Thank you, Eric, for that introduction, and for your continued leadership. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Department of Commerce! It’s such a pleasure to join you all here to speak about the efforts we’re undertaking to ensure that all Americans and businesses have the resources they need to succeed and thrive.

Let me just start by saying, there has never been a more important time for this work to be accomplished. Let me take a step back for the moment and provide context, which I’m sure many of you already know:

Capital access is critical for the nation’s success.

Small business startups help to determine the strength and vitality of our economy, drive the innovation that allows us to lead the world, and power the growth of jobs in our local economies.

The last three years alone have seen records in the number of small business starts in this country. That is no coincidence. Through the passage of historic pieces of legislation – ARPA, BIL, CHIPS and IRA – this country is making once-in-a-generation investments that are driving our economy to be globally competitive.

And growth in small businesses also helps to drive wealth creation and accumulation. This is critically important for our long-term success, but even more so in our underserved communities and communities of color. As you know, these are communities that have long had to operate within systems that were not built with them in mind. 

Systemic obstacles stand in the way of their quest for their own success – hindering their ability to build intergenerational wealth.

And while we have seen meteoric gains in wealth for many, such as the more than a 60 percent growth in black wealth since the start of the Administration, that hasn’t led to as big a closing of the racial wealth gap.

The Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances report showed long-standing and substantial wealth disparities between families in different racial and ethnic groups.

According to that survey, Hispanic families' median wealth was $61,620. Black families’ median wealth. $44,890. White families’ median wealth was over $285,000.

The wealth gap that we are witnessing across our country is an inescapable truth, and we must address it by uplifting minority business enterprises and creating economic opportunities within the communities that need them most.

President Biden, Vice President Harris, and the Commerce Department know that diversity is absolutely one of this country’s greatest strengths, and that equity must underpin all that we do to create an economy that works for everyone.

We also know that entrepreneurship is a premier pathway for wealth creation for minority communities across America. My own family’s legacy was built upon generations of Black entrepreneurial success.

My four-times great grandparents built a successful horse and buggy taxi business that sat on the land where the Department of Commerce building sits today. Their son owned a premier hotel just blocks away and became one of our nation’s first Black patent-holders. But even with that historical success, wealth creation in my own family was not guaranteed.

Generations later, I struggled to raise capital for my own entrepreneurial endeavors. And that experience informed me of the numerous factors persist that still drive the lack of representation among minority business enterprises – none more pressing than access to capital.

Capital is essential to a business’ success, and business owners of color are between 5 to 9 percent more likely to have applied for traditional financing than their white counterparts. However, people of color were far less likely to receive all the financing they sought and were more likely to receive no financing at all.

This type of disparity is unacceptable. That’s why the Minority Business Development Agency launched the Capital Readiness Program, a $125 million program funding a geographically diverse network of 43 business incubators that support minority and other underserved entrepreneurs as they work to launch or scale their business.

These 43 incubators – ranging from non-profit organizations, private sector entities, and institutions of higher education – are forming partnerships to help underserved entrepreneurs who are in need of resources, tools, training, and technical assistance to start or scale their businesses in high-growth industries like healthcare, climate resilient technology, asset management, and infrastructure.

Service models include early-stage technical assistance/incubators to help enterprises launch their businesses, products, or services, and emerging business technical assistance/accelerators to provide guidance on growth and expansion.

As MBDA prepares minority business enterprises to expand into new markets, domestic and global, and grow in size and scale, we must ensure that we have a fair and equitable infrastructure of lenders capable of meeting the unique financial needs of today’s minority business entrepreneurs. I believe that, thanks to the tireless efforts of MBDA, that infrastructure is growing, strengthening, and will endure.

Trillions of dollars are flowing through this country, driving the economic future we all hope for. MBDA’s role in ensuring that that capital flows into the pockets of minority entrepreneurs cannot be overstated – and it’s our job to shore up those efforts for generations to come. Together, we will help write a new chapter of prosperity in America’s economic history.