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Author: eqzhbtaw-ca

Small Business Advocate of the Year

Written by eqzhbtaw-ca on . Posted in Blog.

The Catalyst CEO, Lisa Davis Mays, was honored and humbled to be recognized by HASBAT (Huntsville Association of Small Businesses in Advanced Technology) as the 2025 SMALL BUSINESS ADVOCATE OF THE YEAR. The beautiful award was presented to Lisa by HASBAT President Allison Rhen at this year’s Huntsville/Madison Co. Chamber Small Business Awards Gala.

In her acceptance speech Lisa gave a shout out to her “Dream Team” here at the Catalyst and the fulfilling work we do. “I don’t really have many greater joys than to be able to have a front row seat to watch you all succeed every day.” Lisa told the audience of small business owners. “Having a Big heart for small business isn’t just what we do at The Catalyst, it’s who we are. This award is a reflection of the incredible small business owners we have the privilege of walking alongside, and my extraordinary Dream Team who makes our mission come alive in our community and across the country every single day.”

If you are interested in starting a business and want to start off on the right foot, contact The Catalyst at info@catalystcenter.org or call 256-428-8190.

The Catalyst Acess to Capital through SBIRs

Written by eqzhbtaw-ca on . Posted in Blog.

With the assistance provided by the SBA FAST (Federal and State Technology) Program, the SBA Growth Accelerator Fund Competition and Innovate Alabama, The Catalyst was able to provide more resources toward training and technical assistance to small business with new innovations. In FY2025 we launched deeper training on Federal grants available through SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) and STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) and held our first SBIR Proposal Lab. The Lab was broken into 2 stages. Stage one included several introductory workshops and how to write a Pitch, focusing on submitting an NSF pitch. Companies with a well-thought-out pitch were invited into Stage Two, which was an intensive series of six full-day workshops, hosted in collaboration with OST Global Solutions. Workshop topics included proposal content development, speed writing, budgeting, commercialization, and final proposal submission. These workshops also featured subject matter experts, including speakers from the Department of Defense, DARPA and NASA. We also supported other small businesses interested in pursuing funding opportunities through one-on-one coaching The Catalyst trained 780 unique clients at 23 workshops. We received 53 completed applications for the SBIR Proposal Lab. All applicants were invited to a pre-coaching session/assessment to gauge their progress and assess their alignment with the program.  31 Companies were invited to join the Lab and 27 companies accepted and participated in two live full day workshops. 14 companies completed a Pitch/Concept paper and moved forward to the Stage Two of the Lab to begin working on proposals. 90 clients in total were coached on their innovation and funding opportunities. 9 clients were awarded SBIR supplement awards from Innovate Alabama and 22 total SBIR applications were submitted to Federal Agencies. The Completion of this Lab marked a critical milestone in our mission to support Alabama-based innovators in accessing federal R&D funding. Interested in learning more? Contact us at info@catalystcenter.org.

2025 Huntsville-Madison Co Chamber Small Business Awards

Written by eqzhbtaw-ca on . Posted in Blog.

In September, The Huntsville/Madison County Chamber honored local small businesses and individuals during the 40th Annual Small Business Awards Gala, held in the Von Braun Center’s Saturn Ballroom. It was a beautiful event and could be described as the “OSCARS for Huntsville”.

The Catalyst was honored to be the presenting sponsor for The Emerging Business of the year, an award to a start up company that has been in business for less than 3 years. CEO Lisa May presented the award to Cahaba Federal Solutions. The program honored small businesses across industries. Congratulations to all the winners: