New Programs
ElevAsian New Venture Cohort Program
A founder program for exploring ideas, understanding customers, and shaping ventures that can move forward.
The ElevAsian New Venture Cohort Program is designed for early-stage founders who want to explore an idea, understand their customers, and shape a venture that can realistically move forward. Over eight sessions, participants work through the key questions every founder faces—from identifying the right problem to presenting their venture with clarity.
Along the way, founders test their thinking, learn from the experiences of other entrepreneurs, and refine the direction of their venture. Optional one-on-one progress checkpoints provide space for focused guidance and feedback as ideas evolve.
The program concludes with a venture pitch session where participants share their ideas, receive feedback, and reflect on the progress they have made.
What the Program Includes:
Eight interactive founder sessions
Optional one-on-one venture progress checkpoints
Conversations with experienced founders and ecosystem leaders
Draft pitch feedback before the final presentation
Final venture pitch session
Sessions take place online on Wednesdays from 6:30–8:00 PM, from June through August 2026.
Applications for the Summer 2026 cohort are now open.
Who Should Apply
This program is designed for people who are:
exploring a startup or business idea
developing an early-stage venture
considering entrepreneurship as a next step
looking for thoughtful feedback and a community of founders
Participants may come from a range of industries, including technology, retail, and service-based businesses.
If you are exploring an idea and want a supportive environment to think it through, we invite you to apply to the next cohort of the ElevAsian New Venture Cohort Program.
Sandhya Balasubramanian
New Venture Advisor and Instructor
Sandhya Balasubramanian is a startup co-founder, entrepreneurship educator, and venture mentor focused on supporting early-stage founders building innovation-driven ventures. As a New Venture Advisor with ElevAsian, she supports founders in shaping ideas, strengthening startup teams, and translating promising concepts into scalable ventures.
She is a co-founder of a NIOSH-funded biomedical startup developing technology to improve respirator fit testing and safety outcomes. Her experience building a research-driven venture informs her work mentoring founders navigating early-stage uncertainty, product validation, and team formation.
Sandhya also serves as Assistant Dean at the WPI Business School, where she provides strategic leadership for initiatives that connect students, startups, and industry partners. She directs the WPI Small Business Digitization Initiative (SBDI), leading efforts that help local small businesses advance digital transformation while providing students with hands-on consulting experience.
Her research focuses on entrepreneurial orientation, startup team dynamics, and entrepreneurial leadership—examining how early-stage ventures build strong teams and scale effectively. Over the years, she has also mentored and advised founders, university innovation ecosystems, and startup communities across Asia and North America. Through her combined roles as a scholar, strategic leader, and startup practitioner, she brings both academic insight and real-world experience to venture development. She holds an MBA and PhD in Entrepreneurship from the Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell.
Finance Matchmaker Program*
*Program is open to Massachusetts and Rhode Island based companies
ElevAsian is piloting this program with Nectar Community Investments, which is a Massachusetts based Community Development Finance Institution. Nectar invests, lends, and finances accounts receivables. Once ElevAsian road tests this relationship it will invite other financiers into its matchmaker program. The following is a description of Nectar’s investment programs.
Patient Capital Opportunities
Through the Business Equity Investment Fund, Nectar invests in and purchases equity in your business to support your long-term growth and development. Our investment goes beyond dollars: we’re your strategic partner, offering resources and experience to help you expand, all while giving you the freedom to run your business the way you want.
With competitive terms, cash flow freedom and a genuine interest in your success, we’re working to generate growth and create long-term impact.
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1. Business Loan Criteria
- Amount: $3,000-$500,000
- Terms: 1 to 7 years
- Interest: Competitive rates
- For startups or expanding businesses
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2. Accounts Receivable Loan Criteria
Through our partner Liquid Capital, we offer accounts receivable financing that gives your business faster access to capital and more predictable cash flow.
Details
- Amount: $100,000+
- Your loan is based almost exclusively on the credit quality of your customers.
- Current Rate: 1.50% to 2.20% per invoice per month
- For businesses with $200,000+ annual revenues seeking to bridge the cash flow gap to address payroll and other expenses.
- Financing is based on the credit quality of the invoicing counterparty, e.g., a commercial corporate or governmental entity.
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3. Business Equity Investment Fund Criteria
- An established business or startup on a growth trajectory
- Generating positive revenue
- Making a positive impact in the community
Details
- Amount: Up to $750,000
- Terms: Up to 10 years
- Mission: Alignment with business owners
- Type of Equity: Preferred
- Percentage Ownership: Valuations to be determined on individual company basis
- Value: Patient capital that purchases company shares (equity) to support growth
Glynn Lloyd
Executive Director At Nectar
Glynn has been an innovator in transformative urban economic development for more than 30 years. As Nectar’s Executive Director, he leads our efforts to invest in small businesses and create innovative residential programs that advance environmental justice and stable housing. Glynn also serves on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Economic Development Planning Council, which is responsible for crafting a strategic plan to guide Massachusetts economic development policy over the next four years, and the Energy Transformation Advisory Board, which helps guide and advise the work of the Massachusetts Office of Energy Transformation. Prior to this role, Glynn was the founding Executive Director of the Foundation for Business Equity (FBE), one of our legacy organizations. There, he oversaw our unique approach to truly scaling up local Black and Latino enterprises to close the racial wealth gap.
Once FBE merged with Mill Cities Community Investments to make broader impacts in addressing New England’s wealth gap, Glynn became executive director of the combined entity — now known as Nectar.
Glynn was also the founder of City Fresh Foods, a nationally-renowned food service business. Over 20 years, Glynn grew the business an average of 15 percent annually to reach an eight-figure revenue. He is also a founder of the Urban Farming Institute (UFI), a community-led nonprofit supporting the development of the urban farming industry in Massachusetts, and helped establish the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA), a coalition of black business, community, religious and labor leaders working together to improve economic indicators in the Black community.