What are we doing?
Urban Redevelopment Authority(URA) and the city of Pittsburgh together have partnered to create reference guides to help small businesses learn step by step instructions on how to start a business in Pittsburgh. These reference guides can be found on LaunchPGH.com

What are we doing?
PGH Lab is a competitive program designed to foster collaboration between the local entrepreneurial community and the city. PGH Lab invites qualified, prescreened startup companies to pilot their products and services to help the city meet complex challenges in the areas of Citizen Engagement, City Operations, Climate Change and the Environment. Startups can test their products and/or services in the city for a pilot phase period of 3-4 months.

What have we learned?
The PGH Lab 2016 Cohort selected three startup companies to pilot their products/services at the city for three months. All three companies offer products that can make tangible social and environmental impact in Pittsburgh. Two of the companies match the initiatives that the Office of Sustainability and Resilience is currently working on.
PGH Lab

What are we doing?
Connecting Urban Entrepreneurs (CUE)
CUE is a collaborative effort among several organizations in Pittsburgh to help entrepreneurs take their online presence to the next level. The Carnegie Library, the City of Pittsburgh, Google, the Center for Women's Entrepreneurship, Urban Innovation21, Davis Consulting Solutions and many more have teamed up to offer the program.

What have we learned?
In 2016, CUE Pittsburgh has executed two different 12- week training sessions for businesses in East Liberty, Garfield, and Homewood. The second training session was held in Pittsburgh's Hill District. The first training session held in East Liberty recruited 11 businesses for the first 12-week pilot course. The type of businesses that participated in the course were from a wide range of industries including restaurant, retail, and services.
Find out more about CUE: Pittsburgh here

What are we doing?
The Small Business Resource Fairs (SBRF) help business owners or like-minded individuals connect with other businesses and resources in the city. The SBRF holds two editions, a general and a government edition hosted by the Department of Innovation & Performance, the Mayor's office and the Urban Redevelopment Authority. In the general edition, representatives from the URA, Kiva, and exhibitors highlight resources applicable to most small businesses. In the government edition, the Mayor’s office in partnership with the URA host a government-focused fair with a goal of having small businesses directly interact with city representatives and ask city related questions.

What have we learned?
In 2014, The Small Business Resources Fairs held five events for the year. Due to increased demand and success of the program, in 2015, there were nine different Small Business Resource Fairs held throughout the city. In 2016, there have been 10 Small Business Resource Fairs with an average attendance rate of 19 people.

Small Business Resource Fair

What are we doing?
In January 2016, the city hired its first full-time Innovation & Performance Fellow. The fellow has been helping in a wide range of civic innovation projects related to the promotion of the business environment in Pittsburgh. This will help secure the city's talented graduating population by encouraging students to stay in Pittsburgh.

What are we doing?
The city will help launch a mentorship program that matches 10 private sector CEOs, nonprofit Executive Directors, and other civic leaders with budding entrepreneurs and other rising stars from Pittsburgh’s immigrant and minority communities, to support and elevate emerging new leaders.

What are we doing?
The Urban Redevelopment Authority is working towards expanding local resources to better reach businesses in need of resources, make capital more available, and capitalizing projects.

What are we doing?
LaunchPGH is an online portal connecting our city’s investors, business development organizations, and grassroots groups from the startup community. LaunchPGH serves as a centralized hub of information where local businesses and entrepreneurs can find resources to help them start a business, connect with incubators/accelerators, find job postings, co-working spaces, funding opportunities, and business related news and events happening in Pittsburgh.

What have we learned?
Under Mayor Peduto's administration, LaunchPGH has seen an increase of new visitors and activity to the website. On average the website attracts 827 visitors per month. The Urban Redevelopment Authority, which manages the website, frequently updates the content on the site.

Check out LaunchPGH

What are we doing?
As part of the Welcoming Pittsburgh Plan, under Mayor Peduto’s leadership the city will encourage more resource providers to offer support for immigrant and minority owned businesses. Some of the identified needs to support immigrant and minority owned businesses include start-up expertise, traditional and alternative capital, real estate, and mentorship.

What have we learned?
Through the Small Business Resource Fairs, the city and the Urban Redevelopment Authority have begun to address some of the needs of immigrant, refugees, and minority-owned business. Through the Small Business Resource Fair Immigrant and Refugee edition, entrepreneurs can find service providers in one place to connect, network, and ask questions.

What are we doing?
On April 1-9 the city launched its first Inclusive Innovation Week, a week-long event where innovators, community partners, companies, and city officials came together to celebrate Pittsburgh’s accomplishments and innovators. The city along with its partners are preparing Pittsburgh to meet the challenges of the digital age.

What have we learned?
During April 1-9, Inclusive Innovation Week, offered 63 different events 43 of which were free to the public. This year, 47 city partners participated in Inclusive Innovation week and spearheaded events in 13 different city neighborhoods.
Inclusive Innovation Week

What are we doing?
PowerUp Pittsburgh is a collaborative strategy that brings together government, business, universities and entrepreneurs to align our region’s resources for the creation of jobs. PowerUp Pittsburgh’s mission is to accelerate the commercialization of technology innovation events to create jobs in the Pittsburgh region.

What have we learned?
PowerUp Pittsburgh members meet quarterly to update each other in regional trends, new opportunities and development happening in the city, and to share best practices about their work as it regards to the growing business sector in Pittsburgh. PowerUp Pittsburgh is constituted by 23+ partners from local universities, incubators & accelerators, local government, economic development organizations and others.

What are we doing?
Through Welcoming Pittsburgh, the Mayor will advocate for education and adoption of best practices in hiring and recruiting immigrants within the Pittsburgh business community. The Welcoming Workplace Challenge supports and promotes employer leadership in cultural awareness, internships, mentorships, networking, and the hiring of a diverse workforce.
Visit Welcoming Pittsburgh