Charles Schwab Bank and The DEC Network have announced Create Fort Worth, an innovation center intended to expand access to business education, financial expertise and mentorship for North Texas entrepreneurs. The project would extend The DEC Network’s physical presence beyond Dallas and bring more in-person support to founders and small businesses in the western half of the region.
The organizations outlined the expansion in a September 14, 2026 Business Wire press release carried by Yahoo Finance. They describe Create Fort Worth as the next phase of a longstanding partnership. The announcement sets out planned services; it does not provide an opening date for the center.
Financial education is central to the proposal. Charles Schwab employees are expected to participate through mentoring, educational workshops and volunteer engagement, sharing professional expertise with entrepreneurs. The planned center would combine those connections with The DEC Network’s educational programming and community resources.
Planned Services for Entrepreneurs
The release lists workshops focused on financial capability and business growth, personalized coaching and guidance, and access to programs and events supporting innovation. It also describes opportunities for entrepreneurs to build relationships within the North Texas business community. These are the partners’ proposed offerings, rather than reported results from a center already operating.
The Fort Worth location is intended to complement The DEC Network’s established Dallas presence. The partners say a physical location in Fort Worth will make their resources more accessible to entrepreneurs in the western part of the region and create more opportunities to learn and connect in person.
Bill Chinn, CEO of The DEC Network, also points to Spanish-language workshops as part of the partnership’s expansion of access. In the announcement, he says the support is particularly important in what he calls opportunity zip codes, where access to entrepreneurial resources and job creation can affect individuals, families and communities.
Chinn presents language access as a way to help entrepreneurs reach education, resources and business connections. The announcement does not quantify demand for the workshops or report outcomes for their participants, so those intended benefits remain the partners’ rationale for the programming.
Figures From the Existing Partnership
The organizations say their partnership supports more than 9,000 entrepreneurs annually. They also report that, since partnering with Charles Schwab Bank, The DEC Network has helped launch more than 5,000 businesses, helped create or sustain more than 1,700 jobs, and connected entrepreneurs with more than $3.4 million in capital.
Those figures describe the existing collaboration, not activity at Create Fort Worth. They are presented in the partners’ press release rather than an independent evaluation accompanying this report. The new center is being announced as an expansion of that relationship.
In 2025, Charles Schwab Bank became the naming-rights sponsor of The DEC Network’s RedBird center, now called The DEC Network Powered by Charles Schwab Bank. The Fort Worth proposal follows that sponsorship while adding another location to the partners’ stated plans for entrepreneur support.
A Wider North Texas Commitment
Tyler Woulfe, chief banking officer at Charles Schwab Bank, connects the initiative to the company’s presence in North Texas. “Small businesses create jobs, strengthen local economies, and help communities thrive,” he said in the announcement. Woulfe describes support for Fort Worth entrepreneurs as part of Schwab’s commitment to its headquarters community.
The release places the center within a wider account of Schwab’s regional community investment. The company says it has committed more than $1 billion in community development investments, loans and grants across Dallas-Fort Worth since establishing its headquarters in North Texas. That regional total is separate from funding for the proposed center.
Schwab also reports awarding more than $5 million in grants to more than 350 local nonprofits and contributing nearly 35,000 employee volunteer hours across North Texas in 2025. For prospective Create Fort Worth participants, the announcement identifies the intended educational and mentoring support, while details such as an opening date and registration arrangements remain unspecified in the release.
