Data Driven
How the Afro Caribbean Business Network is making sure the solutions it offers Black entrepreneurs fit their needs
Look around the startup ecosystem and you’ll find dozens of organizations that are focused on providing resources, support and networking opportunities for founders who are Black or come from other underrepresented and excluded groups. But even still, the needs of these communities are great, as the barriers they continue to face within the business and investment realms remain widespread and well-documented.
The Brampton-based Afro Caribbean Business Network (ACBN), which will celebrate its fifth anniversary in December, was born out of a recognized gap within the ecosystem. Its co-founder, Ryan Knight, who is himself an entrepreneur with a chain of eco-friendly car cleaning businesses, struggled to find Black-focused organizations or resources that could help ventures like his grow and scale successfully.
At its inception the ACBN focused on hosting information sessions and networking events, but soon expanded to building capacity within entrepreneurs to take advantage of growth opportunities more broadly, says Knight, starting with a microloan program and investment readiness accelerator. At every step, the organization’s efforts have been in direct response to recognized needs within the ecosystem, specifically for Black-led businesses and entrepreneurs.
“We want to help businesses grow and succeed and ensure they’re ready for their first injection of capital,” says Knight.
Still, stubborn challenges persist for these entrepreneurs, who continuously come up against roadblocks. For Knight, it was a signal to dig deeper and figure out if the available support was the right type of support at all. To begin to answer that question required data that simply wasn’t available, because it didn’t exist—yet.
“If we’re going to create effective solutions, we need to work with data, and let the data drive the programming and opportunities we’re providing, instead of trying to create solutions that fit perceptions,” says Knight.
That’s why the ACBN recently partnered with other Black-focused organizations within the ecosystem, along with the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, to conduct the first ever Black Labour Market Assessment in Canada, focused on businesses in southern Ontario. Dunn, Pierre, Barnett and Associates (a Black-owned research firm) was commissioned to conduct the survey.
Knight says some of the assessment’s findings were eye-opening—for example, 86 per cent of businesses included in the assessment had five or fewer employees, which means they require a very different type of support than what is typically considered a small business, because they will encounter more challenges accessing financial support through lending institutions.
“Then when you layer on systemic racism, individual prejudice and biases, it becomes a very difficult battle that is very stressful because you feel like you’re being blocked at every turn,” says Knight.
Seeing the data from this perspective helped drive home the importance of focusing on solutions that these businesses and entrepreneurs need, rather than a one-size-fits all approach, he adds.
“When ACBN first started its work, we focused more on individual entrepreneurs, but now our thinking is macro-level. We’re finding ways to target and alleviate these community-wide issues.”
As ACBN unveils its five-year strategic plan it will include more strategic research, more purposeful collaboration and increased access to capital for the entrepreneurs they work with.