Measuring Project DEEP’s Impact

Updated: March 26, 2024

Project DEEP aims to contribute to the wider ecosystem around best practices for supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs. The project featured two main components: providing direct support to Utah-based women entrepreneurs by partnering with local community organizations to deliver a new technical assistance program and offering a series of six video courses centered around key topics in entrepreneurship, investing, and ecosystem building. 


Throughout the creation and launch of Project DEEP, Sorenson Impact Institute designed and conducted data collection to understand progress towards the project’s overarching goal and outcomes.


Goal: Advance equitable economic development specifically through supporting a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem for women and people of color. Project DEEP seeks to achieve this through activities that support the growth of entrepreneurship, acceleration of company growth and enhancement of innovation capacity for women and people of color.


Outcomes:

  1. Increased entrepreneurial skills for diverse entrepreneurs in accelerating enterprise growth and accessing human and financial capital

  2. Increased success and growth of diverse entrepreneurs in the primary market

  3. Increase in connections for diverse entrepreneurs and supporting organizations



Highlights: Project DEEP Courses

  • Nearly 500 course signups within 5 months
  • The online DEEP courses reached their target demographics of women and diverse entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders

  • 75% of entrepreneur course enrollments were women

  • 69% of entrepreneur course enrollments were Hispanic and/or a person of color

  • 46% of ecosystem course enrollments were stakeholders and practitioners in the entrepreneurial ecosystem


Highlights: Project DEEP Technical Assistance

  • 66 women entrepreneurs supported

  • 91% of business goals partially or fully achieved

  • 75% of participants found value in the network created