The Problem
Velocity runs one of Michigan’s most complex entrepreneur support ecosystems: an accelerator, an incubator, Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) coaching, coworking, and a growing slate of MEDC-funded grant programs. The vision was always to meet entrepreneurs where they are - identify where each person fits, move them quickly into the right program, and track their growth over time. Prior to working with EIC, the infrastructure to do that did not exist.
Client data was scattered across spreadsheets. Rick Venet, Velocity’s primary EIR, maintained a personal spreadsheet just to track who he was coaching and their status. Session notes lived outside the system. The accelerator team operated in Clio, a separate CRM with no connection to the rest of the organization. Every MEDC reporting cycle meant someone manually pulling data from multiple sources, reconciling inconsistencies, and hoping nothing had slipped through.
The deeper problem wasn’t the disconnected systems. It was that the team couldn’t easily see whether an entrepreneur who walked in six months ago had made progress in their business or between Velocity programs. For example, whether they moved from incubator to accelerator, accessed a new grant, or had grown their staff headcount. Without that visibility, it was hard to demonstrate impact and harder still to be responsive to the evolving needs of their clients.
A Partner, Not Just a Platform
When the Velocity team went looking for software, they weren't just searching for a tool. They needed an all-in-one system that could handle CRM, coworking, resource navigation, events, coaching, and program management. Even more, they wanted a thought partner that could help their team figure out how to match their workflows to their programs to hit their desired outcomes. What they found in EIC was a perfect blend of platform, performance, and partnership.
From the start, EIC worked alongside Velocity to map what their programs actually required — not just technically, but operationally.
- Federal grant compliance. When the ED needed staff activity tracked by day, EIC built the form and showed her the export before building it.
- State-level reporting. When the team needed to separate grant-funded programs, EIC built distinct CRM fields so the data exports clean.
- Program routing. When the EIR identified that entrepreneurs needed routing by profile, EIC designed conditional intake logic to make it automatic.
Velocity's real-world feedback shapes how the platform is built.
Better Results and More Capacity
The result is a system where every touchpoint an entrepreneur has with Velocity:
- Intake forms
- EIR 1:1 sessions
- Program applications
- Grant disbursement
- Referrals
lives in one place and feeds into a unified record. An EIR can pull up a client’s full history before a coaching session. The team can run a filtered export for reporting without cross-referencing spreadsheets. The director can see which clients are active in which programs across the whole organization.
That visibility directly affects the entrepreneurs Velocity serves. When the team can quickly see where someone is in their journey, they can connect them to the right resource faster—a grant they qualify for, a referral to a partner organization, or a move from the incubator into the accelerator.
Velocity is still building and EIC is building right alongside them. What has made the partnership work isn’t the software alone. It’s that EIC showed up to every workflow and every problem with a tailored solution and a genuine investment in Velocity’s mission.