Cate Costa

I am the Founder of Venture Catalyst Consulting, a small consulting firm that specializes in helping startup company founders plan and expand their new businesses. I operate my business from my website, www.CateCosta.com, while traveling the world exploring entrepreneurial ecosystems around the globe.

I'm the author of Owning It: The Aspiring Entrepreneur's Guide to Planning & Launching a Successful Business, available for Kindle here and in other formats here. I've also written for a number of online publications including Under30CEO and NextShark and have been featured by other online publications for my work in entrepreneurship.

Before launching Venture Catalyst, I worked as a Business Consultant with the Minority Business Development Agency's Business Center in Washington, DC helping the founders, CEOs, and executive management teams of minority-owned companies with contract procurement, financing assistance, business process improvement, marketing, and growth strategy development. I also previously headed up the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Howard University School of Business and oversaw the operations of the school's entrepreneur incubator, the Institute's entrepreneurship education workshop series, special events that included a business pitch competition and the Google Digital Empowerment Event, the Institute's one-on-one startup counseling sessions, and the Annual Faculty Conference on Entrepreneurship.

My other experience includes work at a small venture capital firm, at a startup internet advertising company, and as a sole-proprietor with a contract running one of the largest revenue departments on a cruise ship. I've had the opportunity to do business in over a dozen countries and to help numerous entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses across industries ranging from retail to artificial intelligence robotics and everything in between.

I am also a lifetime member of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, the National Society of Hispanic Professionals, and Beta Gamma Sigma. Before leaving DC I served as the Small Business Chair on the Executive Board of the DC Chapter of the Nat