RevHub OC is a non-profit based in Orange County, California with the goal of addressing social and environmental issues through supportive entrepreneurship. The organization provides various entrepreneurship support services to underrepresented communities within the county, including incubators, bootcamps, workshops, and direct investment.

Through this work, RevHub noticed that many communities and individuals still lacked the specialized, hands-on support needed to effectively launch their businesses. This led to the creation of the NorthSTAR supportive entrepreneurship ecosystem: a partnership between RevHub and various other entrepreneurship service providers within the county, including community colleges, public universities, and a local chamber of commerce. The goal of NorthSTAR was to create a referral network that facilitated a “no-wrong-door” approach where a person could enter the ecosystem through any partner and be referred to the organization that best met their unique needs. The pilot launched in the summer of 2023 and after more than a year of service provision, over 180 new businesses were created by NorthSTAR participants.

Sorenson Impact Institute partnered with RevHub to evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot and to create a supportive entrepreneurship ecosystem playbook. This playbook looked to accomplish multiple goals: 1) showcase the need for entrepreneurship support programs across the country, especially those working with underrepresented communities, 2) demonstrate the effectiveness of ecosystem approaches like NorthSTAR in addressing this need, 3) detail steps that other organizations could take to establish a similar entrepreneurship ecosystem within their community, and 4) make recommendations for improvements that NorthSTAR could make in future implementations. Additionally, SII worked with RevHub to create a policy brief, a much shorter document that provided an overview of the NorthSTAR initiative and its results, which can be used by RevHub to inform potential future stakeholders of the project.

Through this engagement, SII conducted multiple qualitative interviews with NorthSTAR ecosystem participants, reviewed quantitative data, and researched other entrepreneurship programs across the country and internationally to identify best practices, isolate lessons learned, and develop a comprehensive overview of the NorthSTAR pilot’s activities and results. The NorthSTAR playbook was completed and published in the Summer of 2025, and RevHub is actively working on establishing both the second phase of NorthSTAR in Orange County and exploring expansion opportunities across the state and country.