Opening a business is a milestone. Keeping it open — and building it into a company that can hire employees, pursue larger contracts or enter new markets — brings a different set of challenges.
“I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that opening the doors is the hardest part,” said Linda Nosegbe, director of economic mobility with Gilbert Family Foundation. “Starting a business is a significant accomplishment, but growing and sustaining that business is a different challenge.”
Black Business Month, observed each August, provides an opportunity to celebrate Black-owned businesses and examine what helps them endure and grow. That conversation carries particular significance in Detroit, a majority-Black city with a long history of entrepreneurship and creative influence.
Nosegbe said talent and ambition have never been the problem. Instead, generations of redlining, disinvestment and unequal access to credit have left many Black business owners without the capital, wealth and banking relationships that can make growth easier.
Across Detroit, nonprofits, lenders, schools and business-support organizations are working to close those gaps. Gilbert Family Foundation is one funder supporting that work through a $500 million, 10-year philanthropic commitment made jointly with Rocket Community Fund in 2021. Its investments in economic mobility and arts and culture help support pathways to income, ownership and long-term opportunity.
Supporting entrepreneurs as their needs change
At the startup stage, entrepreneurs may be focused on finding customers, understanding the market and managing cash flow. As a company grows, its needs can shift to working capital, payroll, insurance, equipment, legal and accounting support, or help entering a new market.
“I think we have made a lot of progress in creating resources to help people start businesses,” Nosegbe said. “The next opportunity is making sure we are also supporting entrepreneurs through the years that follow. What does a business owner need in year three, year five or year 10 to continue growing?”
Venture 313 provides capital, coaching, technical support and flexible financing to Detroit-based technology founders. Since 2022, it has supported more than 125 founders and helped participating businesses unlock more than $50 million in additional investment capital. A $6.4 million investment announced in 2026 brought the total commitment to more than $15.6 million.
Detroit Elevate serves businesses that have moved beyond the startup stage by providing funding and technical assistance with marketing, finance and operations. A $950,000 total investment will help to supports its 2026 cohort of 25 businesses across multiple industries.
Together, the programs demonstrate how entrepreneurs can utilize resources suited to both their industry and stage of growth.
Helping Detroit contractors compete
The need for those resources is just as apparent in construction.
“Consider a contractor who is fully capable of taking on a $1 million project,” Nosegbe said. “To do that project, they may need additional bonding capacity, equipment and enough working capital to cover payroll while they wait to get paid.”
The Motor City Contractor Fund combines business coaching and technical assistance with flexible financing. The program has supported more than 100 Detroit-based contractors, deployed $3.2 million in loans and helped create 69 jobs. Fifty contractors graduated with its third cohort in June 2026, and the initiative aims to support 335 emerging contractors by 2030.
Ignite Detroit Contractors works earlier in that pipeline. Designed by the Ownership Initiative — which cocreated the Motor City Contractor Fund with Gilbert Family Foundation — launched with a $1.2 million investment. It provides training and mentorship while removing barriers, building capacity and accelerating contractors’ growth so they can continue transforming neighborhoods while building generational wealth.
[Related: Motor City Contractor Fund expands to help local contractors compete in growing construction market]
When more work goes to local contractors, Nosegbe said, the benefits can include jobs for Detroiters, wages spent in local neighborhoods and more owners building equity in their companies.
Creating pathways into growing industries
Career exposure and training are another part of Detroit’s economic-mobility ecosystem. They can help residents enter growing industries, advance professionally and, in some cases, prepare for eventual business ownership.
Project Genesis relaunched in 2025 with a $300,000 investment to provide about two dozen Detroit high school students with paid, eight-week internships at Detroit Medical Center. More than 1,000 teens have participated since the program began, and more than 20 alumni have gone on to work at DMC.
Black-led community organizations are creating additional pathways. A $690,000 investment in DABO Detroit is intended to connect at least 400 residents with training and career opportunities in healthcare, advanced manufacturing, construction, finance and real estate. It also provides industry certifications, career coaching, mentorship and financial literacy.
A $910,000 investment in the Horatio Williams Foundation supports the Detroit Empowerment Hub, which offers programs for women, young people and returning citizens, including certified nursing assistant training, property management career pathways and youth entrepreneurship programming.
Turning creative talent into ownership
Detroit’s entrepreneurial future is also taking shape in studios, classrooms and design labs. The city is rich with creative talent, but artists and designers may lack affordable production space, financing, mentorship, business training and industry connections.
“Detroit is a city rich with creative talent and vision, but the infrastructure needed to support artists, designers and creative entrepreneurs is lacking,” said Andrea Scobie, senior program manager of arts and culture with Gilbert Family Foundation.
PENSOLE Lewis College of Business and Design is helping to strengthen that pipeline. The nation’s only reopened historically Black college and university prepares Black designers, creatives and business leaders for opportunities in industries like footwear, fashion and product design. Gilbert Family Foundation committed $10 million over five years to reopen the college, which has graduated hundreds of students since reopening in 2022.
Its resources include the more than 5,000-square-foot Foot Locker Footwear Creation Studio in downtown Detroit, where students gain hands-on industry experience. The goal extends beyond preparing students for jobs to helping creative talent develop products, companies and intellectual property.
“Ownership is one of the most powerful pathways to wealth creation and long-term economic mobility,” said Brandi Brown, program manager of economic mobility with Gilbert Family Foundation. “When Black creatives own their businesses and intellectual property, they are able to build assets that can generate income beyond a single project or contract.”
Keeping that talent in Detroit can help root creative businesses and ideas in the city, generate jobs and strengthen neighborhoods, Scobie said.
Building opportunity beyond one month
Black Business Month creates a national spotlight, but Detroit’s Black entrepreneurs and creatives build throughout the year. Their long-term success depends on an ecosystem that can support a founder’s first idea, a growing company’s next contract and a student’s path toward a career or business.
For Nosegbe, the clearest measure of progress is whether those resources create a more direct path to lasting success.
“Success, to me, is when a Detroiter with a good idea, the skills and the determination to build a business has a clearer path from starting that business to growing something that can last and create opportunity for others,” she said.
