BrightStreet, a nonprofit aimed at expanding access to capital for underserved entrepreneurs, officially launched Thursday at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, where founders and city leaders symbolically knocked down a 400-brick wall representing barriers facing small business owners.
ROI-NJ attended the launch and spoke with organizers and participants about the initiative’s mission and long-term impact.
The kickoff event featured Super Bowl XLIV champion and entrepreneur Marques Colston and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
Rob Falzon, co-founder and CEO of BrightStreet, said the event was focused on entrepreneurship and wealth creation.
“Today we’re here to celebrate the kickoff of BrightStreet,” Falzon said. “But more importantly, we’re actually here to celebrate entrepreneurship — the ability for individuals to create wealth through the formation and growth of small businesses.”
According to information shared at the event, microbusinesses with fewer than 10 employees account for 95% of all businesses in New Jersey, New York and nationwide. Yet those businesses are denied funding at more than twice the rate of other companies. Nearly half operate in low-income communities where access to financing and guidance is limited.
Falzon said BrightStreet is focused on entrepreneurs who lack access to traditional financing.
“BrightStreet is trying to address the 95% of entrepreneurs who today do not have access to financing,” he said. “We’re not only giving them that access to financing, but improving the odds that they’re going to succeed as businesses.”
The nonprofit will provide loans to entrepreneurs who typically do not qualify for financing from banks, Small Business Administration programs or other community development organizations.
“What we’re doing is we’re providing loans to entrepreneurs who typically do not qualify for financing from traditional sources, whether that be banks or SBA loans or even other community development organizations,” Falzon said. “We are investing in companies that can’t find financing today.”
He said the loans will be paired with training and support services.
“We’re then marrying that with training and support services that ensure that as that capital is infused into their businesses, they have a model and a plan for successfully using the capital to grow the businesses and to succeed as individual entrepreneurs,” Falzon said.
During the event, participants used imitation sledgehammers to knock down a life-sized brick wall in the NJPAC lobby — a symbol of what organizers described as structural barriers to entrepreneurial success.
“The brick wall is essentially symbolizing the barrier that exists, the walls that are in place there between those entrepreneurs and success, access to capital and to support services they need to succeed,” Falzon said. “What we want to do with the formation of BrightStreet is break that wall down so a larger population of entrepreneurs can succeed.”
Falzon said investing in entrepreneurship can have a broader community impact.
“This is about wealth creation in low- and moderate-income communities,” he said. “By investing in entrepreneurship, you can significantly reduce poverty rates and can create success stories for individuals — and those individual success stories then turn into success for communities.”
Among the first cohort of loan recipients is Al-Shakise Anderson, owner and CEO of BWS Massage Concierge, a mobile massage company serving corporations, individuals and clients with disabilities.
“I was awarded a loan for my business to help grow my business, to have some working capital,” Anderson said.
Anderson, who grew up in Newark, said the support carries special meaning.
“For me, it means a lot coming from the city of Newark,” he said. “I grew up here, where a struggle with strength, resilience and grit is a part of my backbone. To receive a loan like this really helps my business to help represent the community.”
He said the funding will help expand operations and increase payroll.
“I’m using the loan to grow my business, invest more time in the market and increase our payroll,” Anderson said.
He encouraged other entrepreneurs to remain focused on their purpose.
“It starts with your why,” he said. “No matter where you come from, having a belief system, having a support system and resources and not giving up — just stand determined.”
