Founding a company doesn’t come with a playbook — but Tanya Morris is building one anyway, designed to guide and uplift Black women founders.

Morris’ entrepreneur resource org Mom Your Business (MYB) partnered with Baltimore-based EcoMap Technologies to launch Foundery PHL earlier this week, a platform for founders of all stages to access resources and learning guides to help them grow their business. Looking for support organizations, funding opportunities or events? It’s all there, tailored specifically for women and people of color.

“Women don’t need more talent … or ideas,” Morris said. “What we need is more access and opportunities and the Foundery does just that.” 

A group of people on a stage raise their hands in celebration. In the foreground, a website portal offers business resources for different stages of growth.
The Foundery PHL homepage (Screenshot)

MYB initially partnered with Women’s Way, the Merchants Fund, Greenline Access Capital and the Neighborhood Progress Fund to launch the platform, but it has already added more orgs that offer a mix of programs and funding, Morris told Technical.ly.

Foundery PHL lists orgs like the Enterprise Center and Startup Leaders that specifically support entrepreneurs, plus other groups like the Women’s Opportunities Resource Center, which provides business and financial resources for women.

Morris emphasized that the platform is another pathway to help underrepresented founders, especially Black women, gain more access to capital, which is often the biggest barrier for early founders. 

A web page titled "Organizations" lists local organizations with filters on the left and detailed cards for each organization on the right.
Local orgs are listed as resources (Screenshot)

Black women entrepreneurs are the fastest-growing group of founders, according to a 2023 report from GoDaddy. However, funding for this demographic is inconsistent, with Black-owned businesses receiving more funding following the death of George Floyd in 2020 and declining the following year, according to the World Economic Forum. 

Right now, Foundery PHL is geared towards Philly and Camden, but the goal is to continue expanding its reach, Morris said. Eventually, she would like to include partners and resources in Philly’s collar counties and across the region. 

A pathway for every stage

Morris founded Mom Your Business in 2017 as a resource hub for Black and brown women founders. Since then, she’s grown the nonprofit, hosting pitch competitions and launching a coworking space for the founders she works with. 

Foundery PHL provides five pathways for startups, from the idea stage all the way to the growth stage. Each pathway comes with a guide that provides a list of goals and reflection questions to help steer founders in the right direction. 

Screenshot of a webpage titled "Stuck on Start," offering guidance on starting a business, with sections for joining a pathway and the first step: "Know Yourself.
The site offers five pathways for founders (Screenshot)

“Those pathways are actually opportunities for education, for them to learn as they’re navigating these resources as well,” Morris said. 

Morris had been thinking about creating a resource platform for a while, but it wasn’t until she was introduced to EcoMap’s pathways structure that she felt like it was the right format, she said.

EcoMap CEO and cofounder Sherrod Davis said the partnership was a good fit for his team, too, as an opportunity to work with and support Black women-owned businesses. 

“Our goal is to save entrepreneurs time,” Davis said. “We’re excited to see the connections, the businesses that thrive here in Philadelphia and the Camden region.”