MARTINSVILLE, VA (December 2, 2022) – The Martinsville-Henry County of Chamber of Commerce’s (“The Chamber”) Chamber Partnership for Economic Growth (C-PEG) is launching its application process for Startup and Grow Martinsville-Henry County (Startup MHC and Grow MHC) for a new winter and spring round. Startup and Grow MHC are entrepreneurial mentoring programs with intensive eight-week and four-week entrepreneurial boot camps, respectively, for startup and growing companies. Startup MHC is geared toward entrepreneurs who plan to start or have recently opened a business, while Grow MHC is for the more seasoned business owner who is ready to take a business to the next level. The application process is competitive and applicants must agree to the program guidelines. January 4, 2023, at 12:00 p.m., local time, is the application deadline. Through a grant from the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission (TRRC) which leverages local funding, C- PEG is able to expand its training and potential awards to certain business sectors.

In addition to TRRC, C-PEG’s long term partners for this initiative include City of Martinsville, Henry County, the Campbell Family Group, both the George W. Lester, II Fund and the Anonymous Fund through the Community Foundation Serving Western Virginia and Patrick & Henry Community College. Additionally, Appalachian Power is a sponsor of Startup and Grow MHC; American National Bank is the small business sponsor for Chamber and C-PEG events.

Since 2015, when the initiative originally began as Startup Martinsville in the Uptown Martinsville area with a Community Business Launch grant from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, the geographic area has grown to include the entire footprint in the City of Martinsville and Henry County thanks to support from both locales and generous private sector funding. To date, the initiative has successfully graduated 294 individuals from its training program, awarded 58 businesses with over $459,724 in cash and in-kind funding. These businesses have created over $4,356,000 in new capital investment and created more than 240 new jobs.

C-PEG partners with Patrick & Henry Community College to deliver the entrepreneurial boot camp sessions as well as Longwood’s Small Business Development Center, SCORE and the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation and staff from the City and County, local entrepreneurs and business experts.

Legacy C-PEG board member Clay Campbell said, “C-PEG, along with our long term community partners, continues to be to supportive of small business growth as part of our region’s long term economic development strategy, and we are proud to continue to provide resources to support the successes of talented entrepreneurs in Martinsville and Henry County.”

The application is available online at www.martinsville.com/startup.

Please contact Lisa Watkins with the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce with any questions at 276.632.6401 or mhccoc@mhcchamber.com.

Martinsville-Henry County Chamber’s Partnership for Economic Growth (C-PEG) is an independent, yet closely aligned, charitable affiliate of the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce. C-PEG is charged with funding and supporting the area’s efforts to improve economic growth.