Meet Jessica Affatato
Jessica Affatato is the founder of Weaver, an organization reimagining how communities support micro-entrepreneurs - especially women and underresourced communities.
Before launching Weaver, Jessica founded Harbor Cheese & Provisions, a specialty food business on Long Island. Like so many small business owners, she experienced firsthand the exhilaration of building something from the ground up—and the isolation, uncertainty, and invisible labor that often come with entrepreneurship. That experience became the catalyst for her work today.
Drawing on her experience as a business owner, nonprofit leader, Economic Development Professional (EDP), and graduate of Penn State University's Master’s of Management Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship program, Jessica helps municipalities, economic development organizations, universities, nonprofits, chambers of commerce, and business support organizations build stronger ecosystems where entrepreneurs can thrive. Her work bridges research, policy, and lived experience to help communities better support women-owned micro-businesses from startup through sustainable growth.
Jessica believes the future of economic development isn't just about creating more startups—it's about building stronger entrepreneurial infrastructure for the millions of small businesses that already power our communities. Through Weaver, she combines research, strategy, and real-world experience to help organizations create more connected, inclusive, and effective ecosystems for women micro-entrepreneurs.
Whether speaking to civic leaders, educators, nonprofit professionals, or entrepreneurs themselves, Jessica offers both the lived perspective of someone who has navigated the realities of small business ownership and the systems-level thinking needed to create lasting change.
My Approach
I don't start from theory and look for people to apply it to. I start with one group — microentrepreneurs — and follow what actually happens to them until it reveals something true for a much bigger population. Weaver exists because the resource ecosystem I found reflects that lived pattern, not a borrowed framework.
Measure before you launch
Most impact gets measured after the fact, from whatever records survive. I build the measurement in from day one, so the data exists in real time instead of being reconstructed later.
Built to be used, not funded
No venture capital, no growth-at-all-costs. I design for the businesses that actually exist on Long Island — not the ones a pitch deck would prefer they were.
Start specific
One center, one finding: women as the lens that revealed a measurement gap affecting nearly 80% of American businesses — not a niche problem, a field-wide one.
Infrastructure, not intervention
This is neighborhood infrastructure, not immature structure. Weaver isn't a program you graduate from — it's the connective tissue that's supposed to already exist.