Women of color start businesses at a faster rate than anyone yet remain underserved by lenders. That’s both an equity problem and a missed opportunity for banks. It’s also an entirely fixable situation — after listening to these entrepreneurs’ experiences, it’s clear to me what needs to change.
I sat in on a two-day convening of 20 business owners who are women of color as part of a research initiative that also involved 75 in-depth survey responses and more than 40 hours of individual interviews. The findings are compiled in the new report Redesigning Lending: Improving Access to Capital for Women of Color Entrepreneurs from my company, CNote. They verify earlier research while providing new insights into how the loan process blocks women of color entrepreneurs from getting the capital they need to grow their businesses.
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