Meet Dusty Welsh of Sister Sprout

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dusty Welsh. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Meet Sister Sprout Founder Dusty Welsh 

Bringing fun and creative business-building experiences to girls and entrepreneur educators around the world. 

Dusty Welsh is a transformational business launch coach with over 15 years of experience empowering women founders to reach for their startup dreams. Welsh acts as the Executive Director and lead program instructor at Sister Sprout, offering a business and nonprofit development framework which guides girl students through each step of the business builder process. Welsh frequently serves as a venture pitch coach and trusted advisor supporting entrepreneurs around the country and the world, helping female business owners realize their own economic empowerment and fullest potential as strong, creative, and prosperous business founders. 

Dusty Welsh, Sister Sprout Executive Director & Student Gameplay Program Host 

Dusty Welsh is a subject matter expert on topics of entrepreneurship, business launches, and the startup process. Here at Sister Sprout, she’s passionate about sharing her professional experience with educators, girls, and teenage learners around the world. 

WHO I AM… 

My name is Dusty Welsh, and I founded the Sister Sprout creative startup builder studio to bring life-changing entrepreneurship education to girls and teenage learners. 

WHAT I DO… 

I help students around the world create their business plans, develop their startup strategies and launch their own businesses or nonprofit startup enterprise concepts. 

Background Working With Women Business Founders 

So, what’s my startup story…? 

Empowering girls to create their own best futures. 

As a business mentor, I LOVE empowering women to clarify their dreams, launch their business ideas, and build their own startup futures. I invest in nonprofit and business founders bringing their early-stage ideas to market. I bring over 15 years of involvement with launchpad and business incubator programs for women. 

As a frequent winner and judge of business competitions, I love helping women pitch their best business ideas to investors and stakeholders… because we can crush it when we encourage each other! I’m a frequent Guest Speaker at live events and on radio, podcasts, and business shows, where I freely share my startup knowledge with listeners around the world. 

I enjoy helping women founders develop creative marketing and media strategies to share their best stories and express themselves, annddd I’m superrr-passionate about social enterprise startups with impact. I believe in sharing the socially and environmentally responsible “triple bottom line” business philosophy with every business founder I reach. 

Professional courtesy work and community engagement matters, too! That’s why I‘m always a bussssy-beeeee volunteering for causes I care about like the women pitch competitions, various professional women’s associations, and nonprofit charitable events year-round. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Sister Sprout has served women, and entrepreneurs, during the first year of operation in 2022. In 2023, the programming will focus on middle and high school girls, making the business-skills building accessible to underserved students and Title I School Districts in Southeast Michigan and across the country. 

It took over years from 2019-2022 for founder Dusty Welsh to translate everything she has learned in her professional career as a startup consultant to buildout the 12-step business builder curriculum now offered by Sister Sprout. It took another 8 months to translate the women’s program into a youth-friendly course to be utilized by educators, after-school facilitators, and school district administrators. 

Nothing worth doing is easy, and the Sister Sprout journey has been fraught with setbacks, difficulties, and delays like any new venture encounters. The important thing is to learn, adapt and continue improving until a sweet spot is discovered. 

We’ve been impressed with Sister Sprout, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Creative Business Builder Game Inspires Next Generation Of Girl Entrepreneurs and Startup Business Innovators 

About The Sister Sprout Entrepreneurship Game For Girls 

Founded in 2023, Sister Sprout is a popular educational technology solution for bringing business-skills building to middle and high school students. Sister Sprout offers an interactive 12-step business development course developed by startup experts, which is utilized by classroom teachers, school district administrators, and group facilitators to aid in teaching basic business skills to girls, including business planning, financial literacy, and economic development topics. Course programs aim to inspire the next generation of female business innovators and startup entrepreneurs. 

Sister Sprout programs are available for girls ages eight to eighteen, with educational courses, gameplay sessions, and group activities offered virtually and in person during live workshops, special events, and in-classroom programs. Educators, after-school administrators, and group facilitators access free online course materials, printable lesson plans, and engaging companion materials to aid in teaching entrepreneurship to students. 

Sister Sprout’s educational programs for girls specialize in reaching underserved communities by offering scholarships and subsidized programming made possible through corporate sponsorship allocations and grant-based fundraising collaborations. 

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
The Sister Sprout program is currently being incubated in the Tech Town Traction program and is supported by mentors there in the Educational Technology space. Support for delivering free women’s programming was made possible in 2022 by sponsorship through Comerica Bank. In 2022, Sister Sprout women’s programming was hosted at the downtown venue for the Mount Clemens Downtown Development Authority and programs were hosted in partnership with the Nest Women’s Retail Collaborative in downtown Mount Clemens, Michigan. Free girl’s programming has been hosted at Imagine mentoring for Girls in Warren, with programming led by Imagine Mentoring Latonya Garth and Dusty Welsh with Sister Sprout. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sistersprout.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sistersproutgame/