Right to Start Expands Its Presence in North Carolina, Championing Entrepreneurship Statewide
Kansas City, MO – September 17, 2025 – Right to Start, the national nonprofit organization championing entrepreneurship as a civic priority, today announced that it is expanding its organizational presence in North Carolina to advance entrepreneurship statewide. As part of the expanded presence, a newly appointed Coalition Manager will focus on creating and energizing a statewide coalition to enhance the landscape of entrepreneurship for all North Carolinians.
The coalition will be launched with an event in Raleigh on Tuesday, September 23, from 8:00 to 11:00 am at Raleigh Founded in Gateway Plaza. The coalition will build on exciting recent developments in Right to Start’s work in North Carolina. They include a recently completed one-year grant from the City of Raleigh to help the city understand the barriers that underserved entrepreneurs experience – and ways of overcoming them.
Paula Pingel has been hired as the part-time Coalition Manager for Right to Start, charged with creating and building the statewide coalition. She is a Charlotte-based executive, entrepreneur, and startup and board-level advisor with 30 years’ global experience in strategic growth, commercialization, and operational excellence across multiple industries. The recipient of an Executive MBA and an MS from the University of Rochester, she has successfully launched products, services, and startups in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, including her own consulting business, Crelucin Business Coaching.
Paula is already working closely with Right to Start’s part-time Advocate in North Carolina, Vania Ramos Ponce. Based in Raleigh, Vania is a financial services professional with over a decade of experience in accounting, tax strategy, and community lending, who has worked extensively with CDFIs, SBA-aligned institutions, and small business clients. She now serves as a tax and business advisor to entrepreneurs, drawing as well on her own experience having co-founded and successfully managed a frozen yogurt company. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy of Development and an MBA from universities in Mexico, where she grew up.
The coalition, which will be formally unveiled at the launch event on September 23, will be supported by both organizational and individual members. The organizational members will include entrepreneur support organizations and other civic entities; the individual members will include entrepreneurs, civic leaders, and other supporters of entrepreneurship.
Right to Start has been working in North Carolina throughout its five-year history and has close ties to the state. Catherine Read, Right to Start’s Senior Director of Field & Campaign Strategy, lives in Raleigh. Henry Doss, Right to Start’s Board Member and Ambassador, lives in Charlotte.
“Right to Start’s statewide coalition will work to expand entrepreneurship opportunities for all North Carolinians,” said Catherine Read. “We’re excited about this expansion of our work in the state, and with the leadership of Paula Pingel and Vania Ramos Ponce we look forward to this coalition becoming a model for other states in the nation.”
New and young businesses create virtually all net job growth in America. They are leading indicators of GDP growth, and they increase community wealth and diversify goods and services.
Every new business per 100 people adds nearly $500 to average household income in a county, according to data from the GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab. Every 1% increase in entrepreneurial activity in a state correlates with a 2% decline in poverty.
Right to Start’s expanding presence in North Carolina is supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth through their Mastercard Strive USA program, which is funding similar work by Right to Start in three other states: California, Michigan, and Missouri. Mastercard Strive USA supports small business resilience and growth in a changing digital economy by unleashing the potential of small businesses as catalysts of inclusive growth.
For more information, contact Henry Miller at hmiller@highimpactpartnering.com or 917-921-8034.
Right to Start is a national nonpartisan movement to advance entrepreneurship as a civic priority throughout the United States. Entrepreneurship has long been viewed as a solitary endeavor – the lone starter in a basement or garage. Right to Start’s vision is to transform America so that all communities prioritize entrepreneurship, clearing away obstacles to ensure that every American has an equal right to start and a level playing field on which to embark.
About the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth
The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. The Center leverages the company’s core assets and competencies, including data insights, expertise, and technology, while administering the philanthropic Mastercard Impact Fund, to produce independent research, scale global programs, and empower a community of thinkers, leaders, and doers on the front lines of inclusive growth. For more information and to receive its latest insights, follow the Center on LinkedIn, Instagram and subscribe to its newsletter.
About Mastercard Strive
Mastercard Strive is a portfolio of philanthropic programs supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and funded by the Mastercard Impact Fund. With programs around the world, Mastercard Strive has reached more than 18 million small businesses to go digital, get capital, and access networks and know-how. Follow Mastercard Strive on LinkedIn and subscribe to its newsletter.