The Cleveland Browns are deepening their partnership with the nonprofit JumpStart Inc. to help Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs reach new customers, build connections and grow their businesses.
The expanded collaboration, announced Thursday, brings the Browns into two JumpStart programs serving small businesses and — for the first time — health technology startup founders. The team will sponsor ScaleReady, which helps growth-oriented small businesses strengthen operations and prepare for expansion, and the Trailblazer HealthTech Accelerator, where the Browns will follow one high-growth tech founder through the intensive program and beyond.
Trailblazer gives promising founders intensive advising, weekly workshops and introductions to investors, customers and sources of capital. The accelerator marks the Browns’ first direct involvement in JumpStart’s technology startup programming.
The Browns began working with JumpStart in 2022 to help Cleveland-area small business owners gain visibility and reach customers and supporters outside their existing circles. This fall, that work grows to include the health tech founders in the nonprofit’s accelerator.
JumpStart says its services are offered at no cost and focus on the advising, funding pathways and connections that growing businesses often need but cannot always reach on their own. The nonprofit says its mission is to drive economic vitality across the region by connecting entrepreneurs to the opportunities and resources they need to succeed.