“When an entrepreneur can connect with a business advisor who looks like them, who sounds like them, and who knows where they come from, they’re going to be more successful.”
By: Mona-Lisa Prosper
I’ve dedicated my career to helping Black entrepreneurs to create the best future for my daughter
When I look at the progress,we’ve made in Canada towards helping Black entrepreneurs over the past four years, I’m optimistic.
My hope is that 20 years from now, all the work that’s being done today will mean that we won’t need specific programs targeted at diversity, equity, and inclusion. It will be automatic.
I’m expecting my firstborn child in March and it gives me so much pride to know that the future could be possible for her.
I’m not blind to the amount of work that still needs to be done, and the time needed for lasting change to happen, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
That’s why I’ve dedicated my career to making sure that vision for the future becomes reality.
Four years of progress
In 2020, our society faced a reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. At the height of COVID, people around the world took to the streets for some of the largest racial justice protests since the Civil Rights movement. Black people were joined by allies around the world to say “enough”.
Since then, there’s been a huge shift in the way society thinks and the conversations that are happening. So many different things that the Black community has been saying for so long are finally being heard. People are trying to understand and are wanting to change.
It was right around that time I had the opportunity to join a non-profit that provides critical loan financing to young entrepreneurs called Futurpreneur. They wanted to take the next step and create a dedicated program for Black entrepreneurs. They were looking for a leader to build out the program.
For me, this presented an opportunity to align my professional goals with my personal values, particularly when I saw that the organization was truly authentic in its approach. It felt like the right moment for me to join and lead that shift. It was the beginning of something way bigger than I could have imagined!
For us, by us
Since working in this space, I’ve seen that lived experience is a huge factor when it comes to outcomes for Black entrepreneurs.
On my team, not only are we all Black, but we all come from very different backgrounds and communities. Some of us are newcomers and some of us were born here to immigrant parents from different countries.
When an entrepreneur can connect with a business advisor who looks like them, who sounds like them, and who knows where they come from, they’re going to be more successful.
Recently, we were reviewing an application from a West African entrepreneur who may have otherwise been turned down for traditional financing, based solely on the way the business plan was initially written. This is common for newcomers. They’re accustomed to a different startup ecosystem and often the process to access financing in their home country works completely differently, so their approach might not align with the lender’s expectations.
Fortunately, we were able to pair this entrepreneur with an advisor on our team who is originally from the Ivory Coast and had a similar cultural context. This team member understood how the entrepreneur came up with the business idea and was able to work with them on the way they could present it for the Canadian context.
Our advisor was able to level with the entrepreneur and speak to them in words that they responded to, which meant the entrepreneur had the opportunity to revise their plan to fit within our criteria and get the financing they needed to start their venture.
Without the support of someone with a common background, this story would have likely ended with that entrepreneur hitting a dead end.
We can’t afford to stop now
Even five years ago, if I were to ask a potential partner in the entrepreneurship community (such as an incubator, accelerator, or bank), “what are you doing to improve diversity, equity and inclusion?” most of them wouldn’t have anything to say. Some would have even been insulted by the question! Now, if they have nothing to say, you can see that they’re ashamed. To me, that’s already a step forward.
I’m really encouraged by the work I’m seeing from many of these organizations in this space. It’ll never be perfect, but the conversations are happening. Given the breadth and depth of the conversations I see happening, I remain hopeful that this change is here to stay, and not simply a trending topic.
By measuring outcomes, we can pinpoint the difference between lip service and progress. For my team, that includes measuring the success of the entrepreneurs we fund, how often they’re returning for repeat financing (a sign of business growth), and how we’re able to increase the proportion of Black entrepreneurs that get funded.
I’m proud to say that Black-led businesses are now represented in the Futurpreneur portfolio, where I still work today, at a rate of 10 times Canada’s average and that comes down to two factors: an organization that is willing to do the work, and a team with lived experience.
As a business community, we’ve still got a way to go. But if we keep up this momentum, 20 years from now my daughter will enter the workforce knowing that she can succeed on her own merits.
Mona-Lisa Prosper lives in Montreal and works as the Director of the Black Entrepreneur Startup Program at Futurpreneur, a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs ages 18-39 with loan financing, mentorship and business resources.