Using capacity funding from the Portland Development Commission, a group of local women entrepreneurs, investors, and lenders has created the XXcelerate Fund to build profitable Oregon-based businesses. The fund will address the critical and entrenched capital shortfall facing women entrepreneurs. The fund creators conducted an initial survey of women business founders in Portland and discovered an overwhelming need for this kind of program. The findings revealed that 40 percent of founders identify as underrepresented/people of color, most have been denied traditional funding sources, and yet nearly all have been through an incubator, accelerator, or previous business training.