Helping Businesses in Virginia Grow
Mason Enterprise is a university-based economic development organization that focuses the energy, skills, and intellectual capital of Virginians on new company creation and small business expansion. Through a broad array of activities that include business counseling, workshops, training, and connecting to Mason assets (research, class projects, interns), Mason Enterprise strengthens the strategy development and operations of businesses, governments, and other institutions throughout Virginia and the Greater Washington Metropolitan Region.
Explore Our Services
Incubators
Mason Enterprise Centers (MECs): Leased office space for businesses to release their full-potential, transform and achieve their goals. MEC clients receive preference for intern and class project placement, access to group health insurance and payroll support, special “master class” programs, and several other benefits. Locations: City of Fairfax, Springfield, Herndon, Warrenton, and Arlington.
The MIX: Located at Horizon Hall on George Mason University’s Fairfax campus, the MIX hosts workshops, competitions, and accelerator programs. It is a Makerspace, student incubator, and media lab.
Training and Education
Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC): Training on a variety of essential business topics from business basics to accounting and bookkeeping.
APEX Accelerator: Workshops run by federal agencies and large contractors to help small businesses receive government contracts.
Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP): An introductory program which uses a lean start-up short course that helps any tech start-up in Virginia move from discovery towards commercialization.
iCorps: An immersive seven-week entrepreneurial training program that facilitates the transformation of invention to impact.
Accelerate Investor Event: An annual showcase of the best tech start-ups across Maryland, DC, and Virginia, designed to connect entrepreneurs with national and local investors.
Cyber Security Internships Program: Connects cyber-related start-ups with college interns across multiple universities, and provides matching funds to those start-ups.
CCI+A: A cyber security accelerator that takes a cohort through a three-month program to move a new product into the market.
Business Advisory Services
Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC): An organization of 27 local Small Business Development Center offices across Virginia providing professional advising and resources to help businesses grow.
APEX Accelerator: Serves businesses in 80 jurisdictions. All counselors provide one-on-one advice to help businesses with government contracting at the federal, state, and local levels.
Business Finance Center/Community Business Partnership: Works in collaboration with a number of local, regional, and national organizations to finance disadvantaged entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Office of Technology Transfer: Encourages and facilitates the successful commercialization of discoveries, innovations, and inventions developed within the university's research enterprise.
"Running your own business requires a wide range of skills; you will need to be able to cope with competition and negotiate deals, and attain financial support. Mason SBDC has given us this support and much more. Their training classes, networking, and office space are critical to our business. In these difficult economic times, having the Mason SBDC support has made it much easier to move towards our goals."
- Michael Thornton, Visionary Consulting Partners