HBCU initiative

QPS Community Impact Initiative

When Quantum Grows, Opportunity Grows.

For each eligible new QPS client closed, Quantum Performance Solutions sponsors one HBCU or Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) student’s participation in the QPS Business Acquisition Accelerator — a $2,750 learning and advisory experience introducing the same Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) approach behind QPS’s Business Builders program, designed to help students explore the path to business ownership while in college.

QPS helps leaders and organizations perform better. Through this initiative, we extend that commitment by helping emerging leaders build practical ownership, leadership, performance, and AI-readiness skills for the future.

Why this matters

Ownership is a pathway to opportunity.

College can be a powerful time to build more than a résumé. It can be a time to develop the mindset, knowledge, relationships, and practical skills needed to create long-term opportunity.

The Opportunity Grows Initiative is designed to help selected students explore a different entrepreneurial path: the potential to own and grow an existing business.

Rather than starting from zero, entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) can give aspiring entrepreneurs a framework for evaluating established businesses, understanding how operations work, and preparing for future ownership decisions.

The goal is not to promise a shortcut. The goal is to help students become more informed, prepared, and intentional about the possibilities ahead.

What the selected student receives

A $2,750 learning and advisory experience.

Each sponsored student receives participation in the QPS Business Acquisition Accelerator, covering:

Entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) foundations

Learn the ETA fundamentals behind identifying, evaluating, and pursuing the acquisition of an existing business.

Entrepreneurial leadership and performance

Build the habits, mindset, decision-making skills, and personal performance practices needed for ownership.

Buy box and opportunity screening

Learn how to define a personal acquisition buy box, industry, revenue, and SDE/EBITDA targets, and how to screen early deal opportunities.

AI-enabled research and productivity

Explore responsible ways to use AI for research, organization, learning, productivity, and decision support.

Deal process and action plan

Get an introduction to how sourcing, letters of intent, and due diligence fit together, then build a personal next-step plan for continued learning and preparation.

Support ecosystem mapping

Get an introduction to the brokers, lenders, investors, attorneys, CPAs, and business coaches who make up the acquisition support ecosystem, plus campus mentors and resources.

$2,750

Important: Participation does not guarantee that a student will acquire a business, secure financing, generate income, achieve profitability, receive investment returns, or obtain any specific business outcome. Each student remains responsible for their own decisions, due diligence, professional advice, financing choices, and actions.

How the initiative works

Four steps, from closed client to student action plan.

QPS grows

A new eligible QPS client is closed and signed, and QPS receives the first client payment.

A sponsored seat is activated

QPS allocates one sponsored student seat in the QPS Business Acquisition Accelerator.

QPS selects a student

QPS independently reviews eligible student applications or partner nominations using the initiative’s selection process.

A student begins the journey

The selected student receives access to the accelerator and develops an informed personal action plan.

Who should express interest?

Curious about ownership, leadership, and AI? This is for you.

This opportunity is designed for current HBCU and Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) students who are curious about entrepreneurship, ownership, leadership, AI, and the possibility of acquiring an existing business in the future. Applicants should generally:

Be currently enrolled at an accredited HBCU or Minority-Serving Institution (MSI)

Be at least 18 years old

Have an interest in entrepreneurship, business ownership, leadership, AI, finance, or business acquisition

Be willing to participate actively and complete assigned reflection or action-planning work

Understand that the program is educational and does not guarantee a business acquisition, financing, or income

Students do not need to have a business selected, capital available, or previous acquisition experience to express interest. Curiosity, commitment, and readiness to learn are the starting point.

Student interest form

Express interest in sponsored access

Thank you for your interest in The Opportunity Grows Initiative. Completing this form does not guarantee selection. QPS will contact selected applicants or finalists when sponsored access becomes available.

Partner with the initiative

Help expand access to ownership education.

QPS welcomes conversations with HBCUs, Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), entrepreneurship centers, career offices, student organizations, business faculty, alumni networks, community organizations, and mission-aligned partners interested in expanding access to ownership education. Partners may help share the opportunity, nominate eligible students when invited by QPS, support student outreach, or explore future programming collaborations.

Partner participation does not influence QPS client-selection, contracting, procurement, or sponsored-student selection decisions.

Independent student selection and ethical commitment

This is not a referral-reward program.

The Opportunity Grows Initiative is an independent Quantum Performance Solutions community-impact commitment.

Sponsored student access is not a personal reward, referral fee, discount, gift, or benefit provided to a client, referral source, public official, procurement participant, vendor-selection decision-maker, or any individual involved in a purchasing, contracting, funding, grant-making, or hiring decision.

QPS independently administers the initiative and determines student eligibility, selection, timing, and program access. Clients, referral sources, and third parties may not direct a benefit to a particular student, family member, employee, institution, or organization in exchange for business, influence, or a decision.

QPS may modify, pause, or end this initiative at any time. Sponsored access is subject to availability, student eligibility, program terms, and QPS’s independent selection process.

FAQ

Common questions

Is this a scholarship?

This is sponsored access to the QPS Business Acquisition Accelerator, a learning and advisory experience valued at $2,750. It is not cash financial aid and does not provide direct funding to purchase a business.

Will this program help me buy a business?

The program introduces the entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) approach used in QPS’s Business Builders program, helping students learn about and prepare for the business-acquisition process. It does not guarantee a business purchase, financing, revenue, profitability, or any specific result.