New York Professional Advisors for Community Entrepreneurs

NYPACE - New York Professional Advisors For Community Entrepreneurs - is a nonprofit whose mission is to stimulate job creation and sustainable economic development by providing pro bono business consulting to under-represented, under-resourced entrepreneurs in New York City. Our program model is unique: Volunteer advisors with complementary skill sets are grouped together in small consulting teams to address the key business issues of ONE entrepreneur for a 60 to 90 day period. We work virtually and during the COVID crisis we have extended our reach beyond New York by launching a program in Chicago in partnership with JPMorgan Chase.

NYPACE has emerged as one of the leading skills-based volunteer engagement programs in the US, maintaining an active corps of over 125 volunteer advisors providing more than $1.5M in consulting value per year. During last year’s pandemic, we greatly expanded the reach of our consulting services to help more than 50 under-resourced entrepreneurs in New York and Chicago scale their businesses and create jobs - we anticipate helping more than 75 small businesses this year. 

NYPACE draws its volunteer advisors and corporate support from many of the nation’s leading professional firms, including BCG, Credit Suisse, EY, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, PwC, RBC, and Warburg Pincus.  We provide entrepreneurs with the strategic guidance needed to elevate their businesses to the next level. The business owners we help are typically women, veterans, and people of color - and our consulting focuses on 3 high impact areas:

*Market research, including analyzing market and segmentation, mapping the competitive landscape, and uncovering potential blind spots.

*Financial modeling, including capital requirement assessments, cash flow projections, break-even analysis, and pricing strategy.

*Marketing, including refinement of the value proposition and sales narrative, optimization of marketing spend, assessment of social media.