From Veterans to Franchisees: Inside Dallas College's New "Front Door" for Entrepreneurs

According to the New Jersey Innovation Institute, the number of people adding "founder" to their LinkedIn profile is up 300% since 2022 — 69% of that growth happened in 2025 alone. Dallas College built the Small Business Launchpad to meet that wave with an actual on-ramp: six program leaders sat down to unpack a "front door" for entrepreneurs that doesn't require starting at step one, built on what they call "coopetition" — partner organizations across the city working together instead of competing for the same small businesses. In this conversation: The philosophy behind the Launchpad: meeting entrepreneurs wherever they are in the journey, whether that's step A or step D How academic entrepreneurship courses take students from zero to a real unique value proposition — and the new Embedded Entrepreneur Network bringing entrepreneurship training into every school at Dallas College, not just the business school Strive, a new 7-8 week entrepreneurship program built specifically for veterans, military-connected founders, and military spouses, launching February 2027 Franchise attorney and City of Dallas Franchise Impact Ambassador Carlos White on the line that stuck with the room: "Contracts control companies. Those that have [a contractual strategy] scale. Those that don't have hobbies." The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program: a genuinely free 14-week course (with meals included) that's graduated 900+ Dallas-area business owners over 11 years, plus ongoing monitoring for three years after graduation A new 4-course franchise certificate track through the Ascend Global Training Institute starting October 27, with grant funding covering up to $2,000 per employee The North Texas Small Business Development Center's free one-on-one consulting — the program did $120 million in North Texas small business loans last year alone What government contracting actually takes beyond registering on SAM.gov, from an advisor who wrote the book on it Learn more about North Texas SBDC's free consulting at ntsbdc.org, or connect with Dallas College's Small Business Launchpad team to find your own starting point in the ecosystem.