In January of this year, Havell Rodrigues and Kris Schumacher started New Majority Capital, a B-Corp firm focused on creating generational wealth among women and BIPOC communities. Just a few months later, in June, the company started the New Majority Capital Foundation (NMCF) to increase awareness of the “entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA)” opportunity to BIPOC and women entrepreneurs and give them the skills training they need to become successful new small business owners.
This fall, the foundation rolled out a free, in-person class at the Liston CCRI campus in Providence called "Succession Ready." The course has five modules focused on financials, relationships, operations, marketing and next steps for business owners who are looking to pass along their business to a new generation. The program is open to all Rhode Island business owners with an annual revenue over $500,000 who are planning to transition their business.
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To help develop the curriculum, according to NMC co-founder Darryl Lindie the NCMF partnered with the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a Boston-based national nonprofit research and advisory organization that researches and tracks under-resourced economies across the U.S.
Dr. Richard Bliss of Babson College also stepped in to help with Succession Ready curriculum development.
Along with the Babson College, CCRI and ICIC, the NMCF was selected by RI Commerce to receive part of its Network Matching Grant to support the program. The course includes a combination of lectures, reading, and case studies, along with an interactive portion in which business owners assess various components of their companies.
"CCRI has been a critical resource with community engagement and content delivery," he added. "CCRI’s Division of Workforce Partnerships has been an integral part of deploying this solution to the broader Rhode Island community."
According to Denilex Rodriguez, the community manager at New Majority Capital, an initial workshop attracted over 70 participants, and now, 20 to 30 of them are currently going through hands-on curricula being developed by Babson College and delivered at CCRI in Providence.
"NMCF also helps existing small business owners with succession planning so they can realize the value of what they have created and can leave a legacy behind," Lindie said. "Our north star is attacking the gender and racial wealth gap in the United States and ensuring the businesses in our community stay alive by expanding the opportunity of ownership to a new majority."
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