About the IfBOSB

The Initiative for Black-Owned Small Businesses (IfBOSB) provides $3,000 grants to Black-owned small businesses. Our mission is to help support small business owners by providing them with cash injections that can be used for capital expenses or operating expenses.

Our core values revolve around attainability, agility, and simplicity. We are an organization that is investing in the community by providing access to capital in an anti-bureaucratic and non-burdensome way.

ATTAINABILITY

AGILITY

SIMPLICITY

  • David Brown worked his way up from line supervisor at a bakery to management positions at Philadelphia-area Walmart, Print-O-Stat, and Family Dollar stores before pivoting to build a small private transportation business 15 years ago. He brings a deep understanding of the unique challenges and barriers many Black-owned small businesses face to his role as President of the Initiative for Black-Owned Small Businesses (IFBOSB).

    “A lot of these small business owners are just like me: they’re not college graduates, but they have the ‘go get ‘em’ attitudes,” says David. “A lot of them have to dig the financing up from scratch and pull it out of their own wallets because they don’t have access to financial capital or they don’t have the collateral to back up a bank loan.”

    As President, David helms the IFBOSB’s grantmaking process. In addition to reviewing grant applicants for eligibility, David also researches and recruits potential grantees to ensure that Black small business owners who lack the time or resources to apply for a grant online or aren’t aware that a $3,000 grant from the IFBOSB exists are not overlooked.

    “In some cases, I’ll find them through word-of-mouth or by walking into a storefront,” says David. “A $3,000 grant can keep the lights on, so we want to reach out to as many Black-owned small businesses as we can.”

    Under David’s leadership, the IFBOSB connects grant recipients with the marketing tools and networking opportunities they need to scale and thrive.

    “We’re going to market our grantees on our site and spotlight their businesses,” says David. “I’ll also help them build up their networks and connect them with other Black-owned small businesses.”

    Before joining the IFBOSB, David served a six-year stint as President of the George Washington Carver Community Center (GWCCC) in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he oversaw fundraising and construction efforts to renovate GWCCC’s indoor basketball courts and upgrade the center’s swimming facilities.

    David is a founding member of the nonprofit Norristown Action Coalition, an organization dedicated to fostering positive change at the state and local levels, and a father; a grandfather; and a former U.S. Marine.

  • Wendell Taylor is the managing partner of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s DC office and an elected member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Wendell’s practice focuses on sensitive internal and government white collar investigations and a range of antitrust related matters.

    Wendell grew up in Richmond, Virginia before going to Wake Forest University on a football scholarship. He attended the University of Richmond for law school where he was the president of his law school class, voted by his classmates to be graduation speaker, and voted by the faculty to receive the most outstanding graduate award.

    Wendell’s legal career began at Hunton in Richmond before being Counsel to Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey at DOJ and then a federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia.

    Wendell is on the Board of Trustees at the University of Richmond and on the Board of Directors of the Military Bowl, a college football bowl game with the mission of serving the military.

    Wendell is an occasional podcaster and created the viral podcast Our Pain days after George Floyd to describe Wendell’s negative encounters with law enforcement as a way to foster empathy for the plight of many African Americans in this country.

    Wendell is a regular speaker on the topics of diversity, inclusion, equity and related subject matters.

  • Princess Uchekwe is a Director at Eldridge, where she provides legal and business strategy advice on private equity and credit transactions. Her scope of work includes media and entertainment, technology, real estate, and investment management.

    Princess also serves as the Legal Advisor Sommsation, a wine experience company, providing guidance on the company’s corporate and regulatory matters.

    As an advocate for entrepreneurship and philanthropy, she is glad to serve as a resource to small businesses to help propel innovative ideas.

    Princess earned her BA in Global and International Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Juris Doctorate from Fordham University School of Law.

    She is a member of both the New York and California Bar.

    When her lawyer hat is off, Princess can otherwise be spotted practicing her asanas or creating her own custom press-on nail sets.

  • Bill Hagner is the Chairman of Sommsation, an Eldridge portfolio company. Previously, Bill was a Partner at Eldridge, as well its Chief Strategy Officer, Head of Human Capital, and Head of Technology.

    Before that, Bill served as a Senior Managing Director of Guggenheim Partners and as the General Counsel of Guggenheim Investments, an asset manager with $230 billion dollars of AUM.

    Prior to that, he worked at Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen.

    Bill received his A.B. in Philosophy from the College of William & Mary, his J.D. from the University of Richmond, and his LL.M in Taxation from Temple University.

    He has earned the Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst (CAIA) and Chartered Managerial Accountant (CMA) designations. Bill has served as a Director and Officer on the Boards of numerous for-profit companies and non-profit organizations.