Defining Research
Research and evaluation are at our core.
Interise is a trusted source for insights and trends on established small businesses. By surveying our national network of 8,000+ Interise small businesses, we define powerful insights around entrepreneurship, and the complex systems that influence small business growth. Our research also acts as an R&D arm and informs the development of new programming, such as Accelerate Latinx, LEAP, and Grow My People.
RECENT RESEARCH PAPERS
BRIDGING THE WEALTH GAP, in partnership with the US Conference of Mayors
Key Findings:
- Affordable housing helps small businesses – The combination of the widening wealth gap and increasing housing costs compounds the challenge for mayors to stimulate their economies.
- Minority business owners rely on limited investments – The credit gap, compounded by the trust gap and lending biases, means that the bulk of minority business owners have less access to bank financing and rely more on their own investments.
- Small businesses create wealth and local jobs – Building capacity among local small businesses and minority-owned businesses has the potential to close the wealth gap.
- Business growth is a solution for the wealth gap – Established local and minority-owned businesses create jobs and wealth and invest in their communities by sheer fact that they have chosen to locate there.
LATINO-OWNED BUSINESSES: SHINING A LIGHT ON NATIONAL TRENDS, in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative
Key Findings:
- Latino business owners tend to rely on informal financing and are frequently averse to taking on debt.
- Latino business owners face significant financial challenges compared to white business owners.
- Operational challenges differ for scaled and unscaled Latino-owned businesses.
- Metro areas with the highest concentrations of Latinos do not necessarily have the densest shares of Latino entrepreneurs.
- Latino-owned businesses have more success with relationship banking.
- Latino-owned firms have opportunities to diversify and expand their revenue sources.
- Density of existing business networks makes certain geographies more hospitable to Latino business growth.
Building an Inclusive Economy – 15 years of Interise in Massachusetts
With 15 years of experience, partners across 75+ cities and 8,000+ Streetwise ‘MBA’ alumni companies, Interise is driving groundbreaking impact across the country. But while our impact is national, Massachusetts will always be where we started.
Key Findings:
- 552 Massachusetts companies have earned Streetwise ‘MBA’ Certificates.
- Massachusetts companies increased revenue by 23%, on average.
- Alumni companies in Massachusetts increased the number of full-time jobs by 40%.
- Business owners lead the way : Strategic behavior becomes habit.
- The three factors fueling growth of companies in Massachusetts are race, place, and intersectionality.
FAST FACTS
In 2018, alumni businesses saw average revenue growth of 36% percent in 2018, Latinx-owned businesses saw 64% average growth, and minority-owned businesses saw 43% average growth.
Interise businesses create jobs at 4x the private sector.
Minority-owned businesses operating in lower-income communities saw 77% revenue growth
Interise companies create jobs with salaries and benefits that exceed the private sector
The average annual salary of full-time jobs created by Interise businesses was 3% above the national average
60% of new employees were hired locally
IMPACT REPORTS
Interise examines a proprietary database of firm-level data, collected annually from a network of over 8,000 small businesses. These data enable us to constantly evaluate longitudinal as well as real-time impact for trends among established small businesses, as well as representative subsets including minority-owned businesses and those located in low-income communities.
