Friday, June 6 – Atlanta, GA 🇺🇸

What happens to a legacy when the money runs out before the mission is finished?
That’s the question that haunted Devin Carter.

Owner of Carter & Sons Custom Woodworks—a third-generation Black-owned business just outside downtown Atlanta. The kind of place where the smell of sawdust lived in the walls, and every table told a story. Devin had learned the craft from his father, who learned it from his father, back when the business was little more than a shed behind their family home in Mechanicsville.

They didn’t just build furniture.
They built heirlooms.
For churches, for family reunions, for barbershops that still passed wisdom with every fade.

But business slowed.

Not because demand dropped—but because costs rose, suppliers closed, and Devin had refused to compromise on quality. He’d dipped into personal savings to keep the lights on. Delayed payroll. Skipped his own pay entirely.

The orders were still coming.
But the overhead was crushing him.

He didn’t want to shut the doors on a business his grandfather built with his bare hands.
But legacy doesn’t pay the electric bill.

“We Don’t Qualify” — The Biggest Lie Black Entrepreneurs Are Told

Devin had tried everything.

A local bank denied his loan—again.
A city-run relief fund stalled out after phase one.
A grant program “for minority business owners” turned out to require two years of profit reporting… from a year when he’d just survived a global pandemic.

He was about to sell his delivery van.
Until a customer, a woman whose grandmother’s rocking chair he’d restored, gave him a name.

“You need to talk to Mr. Grant Money,” she said. “He helped my cousin’s food truck stay alive. He doesn’t just find grants—he moves money with a mission.”

The Arrival of Precision in a Suit

When Mr. Grant Money showed up at the Carter & Sons workshop, he didn’t come with a smile and a script. He came with a sharp navy suit, a leather briefcase, and an agenda that didn’t waste time.

“You’re Devin,” he said, stepping past stacks of half-sanded cedar. “And I hear you’re sitting on something bigger than most VCs would know what to do with.”

Devin raised an eyebrow. “You with a bank?”

“No,” said Mr. Grant Money. “I’m with results. I’ve helped move over half a billion dollars in grant funding—most of it to people just like you, with brilliant businesses that got boxed out by red tape and bias.”

He opened the briefcase. Inside: a folder labeled Carter & Sons – Expansion Pathways.

And that’s when everything started to shift.

Where the Real Money Lives for Black-Owned Businesses

Over the next two hours, Devin got the funding masterclass no one ever taught him in business school—or the family shop.

Mr. Grant Money laid out a three-part plan:

First, apply for an MBDA Capital Readiness Grant, targeting legacy Black-owned businesses with plans for modernization and job creation.
Next, secure support from the Southern Opportunity and Resilience Fund (SOAR), a grant-plus-technical assistance initiative helping small businesses in the South recover post-pandemic.
Then, leverage his minority business certification to apply for a supplier diversification grant tied to a national retailer seeking custom furniture partners in the Southeast.

Each source came with timelines, templates, and application language pre-tailored to Devin’s story, structure, and scale potential.

Devin didn’t just nod.
He listened like a craftsman measuring twice before making a single cut.

From Survival to Scale

They worked nights. Devin pulled customer testimonials. Mr. Grant Money helped write the impact narrative—how Carter & Sons wasn’t just a shop, but a community anchor, a skills pipeline, and a living archive of Black craft and culture.

By April, the MBDA grant came through: $75,000.
By May, the SOAR fund added $35,000 and six months of coaching.
By summer, Carter & Sons was no longer in survival mode.

They were:

• Hiring

• Launching a woodworking apprenticeship program

• Rebuilding their backroom into a tech-enabled design studio

• Taking meetings with a retail chain that found them—not through a pitch—but a grant announcement

Mr. Grant Money Doesn’t Fund Businesses. He Funds Vision.

He didn’t just “support Black business.”
He treated it like what it was: essential infrastructure.

Devin didn’t need pity. He needed partnership.
He needed someone who could see the worth—not just the struggle—and match it with capital.

Because this wasn’t just about woodwork.
It was about generational wealth.
About staying in the neighborhood.
About handing off a business, not just memories, to the next Carter who wanted to build with their hands.

And that?

That’s what Mr. Grant Money funds.
Not just projects—but power.

✅ Discussion Questions

1. Why are many minority-owned businesses underinformed or underserved when it comes to grant funding, and how can that change?
   What educational or outreach tools would help?

2. How can legacy businesses like Carter & Sons leverage their history and community impact in funding applications?
   How do you tell a story funders respect?

3. What role do agencies like the MBDA play in creating sustainable opportunities for Black-owned businesses?
   How can their visibility and impact be expanded?

4. How can storytelling and cultural relevance increase the competitiveness of a grant proposal?
   What techniques draw attention without falling into stereotypes?

5. What systemic changes are needed to make capital access more equitable for minority entrepreneurs beyond traditional loans and VC?
   What would a more just funding ecosystem look like?

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