Joel Foster had a chance to speak with Keneshia Raymond, Director of Entrepreneurship Success & Access to Capital at Startup Tucson and BIPOC Loan Fund Committee Member, at the one-year anniversary of BIPOC Entrepreneurs Day at Slow Body Beer. “We’re the only loan in Arizona of this kind,” Raymond said. “They’re coming to us because we understand what they’re going through. We’re here to give them a chance.”

He also spoke with BIPOC Loan Fund recipients Andrew Wong, owner of Huhu’s House of Dumplings, and Jennifer O’Neill, founder of Beautiful Little Things, about their small business growth. “It was very difficult for me to be approved for a business loan,” O’Neill said. “With different challenges I’ve had, I looked like a risk on paper. So, to have a merit-based loan process where I’m able to pitch who I am and what I do was very appealing to me.”