nine out of 10, I would say that’s pretty good. We graduated 90% of the group.”
Graduating businesses included both products and services, and the Emerge business academy was able to meet the needs of them all.
Meet two entrepreneurs who graduated from the inaugural class.
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