Strategic Initiatives

Universities can play a role in the entrepreneurial process, for both for-profit ventures and social enterprises. Perhaps not as an anchor of an ecosystem, but as a catalyst to help connect talented students, knowledgeable faculty, and alumni with entrepreneurs and others in the startup ecosystem. These connections to the start-up ecosystem can help students grow and experience the entrepreneurial process and provide nascent ventures with much-needed resources, including interns, mentors, and capital.

This is the hope and vision of two of the Crotty Center’s biggest initiatives - The Hub powered by PNC Bank, and The Greater West Dayton Incubator. Both of these initiatives position the Crotty Center with the opportunity to contribute as a catalyst in the startup ecosystem. Working side-by-side with Dayton’s Entrepreneurs' Center, the Crotty Center is helping to execute a collective approach in the creation of new resources for local entrepreneurs and social ventures while providing new experiential learning opportunities for UD students.

Together, the Greater West Dayton Incubator and the Hub Powered by PNC Bank will accelerate American leadership through commercial space activities held in collaborative workspaces and hubs; support economic activity with reliable data that closes gaps and inequities regarding access to capital and financing resources; and provide customer-centric services that are culturally-relevant and responsive through diversity, equity, and inclusion development, capacity-building, and entrepreneurial narratives with attentiveness to underrepresented entrepreneurs and business owners.