History

 2001
  • Interise was started at Boston University by Sociology Professor Dan Monti and Root Cause CEO and founder Andrew Wolk, then a lecturer at the university's School of Management.
  • Monti and Wolk documented an imbalance that showed how existing training programs, technical assistance, and financial resources lean heavily toward helping startup businesses rather than existing ones. Yet existing small businesses have a larger impact on living conditions and employment opportunities in urban neighborhoods. Monti and Wolk created Interise to address this imbalance, focusing on improving the skills of established entrepreneurs and thereby strengthening their businesses.
 2004
  • The first Interise Boston class enrolled 14 urban small business entrepreneurs who completed Interise's nine-month ‘StreetWise M.B.A.™' program.
 2007
  • Interise launches its first class of 11 entrepreneurs in Worcester.
 2008
  • Due to high demand, Interise adds a second class in Boston, almost doubling the size of its greater Boston program.
  • In total, since 2004, Interise has successfully launched eight classes and worked with a total of 89 entrepreneurs throughout Massachusetts.
  • Based on requests from our entrepreneurs, Interise launches NextYear™, a 12-month program that supports urban entrepreneurs as they implement the growth plans they developed in the 'StreetWise M.B.A.' program.
  • Interise was named an Innovation Award winner by the Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE) in the first year that non-profits could compete in their own category.
  • Interise won a competitive bidding process to become the national training provider for the Small Business Association's (SBA) Emerging 200 Initiative. This brings Interise's signature StreetWise Steps to Small Business Growth™ curriculum to ten cities around the country, including: Albuquerque; Atlanta; Baltimore; Boston; Chicago; Des Moines; Memphis; Milwaukee; New Orleans; and Philadelphia.
 2009
  • Interise launches a program in the Merrimack Valley beginning in early 2009. Interise will continue to expand to other cities across New England in the next three years.
  • The SBA e200 Initiative is renewed and expanded to include five new cities: Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Jacksonville, FL, and Portland, OR.