84% of the people who register for a Colado gathering own a business, freelance, or are getting one off the ground. Some have an LLC and no bookkeeper. Some have a bookkeeper and no operating agreement. Almost nobody has a lawyer.
That’s the gap TEDCO’s BRIDGE Program was built to close.
TEDCO came to us. Javier from their team reached out, walked us through the program on a call, and asked us to put it in front of our community. So that is what this is.
What the BRIDGE Program is
BRIDGE stands for Business Resource Information, Development, and Guidance Ecosystem. It’s run by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), and it’s supported in whole or in part by federal award number SSBCI-21034-0009, awarded to TEDCO by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. SSBCI is the Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative, which is where the money behind BRIDGE comes from.
What it gives business owners is legal, accounting and financial advisory services, spread across nine programs. A law clinic on one end, a subsidized back office on the other.
It’s advice and services, not a grant. TEDCO describes BRIDGE as legal, accounting and financial technical assistance, aimed at giving these businesses better access to capital. What that buys you is books, paperwork and credit in the shape a lender wants to see before it says yes.
Who qualifies for BRIDGE
Two groups, per TEDCO:
- Businesses owned by Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Individuals (SEDI)
- Very Small Businesses with fewer than 10 employees
The service area is Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia and Delaware, so it reaches well past the Baltimore line.
TEDCO decides who’s eligible, not us. If you’re running something small around here, it costs you one application to find out.
The nine programs, in plain language
BRIDGE Advising
The front door, and where most people should start. An advisor runs TEDCO’s BRIDGE Assessment, a 16-point diagnostic covering how mature your business is, where your finances sit, what’s missing operationally, and whether you’re ready for capital. Then they write you an Individualized BRIDGE Roadmap pointing at the specific programs you need.
Free legal services through the University of Maryland
The Francis King Carey School of Law runs a Small Business Law Clinic and an Intellectual Property & Entrepreneurship Clinic. TEDCO lists the work as free: corporate formation, contract drafting and review, licensing and permitting, employment counseling, lease reviews, intellectual property, and workshops.
If you’ve been putting off forming properly or protecting a name, this is the one to read twice. The law school sits at 500 W. Baltimore Street, which for most of our gente is a bus ride, not a trip.
Financial Literacy, Credit Repair and Building
Hands-on training on financial statements, budgeting, credit repair, and getting your record-keeping in order. Delivered through the Small Business Development Centers in Maryland, DC and Virginia. TEDCO says Delaware residents sign up with the Maryland SBDC.
Back-Office-In-A-Box
Subsidized financial infrastructure, accounting, and compliance support: bookkeeping setup, payroll and HR support, financial report generation, tax compliance tools, and subsidized software and toolkits.
CDFI Technical Assistance
Targeted financial advisory delivered by participating Community Development Financial Institutions. Loan application preparation and documentation, help identifying financing options, credit strategies, financial projections and cash flow modeling, plus loan packaging and lender-readiness coaching.
Women's Access to Capital & Entrepreneurship (ACE)
A twice-yearly cohort on financial literacy, capital readiness and entrepreneurial leadership for women, run by the Institute for Women Entrepreneur Excellence.
BRIDGE Proposal Lab
A cohort-based accelerator for federal funding and proposal development, covering Maryland, DC, Virginia and Delaware. Federal contracting is a skill, and this is where TEDCO teaches it.
Rural & Urban Business Innovation Initiative
Financial and investment-readiness advising for rural and urban SEDI tech entrepreneurs in Maryland: strengthening financial management, preparing for the investment process, and going after SBIR and STTR funding. TEDCO says BRIDGE takes this one from three advisors to five.
Loaned Executive Program
Short-term, high-impact advisory engagements with seasoned executives, up to 40 hours, focused on financial strategy and growth planning.
Which one you probably need
Nine programs is a lot to read through when you already know what’s wrong. So here it is by symptom.
| What’s going on | Where to start |
|---|---|
| You don’t know which of these you are | BRIDGE Advising |
| You never formed properly, or the operating agreement doesn’t exist | Carey School of Law, Small Business Law Clinic |
| Somebody could take your name, your logo, or your work | Intellectual Property & Entrepreneurship Clinic |
| The books are a mess and you know it | Back-Office-In-A-Box |
| Your personal credit is what’s blocking the business | Financial Literacy, Credit Repair and Building |
| A lender said no and never told you why | CDFI Technical Assistance |
| You want to sell to a government agency | BRIDGE Proposal Lab |
| You’re a woman founder working toward investment-ready | Women’s ACE Program |
| You’re a Maryland tech founder about to raise | Rural & Urban Business Innovation Initiative |
| You need a senior operator in the room for a few weeks | Loaned Executive Program |
It’s already being used
TEDCO reports more than 670 BRIDGE applicants to date. Separately, it counts more than 400 businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals and more than 600 very small businesses. Those figures come from TEDCO’s own BRIDGE fact sheet, which you can read here.
Those are their numbers, not ours. We’re repeating them because “free program” and “nobody uses it” usually travel together, and this one doesn’t fit that.
How to start
Three doors, in order of how little each one asks of you.
- Sit in on the open forum. TEDCO runs a virtual BRIDGE Program Open Forum each month on the third Thursday at 10:00 AM. You listen, you ask your question, you leave.
- Email bridge@tedcomd.com with what your business is and what’s broken.
- Apply. The application is online and free: TEDCO’s BRIDGE application form. The full program page lives at tedcomd.com.
Whichever door you pick, ask for BRIDGE Advising first. The assessment is what tells you which of the other eight you actually need, and it saves you guessing.
Why we’re posting this
We spend a lot of time in rooms where somebody says they need a lawyer and can’t afford one, or that the books are a mess and they know it. Then everybody nods and nothing changes.
A free legal clinic and a subsidized back office are the change.
Nuestra gente doesn’t hear about programs like this, because programs like this don’t advertise where we are.
BRIDGE is the business door. If what you need is the health door, the legal door or the school door, we wrote up the Latino organizations in Baltimore and who to call at each one.
Acércate. Come tell us if it worked.
Questions people ask about the BRIDGE Program
What does BRIDGE stand for? BRIDGE stands for Business Resource Information, Development, and Guidance Ecosystem. It’s run by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) and supported in whole or in part by federal award number SSBCI-21034-0009, awarded to TEDCO by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Is the TEDCO BRIDGE Program free? The legal services through the University of Maryland Carey School of Law are free, and the Small Business Development Center consulting is no-cost. Back-Office-In-A-Box is subsidized rather than free. There’s no charge to apply or to get the BRIDGE Assessment.
Is the TEDCO BRIDGE Program a grant? No. TEDCO describes BRIDGE as legal, accounting and financial advisory services, so no money changes hands at the end of it. It’s built to get a business capital-ready, which is a different job from funding one.
Who qualifies for the BRIDGE Program? Two groups: SEDI-owned businesses, meaning businesses owned by Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Individuals, and Very Small Businesses with fewer than 10 employees. TEDCO makes the eligibility call on both, and the free application is how you get it.
What states does BRIDGE cover? The TEDCO BRIDGE Program serves Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia and Delaware. The Small Business Development Center training runs through the Maryland, DC and Virginia centers, and TEDCO says Delaware residents sign up with the Maryland SBDC.
Is the BRIDGE Program available in Baltimore? Yes. Baltimore sits inside the Maryland service area, and the free legal clinics run out of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law at 500 W. Baltimore Street downtown.
How do I apply for the BRIDGE Program? Apply through TEDCO’s online form at tedco.tfaforms.net/184. There is no charge to apply, and an advisor follows up to run the BRIDGE Assessment. Questions before you apply go to bridge@tedcomd.com, or you can sit in on the monthly open forum first.
What is the BRIDGE Assessment? A 16-point diagnostic a BRIDGE advisor runs on your business, covering maturity, financial position, operational gaps and readiness for capital. The output is an Individualized BRIDGE Roadmap naming the programs you should use.
When is the BRIDGE Program Open Forum? TEDCO runs the BRIDGE Program Open Forum virtually each month on the third Thursday at 10:00 AM. It is the lowest-commitment way in: you listen, you ask your question, and you leave without applying to anything.
How long does it take to get started? TEDCO hasn’t published a timeline, and we won’t guess at one. The open forum on the third Thursday of the month is the fastest way to ask that question of somebody who can answer it.
Is Colado Latino Network part of the BRIDGE Program? No. We’re not a TEDCO partner and we have no role in the program. We’re a Baltimore Latino business network passing along a state-backed resource our people qualify for. Every question about eligibility, timing or services goes to TEDCO at bridge@tedcomd.com.
Between gatherings, our Latino business directory in Baltimore is how this community finds each other, and the next of our Latino community events in Baltimore is where you can tell us whether this was worth posting.
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