If you want to understand the future of business, meet the entrepreneurs who are shaping it on the ground. They’re as likely to be working in Scottsdale or Ann Arbor as Silicon Valley or New York. While some aspire to create the next unicorn, others long to make their living from being creative. They measure success not only in dollars, but in impact and fulfillment.
That’s what makes the Next 1000 a unique and powerful list. Over the course of the year, we set out to illustrate not just the diversity of people who are excelling in small business, but the diversity of paths to success. On a quarterly basis, we’ve revealed the names of 250 intrepid entrepreneurs, all of whom are redefining what it means to run a business today.
One of those entrepreneurs is Ramunda Young, the cofounder of MahoganyBooks, a bookstore specializing in books written by, for or about the African Diaspora. Some 10 years after launching as an ecommerce company, in 2017 she and husband Derrick wanted to open their first brick-and-mortar shop. But they struggled to secure a loan, with banks pointing to local business closures and national ecommerce trends as evidence of why they should stay virtual. But for the couple, setting up shop wasn’t just about growing their business—it was about establishing what Young says was the first bookstore in Washington, D.C.’s predominantly Black Anacostia neighborhood in more than two decades. So they dipped into their retirement accounts and never looked back.
“It was really important to us to be able to create a space where people felt seen, where people felt heard,” Young tells my colleague, Graison Dangor. “There were so many naysayers along the way telling us ‘Don’t do this,’ ‘People aren’t going to buy books,’ ‘Do Black people read?’ Mute those naysayers and stay true to yourself, the vision and the seed of the idea that was planted in you.”
“Entrepreneurial talent and great ideas have always been equally distributed, but opportunity has not,” says Steve Case, cofounder of AOL and chairman and CEO of Revolution, an investment firm focused on funding startups outside the Bay Area. “For the industry to really shift, other investors need to get outside their bubbles and meet founders where they are.”
Some of the honorees on this installment of the Next 1000 have made such connections. Since the pandemic began, Cynthia Plotch, for example, has raised $5 million for her women’s health startup Stix. And Tanya Van Court has raised $19.5 million for kids’ personal finance platform Goalsetter. It’s a feat she attributes to the newfound attention that’s been paid to economic inequities amid the public health and social justice crises.
“To be a Black female entrepreneur in a country that says in spite of your successes, pedigree, reputation, drive and ingenuity, we’re going to give you less than 1% of the funding that goes to entrepreneurs, that’s demoralizing,” Van Court tells my colleague, Jair Hilburn. “We have been able to thrive during the pandemic because before people didn’t understand the urgency of the problem that we’re solving for America.”
While Black entrepreneurs have, historically, received less than 1% of all venture capital funding, they received nearly $1.8 billion during the first half of 2021—four times more than that which they received during the same period last year. Kathryn Finney, a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist, expects to see this trend continue in the new year.
“2022 will be the year of the Black investor and entrepreneur,” says Finney, whose most recent venture, The Genius Guild, focuses on building and investing in Black-led businesses. “We are witnessing a plethora of funding opportunities flow towards Black-led startups and funds created by Black investors.”
It’s been a priority of the U.S. Small Business Administration, as well. This year, the agency oversaw nearly $417 billion in emergency relief to more than six million small businesses. Of the $36.5 billion distributed through its primary lending program, nearly $11 billion went to business owners from underrepresented communities. Some $5 billion was allocated toward women-owned businesses, while $1.2 billion was given to veteran-owned ventures.
“Small businesses once again showed their grit and determination as they looked to survive the pandemic and either reimagine their business or adapt to ensure that they could continue to serve their communities and customers,” says Isabel Guzman, administrator of the SBA. “We’ve really tried to focus on bringing a lens of equity and resilience to ensure we better serve all of our small businesses so that we can actually level the playing field.”
For those honored on our Next 1000 list, the importance of such support should not be underestimated. It affords them the ability to stay laser-focused on doing what they do best: serving their communities. “Focus on your customer. They’ll tell you what they need, and they’ll show you what they need,” Stix’s Plotch tells my colleague, Elana Lyn Gross. “Businesses are really just here to solve problems for people.”
For the full 2021 Next 1000 list, click here.
See her full profile here: https://www.forbes.com/profile/kathryn-bernell/?list=next-1000&sh=4d67b1be53dc
For four years, Bernell got her start as a line chef at the Houston restaurant Cafe Annie. From 2009 to 2017, she worked in managing and marketing in food companies and held marketing internships with companies like McDonald’s, Starbucks and Popchips. Her background led to launching ReBLEND, a sustainably sourced and convenient superfood smoothie popsicle. Her brand aims to address the rising food waste epidemic by using imperfect produce as the foundation for quick, nutrient-dense snacks.
