SEATTLE – On Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 5 and 6, White House-appointed Deputy Administrator Dilawar Syed of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) traveled to the Seattle area to meet with businesses benefitting from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing In America agenda, including entrepreneurs from underserved communities.
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the United States has experienced a Small Business Boom, with a record 18.5 million new small business applications since President Biden took office – and this historic small business growth is being powered by women and people of color. Washington state alone has seen over 325,000 new business applications filed since President Biden took office.
On Monday, Deputy Administrator Syed visited the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle’s new Entrepreneurship Community & Cultural Office (ECCO) to participate in a roundtable discussion with Black and Muslim entrepreneurs. The SBA’s Seattle District Office and the Urban League recently signed a Strategic Alliance Memo to build upon their strong, collaborative relationship.
Deputy Administrator Syed then toured AeroGo in Tukwila. The company has grown domestically and exporting to 30 countries by leveraging SBA assistance including the Paycheck Protection Program and the State Trade Expansion Program, administered by Washington State Department of Commerce.
On Tuesday, Deputy Administrator Syed and Beto Yarce, Regional Administrator for the Pacific Northwest, participated in Centro Cultural Mexicano’s weekly broadcast geared toward the Hispanic community. They discussed the agency’s commitment to reaching business owners in all communities, federal contracting goals and how the SBA can assist with those opportunities, and the importance of diversity in representation to the Biden-Harris administration and SBA.
For the high-tech portion of the visit, Deputy Administrator Syed visited Starfish Space in Tukwila, a cutting-edge business that utilizes Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding for developing their space satellite repair products. Other innovative SBIR-funded companies then joined him for a roundtable on challenges and opportunities.
From there, Deputy Administrator Syed was introduced to Pioneer’s Reentry Entrepreneurship Program (PREP) for formerly incarcerated individuals. A partnership with former Seattle Seahawk Doug Baldwin’s social impact investment firm, Vault89, PREP is a life-changing entrepreneurship course that last several weeks and is designed to help returning citizens start and grow businesses. PREP was fortuitously launched shortly after the SBA amended lending rules so that reentering citizens may now be eligible for SBA-back loans.
The Deputy Administrator’s trip ended with a visit to a construction site where a Ukrainian refugee was providing tile services. The newcomer was able to obtain a microloan from New Roots Fund microlender to launch a business venture in the U.S. and begin his pursuit of the American dream of business ownership.
For follow up interviews with Deputy Administrator Syed, please contact out to Teddy Lake at theodora.lake@sba.gov.
###
About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.