Louisville Entrepreneur Journey | Economic Development Documentary

Entrepreneurship in America is at a 40-year low — and 80% of small businesses are denied loans. Produced around Louisville's entrepreneurial ecosystem, this economic development documentary makes the case for access to capital, weaving together CDFI leaders, lenders like LHOME, and the founders themselves: Cuddle Clones, All is Fair in Love and Fashion, AppHarvest, and Vashon Nicole Consulting.

We gathered a documentary's worth of voices — from a $6.5 million pet products company to a staffing agency serving West Louisville — and built a film that argues, person by person, that removing barriers to capital is how communities create jobs. Mission-driven storytelling with the production quality the mission deserves.

About This Project
Client: Access Ventures
Type: Economic Development Documentary
Location: Louisville, KY
Services: Documentary production, founder interviews, multi-location filming, editing

Louisville's Best Documentary Video Production Company
John Flower Productions has produced documentary and economic development storytelling in Louisville since 2007. Ready to talk about your next project? Contact us.

Video Transcript:

Entrepreneurship in America is at a 40-year low. And I think one of the reasons that's a staggering statistic is because the largest creator of net new jobs is entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs of any type — entrepreneurs create jobs. And so as a community, as a nation, we've got to be concerned with the downward trend of entrepreneurship. As a community, how do we support entrepreneurs? That is a critical question that we need to be answering — if we care about jobs, if we care about the future of our communities. And so we're trying to figure out ways to improve access to capital so that more people in more places can fully participate and realize the dreams that they have for themselves and their communities.

For a market like Louisville, specifically, a demographic of that size should have about six community development finance institutions, or what are known as CDFIs. We only have one, and that's a problem — because as an emerging small business, where do you go for capital if that doesn't exist?

Access to capital for a small business owner and an entrepreneur is really crucial. It's really hard to find those that will invest in your ideas and invest in your vision. They want to see years' worth of paperwork and years' worth of tax returns, and if you're a startup business, you don't have that. Most of us have really great ideas, and most of us are just solving problems. We saw an issue, we saw a pain point, and we provided a solution. So I feel like if we had more access to capital, we would see more progression in the issues that we have.

If you talk to anybody that's wanting to start a business today, the first place that most people immediately think they should go is a bank. That's number one — oh, go talk to a bank, that's where you get money for your business. But the reality is community banking is down 50% across the country, and the average new business is denied a loan every time they walk in. Eighty percent of small businesses in our communities across the country are denied a loan. Eighty percent.

The typical investments people are looking for are really what we consider microloans. At majority banks, the minimum amount they'll lend you is $50,000. Being able to lend anywhere from $500 to $10,000 is generally what an entrepreneur or small business owner needs. So it's a struggle. A lot of times, businesses don't realize when they're going to grow, and I think banks want them to show, "Hey, plan it out and tell us when you're going to grow, and then we'll give you the money."

I heard a quote that so many dreams die in bank parking lots. So we really like to help people achieve their dreams of entrepreneurship, and we like to get to yes. In affluent neighborhoods, you typically have a banker for every 200 people. In our neighborhoods — in low-income, primarily minority neighborhoods — there's a banker for every 1,600 people. So LHOME is really trying to remove barriers to access to affordable, low-interest capital so that our entrepreneurs can get the financing that they need. Every day, we are out in the community talking to individuals that are already running small businesses but haven't had access to small loans, up to $15,000. We get them their financing, and they grow and they thrive and they fly — and it's all economic development.

I'm Jennifer Williams. I'm one of the founders of Cuddle Clones. It started out as an idea that I had to make a stuffed animal of my dog, Rufus, about 10 years ago, and now we're a $6.5 million business and growing. The process of creating a business from scratch is pretty complicated — definitely 70 or 80 hours a week, every day, for probably the past 10 years, but I love it. So when I say, "Oh hey, I'm going to be the next billion-dollar acquisition in the pet industry," they kind of laugh. But I don't laugh. Well, I laugh too, but I'm like, "You'll see."

I am Rashunda Johnson, the owner of All is Fair in Love and Fashion. We cater to women of all sizes, shapes, heights, ages. It's a bunch of eclectic work done by me and curated by me. We ship from Singapore to California, and we've been in business seven years. To find these places that actually lend to minorities and women-owned businesses — it's very helpful, and has really taken my business far.

What we do oftentimes in communities like Louisville is small business development corporations talk to the main streets, and economic development and the chambers talk to the high-growth companies. But the reality is that a lot of high-growth companies started off really small. Even some of the companies that have gone on to raise a million-plus in venture got their start with a $5,000 Kiva loan or a $10,000 microloan. And it's also a symbiotic thing, because they actually help create the culture and the community that attract the talent that is working at these higher-growth companies. So you have to think about both ends of the spectrum. All of them require capital.

I'm Jonathan Webb, founder and CEO of AppHarvest. We've set out to build some of the largest indoor grow facilities in North America. By the end of the year, we'll be supplying the East Coast, Midwest, and Southeast with fresh tomatoes — chemical-free produce, 90% less water, 30 times the yield per acre — and proud to have it in the eastern part of our state, in Eastern Kentucky. I bootstrapped the company with a couple credit cards and my own bank account. Today we've raised — it's a little startling to even say this number — but nearly $120 million, in both project investment to build our first project, as well as corporate equity. For us, access to capital was the critical function of our business. We're a large infrastructure-type company. We're building large assets. We have to have the capital. And unfortunately, we did have to go outside of the state to get that capital. But I'm hopeful that in the years to come — we're starting to see networks come in place and early VC capital emerging in our region — and that's what's going to need to happen if we want to keep our best and brightest in our state.

Vashon Nicole Consulting is a full-spectrum staffing agency. We focus on the staffing and the training and employment needs of young single mothers and felons, specifically here in West Louisville, Kentucky. I've been approached by two large investors, and we are now talking about franchising, which I'm very excited about. We are going to franchise the model of Vashon Nicole Consulting into 10 locations nationwide. It doesn't feel like work, because it's your passion. If you do what you're passionate about, you never work another day in your life. I'm passionate about helping people, because I know how it felt.

I think the responsibility of companies and communities is to remove barriers for more full participation. We've got to figure out how we remove barriers — gender barriers, racial barriers, geographic barriers — so that every community, every company, can thrive and succeed.