About Weaver

After founding Harbor Cheese & Provisions on Long Island, Jessica Affatato saw firsthand what so many entrepreneurs experience: building a business can be deeply rewarding, but it can also be isolating. Resources existed, but they weren't designed for the realities of microbusiness owners operating outside the systems that traditional economic infrastructure was built to serve.

That realization sparked a bigger question:

What if we stopped measuring these businesses by metrics they were never designed to hit, and started building support around how they actually work?

Nearly 27 million businesses in the U.S. have no employees at all.

Many never intend to. These are the businesses that keep neighborhoods running, and yet, because our economic systems organize businesses by growth potential and headcount, these ventures, disproportionately owned by women, people of color, and other underresourced communities, remain institutionally invisible. They face bigger obstacles while being systematically excluded from the structures meant to help them.

Weaver exists to change that.

Today, Weaver partners with municipalities, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, universities, nonprofits, foundations, and business support organizations to strengthen the infrastructure surrounding microbusinesses. Through speaking engagements, workshops, research, strategic consulting, and ecosystem development, Weaver helps communities move beyond simply encouraging entrepreneurship to intentionally cultivating environments where entrepreneurs can thrive.

Because the current economic system wasn't built for everyone. And the businesses it overlooks are the ones actually holding our local economies together.

Jessica Affatato, Founder