On April 15, Comcast announced at the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs that Atlanta will be one of the cities eligible for the Comcast RISE program this year. The program is committed to supporting the growth of small businesses while helping communities thrive with a focus on economic growth. Comcast RISE will award 100 recipients in Atlanta with a grant package that includes $5,000, education resources, and creative production, including media, and technology makeovers.
Mike McArdle, Comcast’s senior vice president of the “big south” region, was at the event to share the news and also grant RICE $1 million to help build their digital tools and support small businesses around the city.
McArdle spoke with rolling out about Comcast RISE and how the program plans to help small businesses.
Tell us about Comcast RISE.
Comcast RISE is a great program specifically designed to support small businesses and entrepreneurs. We started in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, helping the most impacted businesses due to COVID-19. Even though the pandemic has passed, we still know it’s really challenging to launch and sustain small businesses, and that’s why we’re so committed to building another round of Comcast RISE right here in Atlanta. One hundred businesses will be selected from May 1 to May 31.
Go to www.comcastrise.com to apply and find out all the rules and how to be eligible. We’re super excited about what we’re about to do and support businesses right here in Atlanta.
How big is it knowing Comcast is impacting the community besides cable and internet?
Our core services are all about connectivity and the platforms to enjoy them and use them for business, but we’re so much more. I’ve been in the company for a long time, almost 30 years, and we’re just a unique organization. We’re not only here to provide services, but we provide a lot of investment to the community.
Comcast RISE is actually one piece of a larger initiative that we call Project UP. It’s a 10-year commitment, a billion dollars of investment across all the footprints that we serve and the communities we serve. We’re a unique organization providing unique opportunities to help grow the communities we serve, just like Comcast RISE is about to do.
Why are small businesses important?
Small businesses are the backbone of the economy. They’re the backbone of communities. They set the foundation for where we all live, work, and play, and that’s really the key to building that base of business and growth.
Comcast started from a group of entrepreneurs as well, a long time ago, and has grown into the company it is today and I think it’s important that we get back to small business. Since 2011, we’ve had a whole host of digital equity initiatives from our Internet Essentials program, and now another round of Comcast RISE. We’ve been doing Comcast RISE since 2020, and we’ve actually helped over 13,000 businesses across the footprint we serve nationwide.
I think we’re excited to bring it right here to Atlanta; we move it around, and this is a great opportunity for Atlanta to thrive and for Comcast to play a role in helping that.
