Lee Wellington

This panel will illuminate how organizations from across the country are coming together to tackle the challenges faced by makers and manufacturers of color as they try to access capital (both debt and equity). Maker and manufacturer businesses are expensive to start up and run because of high equipment and space costs. Moreover, financial institutions are more likely to see these firms as a risky bet from a lending perspective because they may not produce the high returns of tech or other industries. All of this is compounded by the fact that there are well-documented racial inequities in the way capital is deployed to entrepreneurs of color in an array of sectors. Yet we need a diverse base of makers and manufacturers because they provide good-paying jobs, drive local innovation, create career paths that give workers both technology and production skills, and promote generational wealth.