Valerie Rivas Built the Table Herself
With more than 20 years in finance, business banking and economic development, the Founder and CEO of EVIA has made it her mission to help entrepreneurs access capital, build financial literacy and grow sustainable businesses - while championing women business owners at the regional and national level.
There is a version of the financial professional the industry trained us to expect: someone who manages portfolios, keeps risk tables tidy and stays carefully behind the desk. Valerie Rivas arrived from a different direction entirely. She came through more than two decades of hands-on work in finance, business banking and economic development, through a deep belief that access to capital and opportunity should not be the exclusive province of the already-established, and through the kind of conviction that leads a person to stop waiting for the right firm and simply build one. The work she does today through EVIA is where all of those threads finally come together.
The foundation behind that work is substantial. Rivas has spent more than 20 years working with financial institutions, business organizations and community partners to support entrepreneurs at every stage of growth. Throughout that career she has helped business owners secure funding, strengthen their financial literacy, navigate expansion and connect to the critical resources that drive long-term success. She is a speaker, a mentor and a community leader - and she holds the title of Vice President of the National Association of Women Business Owners Inland Empire, where her advocacy reaches both regional and national audiences.
Her current role as Founder and CEO of EVIA - a business solutions firm based in the Inland Empire, California - is the platform where that 20-year history has found its fullest expression. EVIA is built around a straightforward but ambitious premise: that entrepreneurs and organizations deserve access to the financial resources, technology, marketing support and business development strategies they need to establish and grow sustainable businesses. Rivas has also developed a business incubator through the firm, offering education, mentorship and strategic support designed to help entrepreneurs build scalable enterprises from the ground up.
A firm built on access and opportunity
EVIA is not a conventional financial services firm. Rivas designed it as a business solutions platform - one that brings together access to capital, technology, marketing and strategic business development under a single roof. The goal, as she has described it, is to help companies fund, innovate and grow. That scope reflects the breadth of what she observed over two decades working alongside entrepreneurs who had the vision but lacked the infrastructure to execute it.
The business incubator she developed through EVIA extends that mission further. It is designed to provide entrepreneurs with the education, mentorship, resources and strategic support needed to build scalable and sustainable businesses. In Rivas's framing, the incubator is a direct expression of her ongoing mission: to expand access to opportunity and help entrepreneurs build thriving enterprises, particularly in communities across the Inland Empire and beyond.
Her work has consistently focused on entrepreneurs who are underserved - business owners seeking capital, financial education and opportunities for expansion.
Championing women business owners at every level
Rivas's commitment to entrepreneurship extends well beyond the clients of EVIA. As Vice President of the National Association of Women Business Owners Inland Empire, she is an active advocate for women business owners at both the regional and national levels. Through her leadership and engagement with policymakers, business leaders and industry organizations, she works to advance initiatives that support entrepreneurship, access to capital, economic growth and the success of women-owned businesses across the country.
Through her leadership and engagement with policymakers, business leaders and industry organizations, she works to advance initiatives that support entrepreneurship, access to capital, economic growth and the success of women-owned businesses across the country.
As a speaker and mentor, she is equally direct. Her message to business owners is consistent: think bigger, lead with confidence and treat your vision as something worth transforming into lasting impact. That posture - ambitious, grounded and community-oriented - runs through everything she does, from the incubator she runs to the policy tables she sits at.
Twenty years of building from the inside out
Rivas's expertise did not emerge from a single institution or a single role. It was built across more than 20 years of work inside financial institutions, business organizations and community partnerships - a career that gave her a comprehensive view of how capital flows, where it stalls and what entrepreneurs need in order to move forward. That experience spans finance, business banking and economic development, and it informs every aspect of how EVIA operates.
Her passion, as she has described it, is entrepreneurship and economic empowerment. Those are not incidental interests - they are the animating force behind her career. The decision to found EVIA was a direct expression of that passion: a recognition that the most effective way to expand access to opportunity was to build a firm explicitly designed around that purpose, rather than to pursue it as a secondary function within a larger institution.
She has also built a parallel practice as a community leader and thought leader. As a speaker, she advocates for opening the doors of business and finance to diverse and underserved entrepreneurs. As a mentor, she works directly with business owners navigating the challenges of growth, funding and long-term sustainability.
What economic empowerment looks like in practice
Rivas has described her mission as one of creating meaningful partnerships, elevating underserved entrepreneurs and driving economic opportunity for communities throughout the Inland Empire and beyond. That language is specific: it is not about individual transactions but about the cumulative effect of sustained, strategic support for entrepreneurs who have historically lacked access to the resources they need.
Through EVIA, she delivers that mission through a combination of capital access, technology, marketing support and strategic business development - a suite of services designed to meet entrepreneurs where they are and help them grow toward where they want to be. The business incubator she developed adds another layer: a structured environment where education, mentorship and resources converge to help early-stage entrepreneurs build the foundations of scalable businesses.
Her work as an award-winning financial coach and business strategist, combined with her leadership at NAWBO Inland Empire, reflects her commitment to both individual empowerment and broader advocacy for women-owned businesses. The through-line across all of it is a belief that access to capital, financial literacy and strategic support are not privileges - they are the conditions that make sustainable entrepreneurship possible, and they should be available to every business owner who is willing to do the work.
This profile is reported from publicly available information and materials provided by Valerie Rivas. Nothing in this article is presented as a quotation unless it appears in quotation marks with attribution.