As we close out an impactful year, we reflect on the milestones, challenges, and growth that have shaped our journey. 2024 has been one of transformation, with new opportunities and strategic initiatives that have propelled us forward. Our commitment to uplifting communities around the world by supporting small businesses and fostering meaningful partnerships has remained unwavering, and we are excited to share the progress we’ve made. Looking ahead, we will continue to build on these foundations to create even greater impact in 2025.

Our Mission

At Surthrive, our mission is to accelerate economic development by helping small businesses build the capacity to scale so they can create new jobs and bring more resources to their communities. 

Expanding Services Into New Markets 

In 2024, Surthrive inked 3 new strategic partnerships; 2 with the Economic Development Agencies including the City of Detroit and the City of Boston and 1 with the HUUB, an Entrepreneurial Support Organization (ESO) based in Phoenix, Arizona. 

These new partnerships, paired with our existing strategic partnerships, allowed Surthrive to reach new markets and deliver its technical assistance, business coaching, and marketing consulting services into 17 new cities across the US. 

New markets served: Detroit, Boston, Charlotte, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago, Phoenix, Boulder, Durham, Nashville, DC, Birmingham, Milwaukee, Louisville, Jackson, Norfolk, and Savannah.  

Supporting & Impacting Small Businesses 

As a direct result of our consulting services, entrepreneurial training programs and technical assistance services Surthrive conducted 484 consultation sessions with  110 socially-disadvantaged business owners that have created 97 new jobs and raised over $1.35M in capital in 2024. 

Success Story 

In partnership with Our Village United’s ELEVATE program, our team of consultants had the pleasure of providing one-on-one business coaching to Victoria Lamar, CEO of Securing Degrees, helping her craft her pitch to ultimately win $25K in a business pitch competition.

“I wanted to share some exciting news with you—I recently won the Taco Bell Ambition Accelerator! Out of over 400 entries, I was chosen as a top finalist, flew out to Irvine, CA, and ended up securing the grand prize. The lessons I’ve learned from [Surthrive] —like the importance of staying true to my mission, telling a compelling story, and believing in my vision—are directly tied to the guidance and resources I’ve received from all of you. Every conversation, every piece of advice, and every bit of support has contributed to this moment.” – Victoria Lamar, Securing Degrees

New Initiatives Launched in 2024

Surthrive rebranded its Back To The Basics Podcast and released 3 new episodes featuring 3 successful entrepreneurs in Season 3 which garnered over 3,000 views. 

Through our entrepreneurial training program, Square One Startup School, we launched an online learning community for early-stage startup founders allowing them to access content, courses, and community for FREE. The online membership community gained over 175 members in Year 1.

Key Insights & Lessons Learned 

In 2024, Surthrive conducted the most consultation sessions with business owners in it’s 8-year history and with that growth we learned how important it is to have the right people, partners and processes in place to scale our impact. We brought on 5 new certified Business Consultants and leveraged technology to streamline communications to reach business owners located in a variety of geographical locations across the US.

Also, we gained valuable insights on the process of submitting competitive proposals to bid on RFPs published by Economic Development Agencies and Entrepreneurial Support Organizations. We learned that galvanizing our resources, network, and partners in a timely manner paired with our compelling mission and experience can be a formula for successfully winning bids in the new year. 

Plans for 2025 

At Surthrive, we embody the principles of having a ‘Community-Centric’ mindset which emphasizes collaboration, inclusivity, and accessibility to uplift communities around the world through entrepreneurship. 

Going into 2025, our goal is to leverage this mindset to secure new strategic partnerships with local economic development agencies and national entrepreneurial support organizations to accelerate the growth of the small business in their communities through our Capacity Building services. 

2025 is about building capacity not only for the small businesses we serve directly but for our partners who need support in launching, managing, and sustaining their small business development initiatives to create a lasting impact.  

If you are looking to partner with Surthrive in 2025 to support your community of small businesses you can learn more here!