Supporting Entrepreneurs: An Interview With The Avoka Group’s CEO

April 29, 2020. Washington, DC: The Avoka Group’s CEO, Barb White, spoke with Henrik de Gyor for the Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) podcast about her experiences working with students, alumni, and staff at the Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities on launching, growing, running, and selling their start-up businesses.

Since she joined both institutions in 2019, she has advised and consulted with start-ups and entrepreneurs across various fields and disciplines including medical devices, social impact innovations, IT solutions and platforms, and B2B service offerings.  

When asked to describe the challenges of effectively supporting companies, she said, “the best way to help them is to help them see that maybe the idea they are working on is not quite the right one; that they either need to pivot, or just come up with something completely different. Being able to balance that message delivery in a way that is more encouraging and less soul crushing is really the biggest challenge for me”

She went on to describe ways that others can learn more about programs like these within their own communities to both share their expertise and learn from these innovative and creative entrepreneurs. “Given the current health and financial crisis, we’re seeing more clients looking for different ventures and possibly becoming entrepreneurs themselves. My experience with these programs enables us to provide a more comprehensive set of services and access to a network of professionals from across the start-up world.”

Listen to the full interview here: http://eirpodcast.com/2020/04/29/barb-white/ and learn more about our offerings at https://www.avokagroup.com/our-offerings.