2024 PBN Innovative Companies Awards
EDUCATION/CAREER TRAINING: DevAccelerator Inc.
THE MISSION AT DEVACCELERATOR INC. is succinct yet transformative: Change the landscape of possibilities for Rhode Islanders in the job fields of the present and future.
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The technology and entrepreneurship program at the Providence-based startup company helps incubate and develop tech startups in Rhode Island. CEO Arnell Milhouse said DevAccelerator can do two things. It teaches entrepreneurs both the skill sets necessary in the world of software development to learn the necessary skills to enter the tech workforce and how to build, market and develop both a company and product or service that they can nurture into a lucrative enterprise.
“At the end of those 12 months, there are two outcomes. They will either launch and scale a high-tech startup, or if that doesn’t work out, their backup plan will be to accept a job offer as a software engineer earning $80,000 to $100,000 a year,” Milhouse said.
Milhouse, a former entrepreneur-in-residence at Brown University, said DevAccelerator can uplift the state’s reputation as a producer of talent in the tech space and as a base of operations for innovative startups.
“This process that we have to bring in 30 to 60 people per year launching startups will create a critical mass of startup activity that will grow the startup community, impact the economy and take care of any type of lack of outside investment here in Rhode Island,” Milhouse said. “This has never been done before.”
Entrepreneurs can currently learn full-stack software, programming and artificial intelligence development. Milhouse said that next year, the incubator will add programs to develop skill sets in cybersecurity, quantum computing and blockchain applications.
“The greatest problems that the world will face over the next 100 years cannot be solved with the tools of the past,” Milhouse said. “We have to look to the future, and each of these technologies will be the foundation for trillion-dollar industries.”
The goal for DevAccelerator is ambitious. Milhouse says DevAccelerator wants its work to be responsible for 10% of Rhode Island’s economic output and 3% of Boston’s over the next five to 10 years.
