Entrepreneurship + Innovation
Our mission is simple: build a more inclusive economy by connecting and inspiring the entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow.
We believe that for the economy to truly thrive, economic development must expand to boundlessly include and support entrepreneurs, innovators, and small business owners from all backgrounds, neighborhoods, and cultures. Every person has the right — even a responsibility — to be entrepreneurial. As economic developers, it is our job to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship by building on-ramps to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, wherever on-ramps are needed.

Services + Expertise
At Camoin Associates, we help clients from state-level organizations to local municipalities identify, connect with, understand, and strengthen their entrepreneurial ecosystems, as well as develop, implement, and optimize their entrepreneurial ecosystem strategy.
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Assessment and Action Planning
To help you serve the small businesses and entrepreneurs in your community today and into the future, we will help you engage with and understand your entrepreneurial ecosystem, identify cultivation opportunities, and develop strategies and actions to move quickly.
BIPOC Business Participation Assessment and Strategy
Entrepreneurship and innovation can occur without diversity, but that is not an ecosystem. A real entrepreneurial ecosystem only exists when every person is connected to the system and can work within the system to advance their ideas and business ventures. Camoin works with municipalities, regions, and states to understand the strengths and weaknesses within their BIPOC business landscapes and help facilitate the design of projects and initiatives that create greater opportunities for BIPOC entrepreneurs and innovators to start and grow businesses.
Market Research and Intelligence
Change is happening rapidly, and what we knew yesterday about markets and the economy is no longer true today and certainly won’t be tomorrow. Our analysts leverage the best real-time economic data from partners like Emsi and can work with you or your businesses to analyze and understand current economic conditions, translate and distill the data into knowledge, and develop strategies to help small businesses and startups adapt to the realities of the crisis economy.
Metrics Tracking and Evaluation
Our analysts will help you assess and track critical entrepreneurship and small business indicators in your community and monitor the impact of your support programs, allowing you to use these metrics to tell the story of your community’s business resilience and the role support programs play in this resiliency.
Small Business Outreach and Resource Center
Don’t wait for struggling businesses and entrepreneurs to call you. Our team can work on your behalf to conduct direct outreach to the startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurs in your community. We’ll check in with them, see how they are weathering the disruption, and connect them with resources. We can also answer, manage, and direct inbound inquiries from small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking economic relief, allowing your team to focus on strategic priorities.
Policy and Code Assessment and Outreach
Place matters. Entrepreneurial ecosystems — whether rural, urban, or anything in between — are distinct, and connected. We believe there’s a strong synergy between the built environment and small business and entrepreneurial ecosystems. To ensure your community’s regulatory environment supports and encourages small business resilience and growth, we can review your community’s land use regulations and permitting processes and work collaboratively with your boards and commissions to adopt an approach that will support recovery and future success.
Resources and Success Stories
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Arrowhead Gateway Small Business Assessment in Hartford, CT
The City hired Camoin Associates to complete an entrepreneurial small business assessment in support of its Arrowhead Gateway Small Area Plan and Corridor Study
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Rhode Island Seeks to Improve Its BIPOC Small Business Ecosystem
Rhode Island recently completed an assessment and action plan that will improve its BIPOC small business ecosystem.
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Small Business & Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Audit for the City of Fort Worth, TX
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Designing a “Venture Hub” in Central Virginia
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N-Squared Innovation Corridor Economic Development Strategy for Newton & Needham, MA
The Camoin Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partner Network
We don’t do this alone. We’re able to deliver a robust suite of services to the economic development community by partnering with the best of the best, including:
- Business Cluster Development creates innovative models and strategies that catalyze entrepreneurial ecosystems and emerging innovation clusters
- EntreWorks Consulting works with a diverse base of clients committed to innovative economic development strategies that build wealth and communities
- Emsi offers the best labor market data available anywhere by pulling data from multiple sources to provide the most complete, nuanced, up-to-date view of the labor market
Get Started
Looking to Expand Your Community's Entrepreneurial and Innovation Ecosystem?

Contact Christa Franzi, CEcD, Director:
P (518) 899 2608
E christa@camoinassociates.com
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