Keyia Yalcin is trying a new approach to raising capital.
At a time where venture capital and other sources of funding can be hard to find, the owner of the Mt. Vernon Marketplace restaurant Fishnet is going straight to her customers in order raise the capital needed to create a new company, Fishies, which will make gourmet dog treats.
Yalcin is working with the Maryland Neighborhood Exchange, a platform from local nonprofit Community Wealth Builders that helps businesses prepare to launch and run successful crowdfunding campaigns. Since launching in 2019, the platform has helped 70 Maryland businesses raise over $3.8 million from more than 9,500 small investors. The new investment model has in particular helped minority founders who often cannot get access to traditional bank loans or venture capital, even in a thriving economy.
“If you can’t get a bank loan, it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be successful,” Yalcin said. “What access to capital does is it speeds up that success. Where other communities can go get a loan and get big capital dollars and expand their business in two or three years, it might take a founder of color seven years to do the same thing.”
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Matt Hooke over at Baltimore Business Journal
