About the Randall W. Lewis Center for Entrepreneurship's $1 Billion Economic Impact Initiative!
In an economy where small businesses and entrepreneurs serve as the backbone of innovation, resilience, and job creation, the team at the Randall W. Lewis Center for Entrepreneurship recognized a powerful opportunity and in 2023 set its most ambitious goal yet: to create $1 billion in economic impact through our business counseling and training services delivered to entrepreneurs throughout the Inland Empire region.
Our goal was to reach this milestone by 2028. Instead, we achieved it at the end of 2025!
For more than 20 years, the RLCE has worked alongside entrepreneurs across the Inland Empire – helping launch more than 2,800 startups, serving over 213,000 entrepreneurs, and supporting the creation and retention of more than 62,000 jobs. Along the way, we have helped businesses access capital, secure government contracts, increase revenues, and expand into global markets.
But beyond the numbers, this milestone represents something deeper.
It represents entrepreneurs who chose to take a risk. It represents our consultants, mentors, and advisors who treat this work as a mission. It represents partnerships – across university, federal, state, local, and private sectors – that made it possible for the RLCE to build real infrastructure around small business growth.
When we talk about economic impact, we are talking about businesses that survived when they might not have. Companies that scaled instead of stalled. Families whose livelihoods became more stable. A regional economy that grew stronger because entrepreneurship was supported intentionally and at scale.
Reaching $1 billion early is something we are proud of. It also marks a turning point and a launch point for the next chapter:
The Race to Scale — our bold initiative to help 100 Inland Empire businesses currently in the $500K–$800K annual revenue range reach $1 million by 2030. Scaling businesses is how we create more job creators, more stability, and more regional anchors.
And we introduced another key step in strengthening the ecosystem:
– a new community-focused entrepreneurship hub (app + website) designed to make it easier for founders and small business owners to connect, collaborate, and access resources and services through one portal. Get the app / join the hub here Google Play / App Store