Education: Bachelor’s degree, Bucknell University; law degree, University of Richmond
Family: Connor, 21, and Emily, 19 (plus Rosie the Bernese Mountain Dog)
Career mentors: During every step of my career, I have tried to absorb knowledge and skills from those with whom I’ve worked — beginning with some exceptional law professors, to the judge for whom I clerked, to the partners and senior associates who took the time and effort to train me. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with some of the best!
Favorite thing about where you live: I recently moved to Church Hill from Midlothian, and I love being in such a vibrant and eclectic neighborhood with amazing restaurants and shops all within walking distance.
First legal job: Judicial law clerk in the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division
How do you address stormwater problems? Virginia’s stormwater program is evolving, which has had a significant effect on our developer clients and, in particular, solar developments. There has definitely been some confusion over interpretation and application of the regulations, and we have been coordinating with staff at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, consultants, trade organizations, localities and individual clients to assist with obtaining permits and sometimes to work through enforcement issues.
What future environmental regulations do you anticipate? New stormwater guidance and regulatory actions, DEQ’s streamlined permitting platform, wetlands permitting, including federal activities relating to the WOTUS Final Rule and the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision, and continued regulatory action at the state and federal level relating to PFAS. Many activities stemming from the Clean Water Act will impact development. Some of these changes should make things easier and/or faster for development … but there remains quite a bit of uncertainty.
A tanking economy. Rampant inflation. Whiplash in the stock market. What’s an investor to do?
Look for opportunities to rebalance portfolios but, in general, hang tight, wealth management professionals say. Or, as one adviser says, buckle up for a roller coaster ride.
The economy is likely to worsen, experts say, and despite dickering among economists over whether the U.S. entered a recession this summer, investors can expect recession conditions to linger in 2023.
“The greatest threat to investors’ financial health is their own behavior,” says Stephan Q. Cassaday, chairman and CEO of Cassaday & Co. Inc., a McLean-based wealth management firm.
“Market declines do not destroy wealth; how we behave when markets decline is what destroys wealth,” Cassaday says. “Selling when we are uncomfortable and buying when we are comfortable is the opposite of what history shows we should do.”
Jeffrey S. Grinspoon, managing director and partner of VWG Wealth Management in Vienna, advises clients to essentially put their money into two “buckets”: One for funds needed within the next three to five years, the other for investments beyond five years.
It could be another two or three years until the Fed starts a campaign to lower interest rates, cautions Jeffrey Grinspoon of VWG Wealth Management in Vienna. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
Short-term investments include cash, certificates of deposit, Treasurys and short-term bond funds. The long-term horizon includes stock and alternative investments such as real estate, pharmaceutical royalty streams, private equity and/or venture capital.
“The purpose for this approach is to have less volatile and more liquid investments available when you need it, with diminished risk to the principal,” Grinspoon says.
“We don’t pay a lot of attention to the macro environment — geopolitical events, inflation, pandemics,” Grinspoon says, adding that five years is long enough to go through an economic cycle, including the downspin we’re in now.
Also, forget the old advice about putting 60% of investments in equities and 40% in bonds. “That was created many years ago when interest rates were going down,” Grinspoon explains.
The Federal Reserve has aggressively hiked interest rates this year in an effort to tame inflation — now at a 40-year high — and slow consumer spending in an attempt to bring supply in line with demand. In November, the Fed raised interest rates by 75 basis points to a range of 3.75% to 4%, the fourth such hike this year. Economists expect that rates could reach 5% by March 2023.
Grinspoon says the economy likely will worsen, but that doesn’t mean the stock market will crash. He hopes instead for market stagnation until the economy cycles out of its current downturn.
“It could be two or three years before the Fed embarks on an interest-lowering campaign,” he cautions.
Be prepared
Economic uncertainty is always present, Cassaday says, adding that big events that cause market declines are inevitable and can never be predicted. “Investors need to prepare themselves emotionally for scary markets. More money is lost attempting to avoid market declines than has been lost in any market decline.”
He points out that the S&P 500 has seen 10 declines of greater than 20% since 1957. Those who remained invested through those downturns saw average returns of 39% after three years, or 11.33% on an annualized basis.
“Our guidance is to remain fully invested and broadly diversified across asset classes based on investors’ risk tolerance and return requirements,” Cassaday says. “Volatility is often an opportunity to rebalance a portfolio, taking advantage of distortions and mispriced investments. Rebalancing is therapeutic for a portfolio, as it results in buying low and selling high.”
All portfolios should have target allocations tied to historically produced risk and return outcomes, Cassaday says. “With the market being so volatile and suffering an historic decline, certain sectors in the portfolio can be significantly above or below their targets.”
Eileen O’Connor, CEO and co-founder of Hemington Wealth Management in Falls Church, says recessions are as erratic as they are necessary.
“The thing about recessions is that we only for sure know that we were in one and for how long after the fact — hence the current debate about whether we are in [a recession] or not,” O’Connor says.
Traditionally, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the U.S. economy enters recession after two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product growth, which happened this summer. However, there has also been a strong labor market, low unemployment and corporate earnings growth during the same period, and there’s no historic precedent for that. Therefore, experts have disagreed over whether the economy has truly been in a recession this year.
“That said, recessions are a healthy part of the economic cycle and, because we cannot reliably predict when they will occur or end, we do not tailor our investments to accommodate them,” O’Connor says.
She defines recessions as contractions in the economy that adjust to shocks such as the pandemic. They are healthy because they set the stage for expansionary periods, O’Connor says, noting that the U.S. has been through 13 recessions since 1945.
“I don’t make predictions about how hard or soft this one may be, because it’s impossible to predict and the stock market is not correlated to recessions or expansions,” O’Connor says. “Said another way, stocks can move up in recessions and down in expansions.”
She notes that 68% of economic growth is based on consumer spending, but the stock market is based on a lot more, including corporate earnings, profitability and profit expectations.
“Typically, capital markets recover in advance of a recession ending, so we remain disciplined through all market cycles and control what we can control — our allocation to stocks versus bonds, taxes and fees,” O’Connor says.
While impossible to predict, this recession most likely will continue into the second quarter of 2023, since recessions historically last an average 10 months, she says.
Cassaday says no one has ever consistently predicted the onset, duration or magnitude of an economic event. “This includes stock market declines and advances, interest rate changes, inflation and recessions.” Attempting to make such a prediction “is a waste of time,” Cassaday adds.
By raising interest rates, the Fed is trying to slow the economy to avoid bubbles and reduce inflation. “We believe this is prudent and necessary,’ Cassaday says.
Play the long game
Investors should ignore heated debates about the level of slowing and stick with their long-term plans, wealth managers advise.
“Markets are already reflecting a pretty dismal situation and we believe that a recession is likely already baked into stock prices,” Cassaday says. “Historically, markets bottom and begin to advance before recessions are officially announced. … Although risks exist, our view is that we are closer to a bottom than a top.”
Joseph W. Montgomery, managing director of investments for The Optimal Service Group of Wells Fargo Advisors in Williamsburg, says the U.S. economy’s dip into contraction probably began around midyear and steepened as the year progressed.
“We expect the recession to end in mid-2023,” Montgomery says. “Near-term capital market volatility should continue, while investors grapple with the crosscurrents of [government] policy and economic outlook.”
Most investments are designed to be long term, while making sure any given portfolio has the appropriate amount of liquidity, Montgomery says. “Our single and consistent message has been to play defense in portfolios, which … means making ‘patience’ and ‘quality’ the daily watchwords.”
A dividend-paying stock, for example, could be a reflection of a patient investment, Montgomery says. Quality equates to buying stock in companies whose products have endured and will continue to do so.
For investors, according to the August edition of Investment Strategy Monthly Insights, “defensive sectors like health care, utilities and consumer staples might be the least vulnerable to upcoming rate shocks and economic slowdown.” Meanwhile, the publication pointed out, cyclical sectors such as material and industrials, particularly European industrials, could be more vulnerable to rising energy prices.
“Patience is more than a virtue; it’s a discipline,” Montgomery says. “Patience is revealed over a long period of time if you are adequately diversified. … Achieving wealth over time demands patience. Those who bail out fail.”
That said, it’s important to reassess data to make sure original precepts for making investments are correct, he says. “You can’t just buy it and forget it. … Data is important, but correct data is imperative. You have to be willing to adjust, allocate and diversify.”
Exposure to a broad mix over time provides the best opportunity to control risk, Montgomery says.
However, he points out, those who heavily invested this year in riskier propositions such as bitcoin or internet trading platform Robinhood Markets Inc. saw their investments tumble considerably in value: “Wow, talk about a wild ride!”
Other legal specialties: Eminent domain, construction, real estate, zoning and commercial litigation
Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Virginia; law degree, University of Notre Dame
Family: A herd of super-cute nieces and nephews
Career mentors: After law school, I clerked in Fairfax Circuit Court for the Hon. Michael P. McWeeny. He taught me how to understand and interpret the law, how to best argue and convince a judge and a jury, and how justice is a real thing. Grayson P. Hanes impressed upon me that the practice of law is still a profession and not just a job.
Favorite vacation spot: St. Anton, Austria, has breathtaking skiing, après-ski spots located along the slopes, and a perfect small Alpine village.
Something you would never do again: Running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain
What were your priorities as president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Virginia? To help connect the Asian Pacific American legal community spread throughout Virginia; promote the consideration of Asian and diverse attorneys for judgeships; work with other diverse bar associations to collectively highlight diverse voices, viewpoints and ideas; and promote justice, equality and opportunity for Asian Pacific Americans
What emerging litigation will alter land-use law? The Virginia Supreme Court’s loosening of the requirements for standing in land-use cases this year has the potential to change land-use law. This expansion of who can object to land-use projects will allow a greater pool of opponents to demand changes, threaten to delay projects and outright block some development projects.
Other legal specialties: Estate planning (domestic and international), probate (domestic and international), trust administration, tax
Education: Law degree/Ph.D. from La Sorbonne; second year of bachelor of law degree from University of Kent; master of laws degree in international and comparative law from George Washington University
Family: Married with two adult children and one cat
Career mentors: Richard Mayberry, Julie Steinbacher, Calvin H. Cobb III
When did you know you wanted to be an attorney? In high school
What is the trickiest aspect of elder law? Assisting families and seniors who are losing their physical and mental abilities, while helping them to maintain their dignity and giving them and their families peace of mind
You received your law degree in France before securing an LL.M. in the U.S. What is the most noticeable difference about U.S. elder law? Elder law does not exist in France, and estate planning options are very limited. The U.S. has amazing planning opportunities to protect families, define quality of life during incapacity, and choose to die with dignity. … However, the cost of end-of-life care in the U.S. … can be astronomic. In France, adult children are required to contribute to the cost if the senior is indigent and the children have high income.
Representing industries ranging from geospatial law, lunar space modules and the metaverse to agriculture, fashion and ice cream sandwiches, these creative, visionary trendsetters and entrepreneurs keep the Old Dominion new and relevant.
In 2017, Lex Avellino started a design studio specializing in 3-D animation and computer-generated imagery. As the studio dove into technology, it birthed Passage, a metaverse company that has created a platform for 3D immersive experiences that can be streamed on a browser. Passage plans to launch its product to the public in early 2023.
“We saw a lot of people doing events that were meant to connect people virtually, but didn’t really feel very human,” Avellino says. “We built something that was more accessible, that was more immersive, that was more intuitive.”
Avellino calls Passage an “anti-platform”; its blockchain elements create a passageway to connect to other platforms and opportunities for virtual experiences. Passage has hosted virtual events for Amazon.com Inc. and Capitol Records and in February 2023 will host the virtual Knostalgia hip-hop/martial arts festival,
featuring RZA from Wu-Tang Clan.
Photo by Randy Walker
Bernie Cosell Sheep farmer, Internet Pioneer Giles County
In 1969, Bernie Cosell was a computer programmer based in Boston, one of three people who programmed processors that allowed the internet’s precursor — the ARPANET — to work, launching the digital age. In 1992, Cosell and his wife were both ready to retire. They landed in Giles County, which reminded them of New Zealand, where they had vacationed. Fantasy Farm is not a business, Cosell maintains. “It’s basically a retirement home for old sheep. They’re happy every day of their lives.” Ironically, Cosell now lives with less-than-optimal internet access. “The internet I have right now is cell phone-based,” he says, but adds, “Almost everybody could get by with a much less fast internet connection if it were unlimited data.”
When browsing Norfolk State University’s bookstore, Ashley Jones realized it lacked what students wanted: trendy streetwear. In 2017, two years after graduating, she founded Tones of Melanin to fill that gap for students at historically Black colleges and universities. She now makes and sells apparel sold through HBCU bookstores, Fanatics and some major retailers. Jones was suspicious when she received an Instagram message from a Belk representative in March 2021, but it was legitimate — Belk now carries her apparel, as does Dick’s Sporting Goods. Although she’s proud to be one of the first Black woman-owned businesses whose products these retailers carry, she didn’t plan to trailblaze: “I just wanted to make some different stuff. … It was just like, I want to be able to rep my school.”
Philip Karp President, Soli Organic Inc Rockingham County
Philip Karp went from working as a director for Office Depot Europe to joining Shenandoah Growers in 2009 and becoming president of the controlled environment agriculture company in 2016. Last year, he oversaw the company’s name change to Soli Organic, better mirroring its mission of producing organic produce for more than 20,000 stores.
“It was time for a brand to tell people who and what we are, that embodies what we value as an organization,” Karp says.
If you ask Karp, working for a company that grows organic produce isn’t all that different from selling office supplies. “At the end of the day,” he says, “my true passion is for innovation and the consumer.”
A Crozet resident, Karp is a wine and food enthusiast who also enjoys birding and travel.
Jeff Kellogg Founder, owner, CEO, Woofy Enterprises LLC Henrico County
After leaving the packaging industry, Jeff Kellogg took a year off, researching, before he decided to enter the pet market. In 2016, he launched Woofy Bus LLC, which transports dogs to and from his day school, Woofy Wellness Ranch LLC. “We focus on teaching rather than disciplining,” which is what makes Woofy Wellness different, Kellogg says. The company also coordinates services like grooming and vet care during the day. “It’s an honor and it’s a privilege” to care for people’s dogs, Kellogg says. “That sounds kind of corny, but it really is.” The current roughly 150-dog facility has space to expand, but Kellogg is also looking at opening another Richmond-area location and two in the mid-Atlantic, outside Virginia, in 2023.
Sean Matson CEO, Matbock; co-founder, CEO, CardoMax irginia Beach
Sean Matson co-founded Matbock in 2010, while he was on active duty with the Navy, serving as a commissioned officer with the SEALs. He spent 13 years in the sea service.
Matbock works to develop better gear and technologies for warfighters, law enforcement and first responders. The company jumped from No. 1,033 to No. 805 on Inc. 5000’s list of fastest-growing companies in 2022. Matson also co-founded CardoMax, a vitamin and energy supplements company.
Inside its Virginia Beach office, Matbock has hung one of its early products, a lightweight, convertible stretcher that was used to carry a SEAL out of a firefight in Afghanistan.
“I want my work to make an impact,” Matson says.
Xavier Meers and Hannah Pollack Co-founders and co-owners, Nightingale Ice Cream Inc. Richmond
For many of us, ice cream sandwiches traditionally had only one form: a brick of soft-serve vanilla ice cream between thin, brown chocolate-ish cookies. But Hannah Pollack, who created the first Nightingale treat as an executive chef, has boosted the ice cream sandwich’s sophistication level and profile, collaborating with her husband, Xavier Meers, who also is a chef. They started the company in 2017 and have expanded sales to the East Coast, Texas and California. Flavors range from “Fat Banana” — banana ice cream with peanut butter cookies, dipped in chocolate — to “Nicky’s Blondie,” a vanilla-honeycomb ice cream concoction created with heiress Nicky Hilton Rothschild, with proceeds benefiting a food bank. Tuna melt connoisseur U.S. Sen. Mark Warner is also a fan. In 2023, the couple plans to expand their Richmond production facility from 5,000 to 20,000 square feet, but Pollack says they are sticking with ice cream sandwiches, not venturing into other products. “We do our own cookies, we do our own ice cream — it’s really important to us to control the quality ourselves.”
Dr. Ikenna Okezie CEO and co-founder, Somatus Inc. Arlington
Dr. Ikenna Okezie co-founded Somatus in 2016 to provide integrated kidney care after he saw racial disparities and inequities in care while he was working at DaVita Inc. Somatus partners with health care providers and helps patients between clinic visits, including having care workers teach patients how to monitor their diseases daily and arranging transportation. Okezie has a medical degree and an MBA from Harvard, and his degree programs overlapped for a year. Somatus is partnering with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of Minority Health and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity to study the effect of social determinants of health on kidney care. Somatus will serve more than 150,000 people across 34 states by the end of 2022.
Jennifer Palestrant Director of business development for offshore wind for North and South America, Fugro Norfolk
Formerly chief deputy for the Virginia Department of Energy, Jennifer Palestrant continues to talk up Hampton Roads as an ideal location for offshore wind energy. People here really know large-scale maritime projects, she says: “Doesn’t matter whether it’s an aircraft carrier, a wind turbine or a submarine, we do it better than anybody else.”
Now director of business development for offshore wind for the Americas for Fugro, a Dutch geospatial intelligence provider specializing in offshore wind development, Palestrant consults with developers and government officials to ensure their projects are successful. “In the next 30 years, you will see offshore wind off the coast of every continent around the globe,” she says.
Kevin D. Pomfret Partner, Williams Mullen Tysons
Kevin Pomfret, who leads Williams Mullen’s unmanned systems and cybersecurity teams and teaches geospatial law and ethics at Johns Hopkins University, started out as a satellite imagery analyst before becoming an attorney. In May, he was named Geospatial Ambassador of the Year at the Geospatial World Forum, an award he received in part for “his evangelism and advocacy for legal and policy frameworks” for the collection and use of geospatial data, as well as privacy and national security. He’s also writing a textbook on geospatial legal issues in 2023.
“Geolocation privacy is a really interesting and fast-developing area of the law,” says Pomfret, who enjoys golfing, family time and travel outside work.
Sally Richardson Senior program director, Northrop Grumman Corp. Leesburg
Lots of children were inspired by the first moon landing; Sally Richardson was motivated by it.
She oversees a team building NASA’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module, the crew module and docking port for NASA’s Gateway, a space station that will orbit the moon, serving as a platform for lunar and space exploration.
A new grandmother, Richardson has served the past two years as president of the Washington Space Business Roundtable, which promotes the space business and education in the region.
HALO is expected to launch around 2025 and will be the culmination of Richardson’s 40-year career: “We are building a mini space station that’s going to go around the moon, and there could be nothing more exciting.”
The Shenandoah Valley has long been recognized as fertile ground for agricultural endeavors, but it’s now being seeded to grow an entirely different kind of crop — entrepreneurs.
During the past few years, local and regional governmental bodies, nonprofits, and private and educational organizations in the valley have been coordinating efforts to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem. They aim to provide regional startups with all the training, advice, contacts and access to funding needed to turn kernels of good ideas into successful, home-grown businesses.
As director of technology innovation and economic development at James Madison University, Mary Lou Bourne is intimately involved in this informal system, which she calls “a coalition of the willing.” Bourne also is executive director of James Madison Innovations Inc., a nonprofit corporation for intellectual property management and licensing for inventions developed by JMU researchers.
The university does not lead the regional entrepreneurship effort, she stresses, but plays an “additive” role. However, “additive” hardly does justice to the list of organizations based at JMU that are dedicated to helping fledgling businesses in the valley. Among them are the Shenandoah Small Business Development Center, one of 27 such centers in the commonwealth that provide free professional consulting and training for new and small businesses, and Virginia Is for Entrepreneurs, which helps startups find financing.
JMU also has the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, which helps student entrepreneurs develop business concepts into reality. Also on campus is the JMU-affiliated Shenandoah Valley Technology Council, which offers networking opportunities for entrepreneurs, as well as GO Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley regional office.
Outside JMU’s campus, Harrisonburg’s economic development department holds 10-week boot camps several times a year to teach entrepreneurs essential skills such as marketing and bookkeeping. The Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce and Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, which promotes businesses in the central city, both offer training classes as well. The agencies collaborate to avoid duplication of services and to eliminate gaps in assistance programs.
“People start a business because it is their passion,” says Harrisonburg Chamber President and CEO Chris Quinn. “This [training] is the back-end stuff.”
This mother-and-daughters team — (L to R) Stephanie Auville Duncan, Chris Auville and Jessica Hall — started Harmony Harvest Farm in Weyers Cave. Photo by Norm Shafer
Elsewhere in the valley, there are plenty of other options for entrepreneurs seeking support. In Staunton, Shenandoah Community Capital Fund hosts a Business Bootcamp three times a year, says Anika Horn, SCCF’s director of marketing and ecosystem building. The eight-week virtual class helps budding entrepreneurs develop business skills and evaluate the viability of their ideas.
Additionally, each year SCCF hosts two or three Techstars Startup Weekends, offering an immersive 54-hour, three-day course that teaches people to become entrepreneurs. This year, SCCF also launched an annual two-day entrepreneurship summit with workshops, panel discussions and networking opportunities. The next summit will be held in October 2023, Horn says.
Nearby Waynesboro offers extensive help for startups, too, mostly online, and the city’s Grow Waynesboro program recently received a $45,000 Community Business Launch grant from the state to expand its efforts. It plans to use some of the funding to hold a business pitch competition next year, with winners receiving grants, marketing support, customized training, mentorships and technical assistance.
Cultivating businesses
Peter Denbigh is an example of someone developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem the valley is trying to nurture. He found success marketing a party game online, and he and his former wife, Alison Denbigh, co-founded a coworking space, Staunton Innovation Hub, in early 2017. The hub offers coworking and meeting spaces and private offices, as well as business programming and other opportunities for networking and sharing experiences that can be so important for budding entrepreneurs, Peter Denbigh says. For example, Shenandoah Community Capital Fund is headquartered in the hub and offers an accelerator program, Startup Shenandoah Valley (S2V).
About 110 companies have office space or are headquartered in the 30,000-square-foot Staunton Innovation Hub. Denbigh is looking to expand the entrepreneurial network he’s building by opening a similar size Harrisonburg Innovation Hub in late 2023.
“Local resources are your tribe,” Denbigh says. “Emotionally, technically and financially, they help you understand that you don’t know what you don’t know.”
Andrea Estep’s Harrisonburg women’s clothing and accessories shop, Charlee Rose Boutique, is another valley entrepreneurship success story. Estep started the business in her garage and now has a downtown storefront. “The community in Harrisonburg is like none other that I’ve experienced,” she says. “The support helped me survive through the pandemic.”
During the pandemic, Kirsten Moore also bucked the odds to start a coworking space in Harrisonburg, the Perch at Magpie. It has about 100 tenants housed in a 7,000-square-foot space atop her other new business, the Magpie Diner restaurant and bakery. “You have all of the right cheerleaders to walk you through the process” of building a business in the area, Moore says. “You can just walk into city hall and get your questions answered.”
Moore was fortunate to find private investors for her ambitious plans, which include a wine bar and retail and event space in a nearby building, but for many startups, securing capital financing is the biggest obstacle to starting and expanding their businesses.
Business loans from banks are sometimes hard to get, unless an entrepreneur has a big nest egg, and the valley’s lack of population density — the very demographic that makes the region appealing to so many would-be entrepreneurs — unfortunately correlates with a lack of available venture capital.
“You don’t have an extensive network like in NoVa,” Denbigh says. “You don’t have people here who go from zero to $100 million in six months.”
Crunching numbers
Only two local agencies (other than banks) offer substantial funding to valley startups.
One is Shenandoah Valley Angel Investors, a network of private funders capable of lending $50,000 to $300,000 to launch new businesses. Since its founding in 2015, facilitated by JMU’s Bourne, the fund, which is independent of the university, has invested $8.1 million in 23 companies.
The other major source of capital in the valley is Shenandoah Community Capital Fund in Staunton. Since it gave out its first loans in 2009, Horn says, the fund has invested $1.6 million to fund 108 businesses and support more than 450 others. That funding has come in the form of loans of $5,000 to $50,000.
Localities — including Waynesboro, Buena Vista and Augusta County — also make loans to small businesses, averaging about $15,000 each. Brian Shull, executive director of Harrisonburg Economic Development, says his agency can offer loans up to $25,000 to help entrepreneurs who are “not quite bankable yet.” So far, his agency has distributed 22 loans, adding up to $450,000.
Some other options have arisen recently to aid minority business owners, who typically have a harder time than white entrepreneurs in securing capital. In the first half of 2021, funding to U.S. Black startup entrepreneurs hit a record $1.8 billion but accounted for only 1.2% of the $147 billion in venture capital invested in all U.S. startups during the same period, according to a report by Crunchbase.
In Harrisonburg and Rockingham, the chamber of commerce’s B-Cubed program provides minority entrepreneurs with advice on crafting business plans and networking, as well as grants. So far, the organization has awarded 17 grants to minority entrepreneurs in amounts ranging from $1,700 to $5,000 since 2020.
In Lexington, the all-volunteer Walker Program was started in 2020 to assist businesses owned by people of color in Buena Vista, Rockbridge County and Lexington.
In addition to its own program teaching the nuts and bolts of doing business and offering advice on issues such as trademarks and patents, Walker has made 15 business grants between $5,000 and $25,000 each, program coordinator Gabrielle J. Cash says. Thanks to Walker funding, three Black-owned businesses now are operating in downtown Lexington, where until recently, there were none.
Photographer Tasha Coleman received a Walker grant of $10,000 to help her secure a studio space in Buena Vista for her business, Tasha Lamar Photography & Films. She is grateful for that assistance, but she still has not been able to get up and running, because she needs more funding for equipment.
“Finding other loans to help furnish the studio has been very difficult,” Coleman says.
“Raising capital in the valley can be hard,” Denbigh says.Organizations there “provide 101- and 201-level resources for entrepreneurs, but we need to get into 301 and 401 upscaling. That will be the tipping point when the money starts coming in.”
That extra push
To help more young businesses reach that tipping point, Shenandoah Community Capital Fund offers its S2V accelerator program, which more than 40 entrepreneurs have attended since it was established in 2020. Stephanie Auville Duncan of Harmony Harvest Farm in Weyers Cave is one of them.
Duncan, her sister, Jessica Hall, and their mother, Chris Auville, have been in the cut-flower business since 2013. The women started out by supplying flowers for weddings and other local events, and a few years later expanded into wholesale shipping to florists. Whole Foods stores up and down the East Coast started stocking their flowers, so business was great. Then, COVID-19 arrived, decreasing the need for flower arrangements, so florists and Whole Foods stopped buying from Harmony Harvest.
But with the help of the accelerator program, plus advice from Virginia Department of Tourism, Augusta County and Shenandoah Valley Partnership, Harmony Harvest was able to make a pandemic pivot and come up with a new business plan focused on shipping directly to customers. In 2020, its online sales increased by 1,600%.
The accelerator program, Duncan says, was “paramount to understanding the best way to grow” the family’s business, which has expanded to include agritourism.
This summer, Harmony Harvest began a pick-your-own-flowers operation and opened a retail store on the farm, a picturesque 20-acre property in Augusta County. Hall’s related business, Floral Genius, operates online and from the farm, too. Its pin- and cup-style flower holders called “flower frogs” got a welcome boost when Martha Stewart used them in a how-to video about flower arranging.
The bottom line, however, is that until more entrepreneurs like Duncan, Auville and Hall find ways to take their enterprises to the next level, finding financing is going to remain a sticking point for small business development in the valley.
The entrepreneurial ecosystem will be there, though, doing it’s dogged best to help them.
Shenandoah Valley at a glance
Shenandoah National Park Photo courtesy Shenandoah National Park
Settled in the 1700s, the approximately 140-mile-long Shenandoah Valley lies between the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny mountains. Agriculture remains a key industry for the region, which was known as the breadbasket of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Other notable industries include manufacturing, especially of food and beverages, and logistics. Bridgewater College, James Madison University, Mary Baldwin University, Virginia Military Institute, and Washington and Lee University call the region home.
Population: 373,472
Top employers
James Madison University: 3,887
Sentara Healthcare: 2,600
Augusta Health: 2,300
Cargill Inc.: 2,000*
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp.: 2,000*
Major attractions
The Shenandoah Valley is home to outdoor attractions such as Shenandoah National Park and the George Washington and Jefferson national forests. The region is also known for wineries and breweries, with the Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail and the Shenandoah Spirits Trail. Historical and cultural attractions include Civil War sites like the Virginia Museum of the Civil War and Melrose Caverns, as well as the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley and the American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse.
Top convention hotels
The Omni Homestead Resort 483 rooms, 72,000 square feet of event space
Hotel 24 South (Staunton)
124 rooms, 8,500 square feet of event space
Best Western Plus Waynesboro
Inn & Suites Conference Center
75 rooms, 5,500 square feet of event space
DoubleTree by Hilton Front Royal
Blue Ridge Shadows
124 rooms, 3,933 square feet of event space
Boutique/luxury hotels
The Blackburn Inn &
Conference Center 49 rooms, 8,400 square feet of event space
The Mimslyn Inn
45 rooms, almost 5,000 square feet of event space
The Gin Hotel 39 rooms
Hotel Laurance 12 rooms
Notable restaurants
Local Chop & Grill House
American,localchops.com
The Butcher Station
American,thebutcherstation.com
In November, Grammy-winning music superstar Pharrell Williams hosted the three-day Mighty Dream forum in Norfolk and broke some news about his Something in the Water music festival and the status of his team’s proposal to redevelop Norfolk’s Military Circle Mall site.
Mighty Dream, a sequel to his 2021 Elephant in the Room business conference at Norfolk State University, featured Williams in conversation with corporate and cultural movers and shakers, including Google Inc. Chief Diversity Officer Melonie Parker; actor and comedian Hannibal Buress; SpringHill Co. CEO Maverick Carter; retired NASA astronaut Leland Melvin; and Annie Wu, H&M Group’s global head of inclusion and diversity. The conference, which focused on equity and inclusion, innovation, and entrepreneurism, also featured musical performances, a small business block party, and a pitch contest with $2.5 million awarded to three entrepreneurs from Williams’ Black Ambition nonprofit.
Comparing Mighty Dream to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “but for marginalized communities,” Williams challenged other local business leaders to host events to increase opportunity for disadvantaged groups, including Black, brown and LGBTQ people.
“I know it’s sort of kumbaya-ish, but this shouldn’t be the only forum dedicated to [diversity, equity and inclusion],” he said.
During the forum, Williams also announced that his Something in the Water music festival will be returning to its Virginia Beach birthplace on April 28-30, 2023.
The festival started at the Oceanfront in 2019 but was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. In fall 2021, Williams announced he would move the festival to another city, citing his hometown’s “toxic energy,” following the March 2021 police shooting of his cousin, Donovon Lynch, and a grand jury’s decision not to indict the Virginia Beach officer who killed Lynch. The festival was held in Washington, D.C., this year.
“The demand for the festival in Virginia Beach and the 757 — among the people — has never wavered. If anything, it has only intensified,” Williams said from the Mighty Dream stage, flanked by Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby M. Dyer and other city officials.
Also during Mighty Dream, Williams spoke out to urge Norfolk to officially approve his team’s Wellness Circle redevelopment project at Military Circle Mall, saying, “The ball’s in their court.” As of early November, Norfolk officials said the project, which would include a 15,000-seat arena, a 200-room hotel and 1,100 housing units, was still under negotiation.
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