How to create inter-generational wealth among people of color and to do so in a way that’s accessible to a critical mass of people?
That’s the question four friends who all met through business school connections started discussing in earnest after the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the spotlight on racial inequities it fostered.
Their answer: boost business ownership by people of color, but with a twist. Instead of helping founders start something from scratch, they decided they’d focus on entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA)—that is, buying an existing business. “It’s a much lower-risk path to entrepreneurship,” says Havell Rodrigues, cofounder and CEO of New Majority Capital, the Providence, RI, company they formed to boost ETA. “You have cash flow from day one.”
That plan rests, in part, on the predicted silver tsunami of businesses coming on the market. That’s because millions of firms owned by baby boomers will be for sale or bequeathed over the next two decades. “This is a unique opportunity for under-represented entrepreneurs to acquire businesses and start on a path of building generational wealth,” says Allegra Stennett, cofounder. In Rhode Island alone, according to cofounder Darryl Lindie, there are about 20,000 small businesses with employees and 80% lack a succession plan.
