Economic opportunity rarely begins with capital.

More often, it begins with community.

Someone shares a program.
Someone forwards a fellowship.
Someone introduces you to a room you didn’t know existed.

Access to information and networks is often the quiet infrastructure behind economic mobility. When communities share knowledge, opportunity expands.

At The Wealth Salons, our work centers around that simple belief:

Economic agency begins with access to information and community.

Each month, this newsletter surfaces opportunities, programs, and conversations that help individuals and founders move forward economically.

Support The Wealth Salons

The Wealth Salons exists to expand access to economic opportunity through information, community, and financial literacy.

Your support allows us to continue surfacing programs, capital pathways, and knowledge networks that help individuals build long-term prosperity.

Support Here

Partnerships & Community Highlight

This month we are especially excited to introduce someone who spends a great deal of time thinking about exactly that invisible infrastructure.

We’re proud to welcome Mel to the team and to the broader B. PM Brands ecosystem.

Welcoming Mel: The Systems Behind the Story

Every successful founder story has something deeper behind it.

Systems.
Infrastructure.
Communities that make those outcomes possible.

We are excited to introduce Mel, whose work focuses on understanding and building the systems that support entrepreneurs, ecosystems, and long-term economic opportunity.

Mel’s first essay explores a topic many people overlook: the invisible systems that sit behind successful founders and venture ecosystems. These systems shape how opportunity moves, how capital flows, and how founders build lasting companies.

Read Mel’s introduction ↓

DVRGNT Ventures

The Systems Behind the Story

Field Notes from the Intersection of Story, Systems, and Strategy…

Read more

2 months ago · 33 likes · Mel M

Babson Financial Literacy Project

Another initiative aligned with our mission is the Babson Financial Literacy Project, which works to expand access to financial education and economic empowerment through community-based learning.

Their work focuses on ensuring individuals gain the knowledge needed to navigate financial systems, understand capital, and build long-term financial stability. This work also connects directly to community partnerships like the upcoming financial literacy session at Glendale Community College.

The Wealth Salons believe strongly that financial literacy is foundational to economic agency, and we are encouraged to see institutions like Babson advancing that mission through partnerships with communities and educational institutions.

Learn more

From The Archive

The Wealth Equation: Why Average Advice Rarely Builds Exceptional Wealth

Much of the financial advice people receive is designed to produce average outcomes.

But wealth building often requires something different. It requires understanding how systems, capital, and opportunity interact.

This archive essay explores why conventional financial advice often produces average outcomes rather than meaningful economic mobility and how individuals can begin thinking more strategically about wealth building.

Read the full article ↓

The Wealth Salons

The Wealth Equation: Why "Average" Advice is a Liability

Most financial advice is an assembly line. It’s built for an “average” person who doesn’t exist, living a life you likely don’t want. It tells you to play defense: cut the lattes, maximize the 401k, put your money in a mutual fund, and check back in forty years…

Read more

4 months ago · 2 likes · The Wealth Salons and B. Pagels-Minor

Funding Opportunities

Each month we highlight credible funding opportunities accessible to founders and professionals across the Wealth Salons community.

PearX Startup Accelerator

PearX is a 12-week accelerator designed for early-stage founders preparing to scale and raise venture capital. The program provides mentorship, investor introductions, and funding to help founders refine their product strategy and market traction.

Many alumni companies have gone on to raise significant venture capital.

Deadline
April 12, 2026

Apply Here

gener8tor Skills Accelerator

The gener8tor Skills Accelerator helps individuals transition into high-growth careers through mentorship, career coaching, and skills training.

Participants receive structured support designed to help them move into more competitive roles across technology, digital services, and emerging industries.

Deadline
March 27, 2026

Learn More

Amber Grant for Women

Grant Opportunity: WomensNet awards the Amber Grant each month to women-owned businesses across the United States. One recipient per month receives $30,000 to invest in their business. At the end of the year, one monthly winner receives an additional $50,000 grand prize. This is one of the most consistent and accessible grants available for women founders at any stage — from idea to growth.

Deadline: March 31, 2026

Apply Here

Know of a funding opportunity that should be featured? Reply to this email and let us know.

Your support helps us continue this research. Contribute here →

Events & Founder Opportunities

MONEY 101: Building Financial Stability from the Ground Up

Financial Literacy | Community Education

As part of Women’s History Month programming, Glendale Community College is hosting a financial literacy session focused on the fundamentals of navigating the U.S. financial system.

B. Pagels-Minor will lead the discussion, sharing both practical financial strategies and personal insights from their journey building financial stability.

Topics will include:

• Understanding how credit scores work
• Setting up checking, savings, and investment accounts
• Creating a realistic and sustainable budget
• Strategies for consistent saving and long-term financial growth

The session is hosted by GCC Student Equity & Cultural Diversity in partnership with Women’s History Month programming and reflects the growing collaboration between community institutions and initiatives like the Babson Financial Literacy Project.

Date
March 23, 2026

Time
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PDT

Register

BGV Pull Up & Pitch Detroit

Pull Up & Pitch is one of the most dynamic pitch competitions supporting women founders.

Hosted by Black Girl Ventures, the event allows founders to pitch their businesses live while audiences vote and provide financial support to participating companies.

Beyond funding, the event helps founders build visibility and connect with community members, investors, and ecosystem supporters.

Date
March 28, 2026

RSVP

Wealth Reflection

Communities that share information create opportunity.

When people share fellowships, programs, and resources, they create pathways that others may not have discovered on their own.

At The Wealth Salons, we believe economic agency grows when information circulates freely.

So if you discover an opportunity that could help someone else move forward, share it with someone who may benefit from it.

That small act can change someone’s trajectory.

Support The Work

If this newsletter has helped you discover opportunities, programs, or resources, please consider supporting The Wealth Salons.

Your support allows us to continue expanding access to information, financial literacy, and economic opportunity.

Donate Here

Subscribe now

February carries memory. But we are not here to live in memory.

We are here to build.

The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances shows the White–Black median wealth gap exceeded $220,000 in 2022. That is not a statistic for despair. It is a design problem.

We do not look back to rehearse injustice.
We look forward to engineer ownership.

Participation in the economic system is not submission.
It is leverage — when done strategically.

Support The Work

If this work matters to you, help us expand it.

Donate to The Wealth Salons

Power in Partnerships

We build teams like we build portfolios: distinct strengths, aligned values, long-term thinking.

Meet Ivy Binns, our Strategic Partnerships & Board Liaison.

Ivy works at the intersection of trust and execution — turning “we should” into “it’s done.” She supports partnership development across our ecosystem, including The Wealth Salons, ensuring that our growth compounds rather than fragments.

Read her latest reflection:

Relationships Are Infrastructure

DVRGNT Ventures

Relationships Are Infrastructure

One of my favorite questions to ask someone is, “How did you end up here…

Read more

3 months ago · 6 likes · Ivy Binns

Institutions are not built on moments.
They are built on maintained relationships.

From the Archive

The Quiet Power of the Dollar

If you missed it, we recently published:

The Quiet Power of the Dollar

This essay explores:

• When boycotts create leverage

• When withdrawal removes us from power

• Why participation without strategy is just consumption

Economic participation is not emotional.
It is architectural.

Funding Windows Open Now

If you lead a nonprofit or community organization, these are real pathways open right now.

Ms. Foundation for Women

Asian Women’s Giving Circle — 2026 RFP

For: Asian women-led and gender-expansive organizations advancing justice and equity
Deadline: March 31, 2026

Apply:

Community-governed capital funding lived-experience leadership.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Community Equity Grants

For: BIPOC-led nonprofits advancing equity and economic opportunity
Application model: Rolling / relationship-based

Start here:

Institutional capital requires institutional readiness: governance, metrics, and clarity.

Trans Justice Funding Project

Deadline: February 14, 2026

For: Trans-led and trans-serving grassroots organizations

Apply immediately:

This newsletter publishes on February 13 — which means you have one day.

If you qualify, apply now.
If you miss this cycle, calendar it for next year. Strong funders reward preparation.

Founders & Builders

SXSW Innovation Conference

Austin, TX · March 12–18, 2026

An ecosystem collision point for builders, technologists, creatives, and founders.

Explore:

Exposure matters — but only if paired with readiness.

Build With Us

We are building infrastructure for financial fluency, collective strategy, and institutional ownership.

If you believe this work matters, don’t just read it.

Fund it.

Donate Here

Until Next Month

Wealth is quiet.
It compounds.
It organizes.

Stay happy.
Stay healthy.
Stay hopeful.
Stay paid.

— The Wealth Salons

Strengthen This Work

One final opportunity to act:

Donate

Donate to The Wealth Salons

Every dollar we spend is a choice about where power flows. It is a signal of what we tolerate, what we reward, and which systems we quietly sustain. In periods of political, cultural, or economic tension, people often ask what meaningful action looks like. Voting is periodic. Public protest is episodic. But spending is constant.

This essay explores how financial literacy, financial wellness, and the modern boycott intersect, not as ideology, but as an economic behavior. When understood clearly, boycotts are not about outrage. They are about capital allocation. And when practiced with discipline, they can strengthen individual financial health while reshaping community-level outcomes.

Financial Literacy Is Not Neutral

Traditional financial literacy education focuses on mechanics: budgeting, saving, investing, credit management. These are essential, but incomplete.

True financial literacy also requires understanding where money goes after it leaves our hands.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), consumer spending account for roughly two-thirds of U.S. GDP. This means household spending decisions materially shape the broader economy.

From a wealth-building perspective, three truths matter:

1. Spending is economic participation, not neutrality

2. Collective spending patterns influence corporate incentives

3. Capital that leaves a community rarely returns on its own

Ignoring these realities does not make spending apolitical. It only makes it unexamined.

What a Boycott Really Is (and Is Not)

The word boycott often evokes emotion. Anger. Punishment. Protest.

Economically, a boycott is something more precise:

A coordinated reallocation of capital away from one actor and toward alternatives.

This distinction matters. A boycott that simply halts spending without redirection weakens the consumer. A boycott that moves spending creates competitive pressure and rewards alignment.

Economic historians studying the Montgomery Bus Boycott have long noted that its effectiveness came not from abstention alone, but from parallel systems that allowed people to keep moving, working, and spending elsewhere.

Historically, boycotts that succeed do so because they alter revenue trajectories, not because they dominate headlines.

Contemporary Capital Reallocation in Practice

In modern markets, many spending categories offer choice even when consumption itself is non-optional.

• Telecommunications contracts, streaming subscriptions, and retail memberships are recurring revenue models. Small changes in customer behavior compound over time.

• Research on subscription markets shows that customer churn, even at low percentages, has outsized financial impact because future revenue is lost alongside present revenue.

This is why values-based consumer decisions often focus on recurring expenses rather than one-time purchases. The leverage is structural, not symbolic.

The year 2025 alone offer multiple examples of values-based spending reshaping outcomes, without requiring ideological unanimity.

• AT&T has faced consumer scrutiny tied to political donations and lobbying activity. In response, some customers chose to transfer monthly telecom spending to competitors. The impact here is not symbolic. Telecommunications contracts are recurring revenue streams, and churn directly affects valuation and investor confidence.

• Disney operates within a subscription economy where consumer cancellations compound quickly. During periods of public controversy, even modest increases in churn have translated into material revenue pressure, reinforcing how sensitive subscription models are to consumer alignment.

• Costco benefited from that redirection. Consumers did not stop spending. They relocated their spending to a company perceived as more aligned. Membership-based models amplify this effect, because each new member represents both immediate revenue and long-term retention.

Financial Wellness Comes First

The Wealth Salons holds a clear line:
You do not sacrifice personal financial stability for collective ideals. You integrate them.

Values-based spending fails when it:

• Increases debt

• Reduces access to essential services

• Relies on impulse rather than comparison

It succeeds when it operates like any other financially literate decision.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consistently emphasizes comparison shopping and informed switching as core consumer protections. The same skills apply here.

A disciplined approach looks like this:

• Audit recurring expenses

• Identify comparable alternatives

• Compare total cost, not just price

• Make one declared decision

This is not moral performance. It is financial agency to have economic dignity.

How to communicate it

• Share information, not shame

• Normalize intention over perfection

What decision can be declared now

• “My spending will align with my values and my financial health.”

This is not moral purity. It is economic agency.

Donate

Community Wealth Is Built Through Retention, Not Abstinence

One of the most overlooked insights behind effective boycotts is this:

Wealth grows where money stays.

Economic development research shows that money spent locally circulates more times within a community than money spent with distant firms, increasing local income and employment effects.

When communities redirect spending toward aligned businesses, cooperatives, or institutions that reinvest locally, they shorten the distance between earning and compounding. This principle underlies everything from local procurement strategies to cooperative economics.

A widely cited meta-analysis from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) shows that local businesses return a significantly higher share of revenue to the local economy through wages, sourcing, and services.

Boycotts that simply reduce spending shrink economic activity. Boycotts that redirect spending can strengthen parallel economic systems.

This is why historically marginalized communities have emphasized cooperative economics, mutual aid, and shared purchasing norms. Not as protest theater, but as wealth retention strategies.

Make Informed Decisions

For readers who want to understand where consumer-led financial actions are emerging across industries, there are independent, community-maintained resources that track boycotts and spending redirections without requiring participation or agreement.

One such example is Cut Off the Spigot, which catalogs ongoing consumer actions and the stated rationales behind them. Resources like this are best used as information infrastructure, supporting individual evaluation rather than prescribing behavior.

Financial literacy includes knowing what exists, even when you choose differently.

The Quiet Audit

This month, identify one recurring expense.

Ask yourself:

• Does this spending align with my values?

• Does it strengthen or extract from my community?

• Is there a comparable alternative that preserves my financial health?

Then make one declared decision.
Quietly. Intentionally. Without spectacle.

Donate Here

At The Wealth Salons, we reject average. We aren’t here to help you survive the next four decades; we are here to help you dominate them. To do that, you have to stop following the generic blueprint and start solving a different math problem.

The Equation: $Access + Strategy + Culture = Exponential Impact$

Traditional education teaches these as separate silos. We know they are a single, integrated engine. If any one piece is missing, the machine stalls.

1. Access: The End of Guesswork

Without access, you’re just guessing. You’re looking at the market through a frosted window while others are inside the room making the weather.

At our salons, we eliminate the “who you know” barrier. We bring you into proximity with the gatekeepers, dealmakers, and institutional players you didn’t even know existed. Access isn’t just about a handshake; it’s about being in the flow of information before it becomes public knowledge.

2. Strategy: From Reactive to Proactive

Without strategy, you’re reacting. You’re chasing the latest meme stock or following a trend that already peaked.

We provide the context and clarity to see your next moves differently. We don’t just give you “tips”; we provide starter tools and frameworks that allow you to analyze leverage, protect your downside, and scale your upside. Strategy is the difference between having a “lucky year” and building a permanent legacy.

3. Culture: The Great Multiplier

Without culture, you are disconnected from your greatest asset: your people.

We root everything in culture by bringing in the tastemakers, innovators, and leaders who actually shape the world we live in. These are mentors who know where you’re coming from because they’ve walked the same path. When your wealth-building is aligned with your cultural identity, your results don’t just add up—they amplify.

Better Than a Year’s Salary

We’ve seen it happen time and again: the right introduction at the right time is worth more than a year’s salary.

While traditional “wealth management” focuses on incremental gains, The Wealth Salons focus on high-impact creation. Our members don’t just leave with “insights” or a nice notebook full of quotes. They leave with:

• New Investors for their next venture.

• New Contracts that pivot their business.

• New Partners who bring the missing piece of their puzzle.

Rewrite Your Equation

The assembly line is for people who want average results. If you are looking for exponential generational impact, you have to change the variables you’re working with.

It’s time to stop checking the box and start changing the game.

Ready to rewrite your wealth equation? Connect with us at team@thewealthsalons.com to secure your place in the room.

Ready to build with us?

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

👉 Apply Now

Stay Connected

Follow us for more insights, founder stories, and new opportunities:
🔗 LinkedIn | 𝕏 X | 📸 Instagram | 📬 Newsletter

If the floor is too low, the climb is exhausting, and the fall is fatal. But when you raise the baseline—when you elevate the collective starting point of knowledge, access, and capital—aiming higher stops being an act of desperation. It becomes the default.

The Myth of the “Self-Made” Ascent

The traditional narrative of success is one of individual grit. We are told to climb harder, work longer, and eventually, we might break through. But true power rarely comes from solo climbing; it comes from the infrastructure beneath your feet.

Raising the floor means moving from a scarcity mindset (there is only one seat at the table) to a leverage mindset (we are building our own table). It’s about ensuring that the baseline of our community includes high-level financial literacy, direct lines to decision-makers, and the “quiet” information that usually stays behind closed doors.

What is Capital Fluency?

We talk a lot about “Capital Fluency.” It’s more than just knowing how to read a balance sheet. It is a language, a lens, and a toolset.

Capital Fluency is the ability to:

• Recognize Leverage: Understanding that your influence, your community, and your “taste” are assets that can be traded and scaled.

• Negotiate from Power: Moving away from “just being happy to be there” to structuring deals that protect your long-term equity.

• Anticipate Opportunity: Spotting the shift in the market—whether in tech, real estate, or the creator economy—early enough to be an architect of the change, not just a consumer of it.

Curated for Action, Not Just Conversation

The world doesn’t need another networking happy hour. It needs rooms designed for activation.

At a Wealth Salon gathering, the person to your left might be a founder who just closed a Series B; the person to your right might be a cultural tastemaker who redefined an industry. But the magic isn’t just in the names—it’s in the application.

We bridge the gap between “cultural relevance” and “financial dominance.” We bring in the leaders you already trust to shape your lifestyle and ask them to show you how they built their life’s work. We meet you where you are, but we refuse to leave you there.

The Power Shift

When the floor rises, the entire ecosystem changes.

• Founders find smarter capital.

• Investors find untapped brilliance.

• Creators find the blueprints for legacy.

Real power shifts happen when “the room” is no longer a mystery. When the tools of wealth are demystified, the ceiling becomes irrelevant because we’ve already built a new level.

Ready to raise your floor?

We are building a community where access is the standard and action is the requirement. Don’t wait for a seat to open up—help us build the floor.

Join the movement: Email team@thewealthsalons.com to learn about our upcoming gatherings and membership.

Ready to build with us?

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

👉 Apply Now

Stay Connected

Follow us for more insights, founder stories, and new opportunities:
🔗 LinkedIn | 𝕏 X | 📸 Instagram | 📬 Newsletter

That’s not a math problem — it’s a strategy problem. True wealth comes from command over capital: understanding how money flows, how influence multiplies, and how to deploy resources to unlock opportunity.

Financial fluency goes far beyond budgeting or saving. It’s the skill set to read contracts, negotiate from a position of strength, understand industries outside your experience, and make decisions your future self will thank you for. We teach members to see wealth as a living ecosystem: assets, networks, skills, and the ability to act without asking permission.

Historically underinvested communities are told to work harder, save more, and be patient. We teach you to move capital like corporations and wealthy families — from ownership structures to the inside game of money — creating economic engines that last generations.

Ready to stop playing catch-up and start playing for keeps?
Email team@thewealthsalons.com with the subject line “Legacy Ready.”

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

Ready to build with us?

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

👉 Apply Now

Stay Connected

Follow us for more insights, founder stories, and new opportunities:
🔗 LinkedIn | 𝕏 X | 📸 Instagram | 📬 Newsletter

What would our neighborhoods look like?

What would our GDP be?

How many innovations, companies, and works of art would we have created?

The Cost of Underinvestment

To understand what we lost, look at what we have.

In 2022, the average White family held six times the wealth of the average Black family and five times that of the average Hispanic family.

Median wealth for White families was $287,000, compared with $45,000 for Black families and $61,000 for Hispanic families.

These gaps are not accidental. They’re the result of policies that stripped wealth from Black families while facilitating wealth building among White ones.

They represent decades — even centuries — of compounding underinvestment.

Reimagining the America That Could Have Been

Now, flip the script.

Imagine a nation where every Black child grew up with access to:

• Safe housing

• Quality education

• Nutritious food

• Reliable broadband

Imagine Black founders receiving the same level of venture capital as their White counterparts.

Imagine infrastructure spending that prioritized forgotten towns as much as it did suburban expansion.

The economic impact would be staggering:

more businesses, more jobs, more innovation, more tax revenue.

And the social impact?

Healthier families, stronger communities, and a deeper sense of shared prosperity.

A Glimpse of What’s Possible

Community wealth-building models offer a preview of this future.

When residents own a share of local assets:

• Jobs stay anchored.

• Public services expand.

• Economic stability improves.

The Urban Institute highlights new investment models that make ownership more accessible to those historically excluded from capital markets.

And cities like Philadelphia, through initiatives like CityStart, are crafting financial empowerment blueprints to close racial wealth gaps and rebuild trust.

The Point Isn’t Nostalgia — It’s Action

We can’t rewrite history. But we can change the future.

By investing in undercapitalized communities, expanding community ownership models, and addressing financial trauma, we can begin to create the world we should have had all along.

Call to Action

Ask yourself:

What would your neighborhood look like if it had always been invested in?

What role can you play in making that vision a reality?

Share this vision.

Join The Wealth Salons to collaborate on projects that turn imagination into action.

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

Ready to build with us?

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

👉 Apply Now

Stay Connected

Follow us for more insights, founder stories, and new opportunities:
🔗 LinkedIn | 𝕏 X | 📸 Instagram | 📬 Newsletter

And yes — structural inequities are real and deep.

But while we push for better policy, we can’t ignore the power we already have to build wealth infrastructure from the ground up.

Infrastructure isn’t just bridges and roads.

It’s the networks of ownership, finance, and support that allow people and communities to accumulate assets.

And the truth is, we don’t need to wait for Congress to get started.

The New Wealth Infrastructure

Across the country, new models are expanding asset ownership and democratizing access to capital.

The Urban Institute notes that while inequities in access to finance still block progress — especially for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities — there’s also a growing wave of community-led mechanisms that enable people to invest in and benefit from the places they live.

Here are four powerful examples:

• Neighborhood Crowdfunding: Community members buy small ownership stakes in local businesses or real estate — turning neighbors into investors.

• Occupant Equity: Residents pool resources or combine philanthropic and public funds to purchase properties, taking them off speculative markets and securing long-term affordability.

• Local Institutional Equity: Nonprofits and local institutions acquire partial ownership in community real estate, creating new revenue streams to support their missions.

• Pooled Investment Vehicles: Professionally managed local funds that allow smaller investors to collectively participate in larger-scale projects.

These models share one defining trait: they don’t wait for permission.

They leverage existing capital, local trust, and collective will to build ownership structures that anchor wealth where it belongs — in communities.

From Individuals to Institutions

Wealth infrastructure is about more than personal savings or retirement accounts.

It’s about institutional capacity — from community development credit unions to cooperative land trusts — that can sustain prosperity for generations.

The barriers are real: regulatory hurdles, limited awareness, institutional inertia.

But they’re not insurmountable.

Communities are already proving what’s possible:

• In East Portland, a Community Investment Trust allows residents to buy shares in a local shopping center for as little as $10 a month.

• Cooperative housing developments in Minneapolis and Miami are securing permanent affordability for residents.

The point isn’t to reinvent the wheel — it’s to replicate and scale what already works.

Call to Action

You don’t have to wait for policy to change.

Start where you are.

• Invest in community trusts or local crowdfunding projects.

• Support nonprofits experimenting with occupant equity.

• Join The Wealth Salons to connect with others building the wealth infrastructure our communities need — now, not later.

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

Ready to build with us?

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

👉 Apply Now

Stay Connected

Follow us for more insights, founder stories, and new opportunities:
🔗 LinkedIn | 𝕏 X | 📸 Instagram | 📬 Newsletter

“Post-national wealth building” shifts our focus from macro cycles to micro ecosystems — empowering communities to control their own economic destinies.

The Blueprint for Local Prosperity

Community wealth-building offers a simple yet transformative goal:
to expand local ownership, anchor jobs, retain capital, and ensure that economic returns stay within the community.

It’s not about waiting for national policy or global investors — it’s about harnessing what’s already here and reinvesting it locally.

Examples in Action

• In Cleveland and Preston (UK), universities and hospitals have shifted procurement dollars to local suppliers and worker-owned cooperatives — transforming how anchor institutions participate in their economies.

• Across the U.S., community investment trusts are allowing residents to buy shares in commercial real estate, giving them direct ownership in the developments that shape their neighborhoods.

• Pooled investment vehicles and community infrastructure projects — from broadband networks to solar microgrids — are redefining who gets to benefit from growth.

Each of these models gives people a real stake in the businesses and assets that shape their futures.

Why Local Power Matters

“Post-national” doesn’t mean anti-national. It means recognizing that the most resilient wealth grows from the ground up.

National policy can set the conditions, but it’s local actors who know what their communities need most.

By investing in place-based systems, we can build economic ecosystems that are:

• More equitable,

• More sustainable, and

• Less vulnerable to national booms and busts.

The future of wealth isn’t centralized — it’s rooted in place.

Call to Action

Look around your neighborhood.

What assets could be owned and managed locally?

Support cooperatives, credit unions, and community investment trusts — and join The Wealth Salons to connect with others building post-national wealth in the Great 38™ and beyond.

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

Ready to build with us?

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

👉 Apply Now

Stay Connected

Follow us for more insights, founder stories, and new opportunities:
🔗 LinkedIn | 𝕏 X | 📸 Instagram | 📬 Newsletter

But behind every statistic is a human story — one of hope, trauma, resilience, and often, deep financial fear.

Wealth building isn’t just about math. It’s about healing.

Healing the psychological wounds that shape our relationship with money, often passed down through generations.

The Weight of Inherited Trauma

Ancestral trauma can show up as fear of financial ruin, self-sabotaging behaviors, scarcity mindsets, or feelings of unworthiness around wealth.

Research in epigenetics suggests that trauma can even be inherited biologically — children of Holocaust survivors, for example, display different stress hormone patterns than those whose parents did not experience extreme trauma.

Financial trauma is no less real. It can stem from bankruptcy, addiction, job loss, or systemic discrimination. These emotional scars are passed down through family stories, cultural beliefs, and sometimes, even our DNA.

Why Capital Alone Isn’t Enough

When we talk about closing the racial wealth gap, we often focus on capital — and yes, capital matters.
But it’s not sufficient.

People who have internalized scarcity may:

• Avoid investing, fearing loss.

• Undercharge for their skills.

• Distrust financial institutions entirely.

Communities that have endured centuries of extraction often carry collective memories of betrayal and loss.

A loan or a grant cannot fix that kind of wound.

Healing as a Financial Strategy

That’s where trauma-informed financial coaching comes in.

It recognizes that money is emotional — tied to our histories, our families, and our identities.

Healing financial trauma means:

• Acknowledging inherited beliefs about money.

• Understanding personal “money scripts.”

• Creating safe spaces to talk about financial pain and possibility.

But personal work isn’t enough — we also need systemic healing: ending predatory lending, ensuring healthcare access, and making education truly equitable.

Building wealth requires both external resources and internal transformation.
We need capital — and we need healing.

Data can show us where the gaps are.

But it can’t tell us how to mend the wounds.

That work happens in our families, our communities, and ourselves.

Call to Action

Reflect on your own money story.

What beliefs about wealth did you inherit?

Have conversations about financial trauma with loved ones, and explore trauma-informed financial coaching or therapy as part of your journey.

At The Wealth Salons, we create spaces to heal, to learn, and to build together.

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

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It’s the process where interest builds not only on your principal but also on the interest that’s already been earned. Because each round of gains gets reinvested, growth accelerates over time — the longer the time horizon, the greater the momentum.

The rule of thumb is simple: the earlier you start, the bigger the payoff.

Imagine two friends who each invest $5,000 per year at a 7% return. One begins at 25 and stops at 35; the other waits until 35 and invests until 65. Even though the second friend invests three times as much, the first ends up with more money at retirement — because her contributions had decades to compound.
That’s the quiet power of time and consistency.

But Compounding Cuts Both Ways

What if you never get the chance to start?

When communities are systematically excluded from investment — through redlining, predatory lending, or lack of access to capital — disinvestment compounds too.

Without early access to homeownership, retirement plans, or business loans, there’s nothing to reinvest. The wealth gap widens not because people are “bad with money,” but because the starting capital and compounding opportunity were never there.

As of 2022, the average White family held six times the wealth of the average Black family.

The St. Louis Fed traces much of that gap to policies that stripped wealth from Black households while enabling White wealth to grow. Those lost decades of compounding represent trillions of dollars in forgone opportunity.

Flipping the Script

Compounding is neutral — it amplifies whatever it’s applied to.
If we direct capital toward historically underinvested communities, we can make compounding work for equity, not exclusion.

Here’s how:

• Invest early and locally. Community investment trusts, cooperative businesses, and baby bonds build shared ownership and collective returns.

• Stop extractive cycles. Reform undervaluation, predatory lending, and exploitative financial structures that drain wealth.

• Educate for agency. Equip individuals with financial literacy so they can use compounding to build — not just survive.

The story of compounding isn’t just about dollars. It’s about time, access, and the opportunity to grow.

Let’s make sure that the powerful force of compounding works for everyone — not just a lucky few.

Call to Action

Start your compounding journey today.

Open a high-yield savings account, contribute to a retirement plan, or join a community investment trust.

Then share this post to help others harness the power of compounding — for good.

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

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Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

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Detailed studies show that middle-income couples in the United States continue to build wealth well into their 80s, while high-income singles keep saving long after retiring. Why? Because of uncertainty—about health costs, about the future—and the desire to leave something behind.

The Power of Bequests

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis reveals that many households build “precautionary buffers” to cover late-life medical expenses and leave bequests to children or grandchildren. For some high-income couples, this motivation leads them to accumulate over 30% more wealth than they otherwise would.
Intergenerational transfers—inheritances and major gifts—are among the most powerful forces in our economy.
But they’re also among the most unevenly distributed.

The Uneven Flow of Wealth

According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the top 10% of households receive the vast majority of inheritances and gifts. That means the very mechanism meant to sustain families—saving and passing down wealth—often reinforces existing disparities.

As of 2022, the average White family held six times the wealth of the average Black family, and five times that of the average Hispanic family. The St. Louis Fed attributes much of this divide to policies that historically stripped wealth from Black households while facilitating accumulation among White families.

The Generational Divide

Generational macroeconomics teaches us that economic fate is shaped by three forces:

1. The era you’re born into

2. The shocks your generation experiences—recessions, pandemics, or inflationary cycles

3. The wealth (or debt) you inherit

Younger generations today face record student debt, housing shortages, and stagnant wages—barriers their parents rarely encountered at this scale. Meanwhile, those at the top continue to multiply wealth through capital markets and inheritance, widening the gap with each passing decade.

Where We Go From Here

Wealth building isn’t just a matter of personal discipline—it’s deeply embedded in the macroeconomic structures we live within.

Here’s what can help:

• Expand access to education, affordable housing, and healthcare. This reduces the need for excessive precautionary savings.

• Democratize intergenerational wealth, through tools like baby bonds, community investment trusts, and employee ownership programs.

• Redefine legacy. Leave a bequest that promotes equity—not just inheritance.

Call to Action

Reflect on your own generational context.

What advantages—or disadvantages—have shaped your financial journey?

Share your story with us at The Wealth Salons. Together, we can design tools and policies that make the macroeconomy work for every generation.

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

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Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

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What Applied Optimism Really Means

Applied optimism isn’t naive hope. It’s strategy grounded in conviction—the discipline of converting collective belief into systems of action. It’s the refusal to see barriers as permanent or progress as zero-sum. Every founder, investor, and guest at The Wealth Salons Los Angeles event represented that ethos. We didn’t gather to dream—we gathered to do. In that doing, optimism became a shared economic instrument.

But belief, no matter how principled, needs structure. And as The Wealth Salons has grown—from city to city, from salon to salon—we’ve learned something fundamental: optimism can spark transformation, but collective intelligence sustains it. That realization became the foundation of one of our most meaningful evolutions.

From Founders to Collectives: The Power of Multipliers

The Founders Wealth Salons emerged organically, not as a top-down program but as an evolution born from what we observed. Across verticals—Black Wealth Salons, Women’s Wealth Salons, Queer Wealth Salons, and others—a consistent pattern emerged: a remarkable number of participants were founders and entrepreneurs.

They had vision, traction, and potential—but were still missing systemic forms of support. They needed not only targeted resources, mentorship, and business acumen, but also capital access, legal and tax literacy, operational infrastructure, scalable go-to-market strategies, technology enablement, and investor readiness. In short, they didn’t need inspiration—they needed infrastructure.

The Founders Wealth Salons were created to address that gap: a dedicated vertical designed to identify shared needs, crowdsource expertise, and co develop solutions that lift everyone simultaneously.

What we’ve witnessed since is nothing short of transformative. When founders collaborate and exchange insights, they don’t just strengthen their own venture —they unlock opportunities to combine resources, products, and strategies, creating more resilient companies and, in turn, more resilient communities.

This is the essence of virtuous capitalism: prosperity achieved through cooperation, not competition. It’s a model that rewards transparency, long-term thinking, and shared growth—proof that capitalism, when practiced ethically and collectively, can evolve into a system that empowers rather than extracts.

As outlined in the Post-Nationalism essays on the B. PM Blog, the continued reliance on a capricious federal system is a fallacy of outdated federalism. The real future of resilience lies in community-based economies—networks that build their own infrastructure of trust, capital, and capability.

When founders organize locally and collaborate across regions, they become post-federalist economies of trust: agile, interdependent, and self-sustaining. The Founders Wealth Salons embody that shift—from dependency to autonomy, from waiting for support to building systems that make support unnecessary.

Rooted in Community, Scaling with Intention

Every Wealth Salon begins with conversation and ends with continuity. What differentiates The Wealth Salons from typical gatherings isn’t the guest list—it’s the ecosystem that remains after.

The crowd outside our Los Angeles event wasn’t waiting for access; they were waiting to contribute. They came because The Wealth Salons represent a rare alignment: ambition balanced by belonging, innovation anchored in integrity. That’s what makes the line symbolic—people aren’t just attending an event; they’re entering an economy of shared purpose.

Community is not our backdrop; it’s our business model. Within virtuous capitalism, community functions as the core operating system—a continuous feedback loop of trust, access, and reciprocity that compounds over time. It’s what transforms education into empowerment and networking into infrastructure.

We measure our impact not by short-term engagement but by long-term collaboration: founders joining forces across sectors, creatives co-developing with technologists, and investors reinvesting in the communities that built them. These are the living systems that turn a salon into a sustainable economic engine.

While the Post-Nationalism framework, explored on the B. PM Blog, critiques federal dependency at a macro level, The Wealth Salons embody that theory in practice. We’re proving that meaningful economic resilience begins locally—with communities capable of designing, funding, and governing their own growth.

So when we talk about scale, we mean something different. We’re not chasing headlines or headcount. We’re scaling intelligence, ownership, and durability. Because when community becomes the core economic engine, scale is no longer fragile—it’s inevitable.

From Movement to Model

What began as an experiment—could financial education feel human, actionable, and aspirational at once?—has become a replicable framework for the next economy.

Virtuous capitalism and applied optimism, working in tandem, prove that hope is a strategic advantage when paired with execution. The Wealth Salons are no longer just gatherings—they are infrastructure for economic autonomy.

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

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Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

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A Note from B: The Blueprint Was Never Meant for Us

My mother never made more than $24,000 a year in her entire life. We came from the red dirt roads of Mississippi, a place where the systems of wealth were not just out of reach—they felt like they were in another universe. Yet, my mom gave me one of the most powerful tools I’ve ever received: she taught me about taxes. She explained how biased systems work and how to navigate them with confidence. That knowledge was my first taste of liberation.

This is why I say financial literacy is a form of liberation. It’s not about becoming a millionaire overnight. It’s about understanding that the blueprint for success we’ve been shown was never meant for many of us, so we have to write our own. It’s knowing how to get a gas bill in a new city or how to open a savings account so you have options when life gets hard. It’s the freedom that comes from knowing you can take care of yourself, your family, and your community on your own terms.

The Wealth Salons exists to give you the tools to write that new blueprint. We are here to demystify the language of money and break down the barriers that have kept so many of us out of the conversation. We’re building a community where ownership isn’t just an option—it’s survival. This month, we’re starting with the basics, because every journey, including the one from food stamps to fund manager, begins with a single, informed step.

Let’s build.

What is “The Wealth Salons”?

The Wealth Salons is a nonprofit, a gift to people to help them achieve their wealth goals. I launched it because I realized the difference between success and failure is simply resources. For too long, the tools and networks for building financial power have been gatekept, costing thousands of dollars and excluding the very people who need them most. The Wealth Salons is my answer to that.

Our mission is to reshape capitalism into a model that centers on people, not profits. We are a wealth learning community for people from historically underinvested communities to get support and build foundational knowledge in business and finance. This is a space for young adults, leaders, and tastemakers from all minority communities, but it’s equitable to all ages. When we say “historically underinvested,” we mean anyone who has been systematically excluded—whether it’s because of where you were born, your race, gender, sexuality, or disability.

Here, we provide the tools, language, and networks to build lasting financial power, because we believe wealth shouldn’t be a privilege—it should be part of our shared infrastructure.

Wealth 101: Financial Literacy is Liberation

Financial literacy isn’t just about spreadsheets and stock tickers; it’s a form of liberation. Understanding how money works—how economic systems are often set up to make you feel inadequate—gives you options, control, and the freedom to build a life on your own terms. For too long, the systems of wealth have excluded many of us. The Wealth Salons exists to change that by providing the tools, language, and networks needed for everyone to participate in capitalism and build financial power.

Our mission is to break down complex financial topics into simple, accessible concepts. Financial wellness isn’t only about big goals like buying a house; it’s about understanding everything from how to get a gas bill in a new city to setting up a Roth IRA. This knowledge builds confidence. My mother, who never made more than $24,000 a year, taught me about taxes and how to navigate biased systems, giving me the confidence to take control of my own wealth.

Feeling overwhelmed? That’s normal. The key is to start with baby steps. Here are two you can take today:

• Reframe Your Budget: Budgeting isn’t about restriction; it’s about paying yourself and scheduling in joy. Prioritize your absolute necessities first, then long-term goals, and finally, make room for things that bring you happiness—even if it’s a small treat. Using budgeting software can make getting started much easier.

• Start a Savings Habit (Even with $5): The amount you save matters less than the habit itself. Begin by saving what you can afford, even if it’s just $5 or $25 per paycheck, and put it into a dedicated savings account. Building that muscle memory creates a financial cushion that brings peace of mind. As you see it grow, that feeling of security becomes addictive.

This is the foundation of “virtuous capitalism”—a system that centers people, not just profits. By empowering ourselves with financial knowledge, we build stronger communities and lay the groundwork for generational success.

Member Spotlight: Anna Cobb, Founder of Rejuvenation

Meet Anna Cobb, founder of Rejuvenation. We’re excited to be investing in her new venture, a wellness brand built around the health benefits of okra water. Anna’s journey is a powerful example of what happens when you combine deep personal expertise with relentless drive. Her proprietary method for creating her products is a game-changer, and we’re working with her to build a new corporate entity, defend her IP, and position her for acquisition by a major player like Sephora. Be sure to connect with her on LinkedIn by clicking here.

Learn more about the plant-based beverage company and shop their energy drinks by clicking here.

Community Corner: Events & Opportunities

That’s a Wrap on LA Tech Week!!!

If you weren’t there, let’s just say you missed out and you might want to be there next time (Hint Hint: Art Basel in Miami Beach - See upcoming events below  😉)! TWS partnered with the Canadian Consulate on October 13th to hold our marquee event focused on rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation for founders and investors. Rest assured, this is just the beginning of seeing TWS put on events like these for the community filled with networking, opportunity, and overall and amazing time!

Check out the recap below:

Don’t forget to #LikeSubscribeShare to our YouTube channel by clicking here!

Upcoming Events:

• Pathway to Building Wealth Through Financial Literacy Workshop: Nov 8, 2025, Pathway Christian Church, Atlanta, GA - Free. Beginner-friendly workshop on financial literacy and wealth-building for the general public. Reserve your spot here.

• The More You Know, The Less You Owe: Foundations of Money: Nov 12 & Nov 26, 2025, Dallas College (Virtual) - Free (online). Focused on building a strong financial base: budgeting, saving, managing money for everyday folks. Learn more here.

• Art Basel: Dec 5-7, 2025, Miami Beach, FL - We are exploring another collaboration for Art Basel, potentially featuring a hackathon, to connect art, tech, and business. Grab tickets here.

• WealthBuilders Conference 2026: Feb 20-22, 2026 — Lone Tree (Denver metro), CO - Built for individuals wanting to build generational wealth, investing, etc. Open to the public. Find more info here.

• Personal Financial Planning In‑Person Seminar: May 29-30, 2026 — CWA Frisco Conference Center, Frisco/DFW, TX - Cost: $100. Two-day seminar covering basics of investing, debt management, goal setting, estate planning — appropriate for non-professionals. Register now right here.

• Financial Literacy Program – My Money My Future: Ongoing, Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, Atlanta, GA - Free program. While not a one-day event, it offers multiple classes + coaching for everyday people to improve financial readiness (especially homeowners). Learn more and register for the next workshop here.

Member-Hosted Events:

Here, we like to amplify what’s happening within our community from members. Be on the lookout for a form coming soon to submit your events.

Ask B: Your Questions Answered

Question: I’m a founder, and I’m struggling with confidence. I feel like I’m not as smart as the people I see in New York or Silicon Valley. How do I overcome this?

Answer: This is something I see all the time, especially with founders from the Great 38™️. It’s middle school confidence stuff. First, understand that your journey is your strength. You know how to build with fewer resources, which makes you capital-efficient. Second, you have to run yourself like a corporation: do a deep analysis of your pros and cons, figure out what makes you uniquely powerful, and then double down on it. Your authenticity is your superpower. Most founders, even Elon Musk, look like goobers. It’s not about looking the part; it’s about executing.

Call to Action: Build With Us

“The Wealth Salons is a gift to help you achieve your wealth goals. This work is powered by our community and our allies. If you believe in this mission, here’s how you can get involved:

• Sponsor an Event: Our partners, like the Canadian Consulate of Los Angeles and Cooley LLP, are critical to our success. Contact us to learn about sponsorship opportunities. Click here to become a sponsor.

• Donate: Your contribution helps us provide free resources and programming to our communities. Click here to donate.

• Join the Community: Sign up to become a member and connect with a network of changemakers.” Click here to become a member.

B. Pagels-Minor (they/them) is a founder, investor, strategist, and coach building the future of capital, equity, and leadership through DVRGNT Ventures, The Wealth Salons, and beyond.

In the U.S., the top 10% of households hold roughly 74% of total wealth, while the bottom half holds just 2%. Nearly 40% of intergenerational transfers — inheritances and major gifts — go to the top decile. Trillions of dollars remain in the same hands, compounding year after year, while the communities that could most benefit from investment continue to see little to none.

The consequences are structural. Homeownership, long the cornerstone of middle-class wealth, remains out of reach for more than half of Black and Latinx families. Access to retirement plans and business ownership also lags significantly for communities of color. These disparities are more than inequitable — they represent massive lost economic output. If more families had access to home equity, retirement savings, and entrepreneurial capital, we would see measurable increases in consumer spending, small business expansion, and local tax revenue.

Fortunately, new models are emerging to bridge this gap. Community wealth-building initiatives — including neighborhood crowdfunding, occupant equity, and local institutional investment — are enabling residents to own stakes in income-producing real estate and local enterprises. Pooled investment vehicles are lowering barriers to entry for investors who’ve historically been locked out of traditional markets. These approaches demonstrate that investing in undercapitalized communities can yield meaningful social and financial returns, without waiting for policy to catch up.

The true cost of underinvestment isn’t just the money that never flowed — it’s the innovation that never emerged, the businesses that were never started, and the wealth that was never created. When we fail to invest in people and places, we forfeit trillions in potential GDP, tax revenue, and shared prosperity.

The Great 38™ is our invitation to do better.

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

Ready to build with us?

Whether you’re a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

👉 Apply Now

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Why does it matter? Because the numbers tell a sobering story. In the United States, the wealthiest 10 percent of households hold more than three-quarters of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom half holds just 2 percent. Nearly 40 percent of inheritances and gifts go to families that are already in the top decile. Meanwhile, Black and Hispanic families have a fraction of the wealth held by White families. These gaps didn’t occur by accident – they are the result of policies and practices that systemically stripped wealth from marginalized communities while facilitating wealth building among others.

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative puts it plainly: to accelerate wealth accumulation for Black individuals and families, we must address systemic underinvestment in Black communities. The Great 38 is where that underinvestment has been most acute. It encompasses rural areas bypassed by venture capital, inner-city neighborhoods gutted by redlining, and small towns where economic opportunities were outsourced decades ago.

But The Great 38 isn’t a story of despair; it’s a roadmap for transformation. By focusing our attention and resources on these communities, we can build new local economies that decouple from national boom-and-bust cycles. Community wealth-building models show that when residents have a stake in local assets, they anchor jobs, expand public services and achieve stability.

Imagine a network of community investment trusts, cooperative businesses and neighborhood crowdfunding initiatives: capital circulates locally, entrepreneurs thrive and families build generational wealth.

The Great 38 matters because it represents untapped potential. Investing here isn’t charity – it’s smart economics. When people have access to capital, education and opportunity, they create businesses, jobs and innovations that benefit everyone. The trillions of dollars in lost opportunity can become trillions in new prosperity if we commit to reversing the compounding effects of disinvestment. That’s why The Wealth Salons are championing The Great 38: to rewrite the narrative and demonstrate what’s possible when we invest in ourselves.

Join the conversation. Share this post with someone who needs to hear it, and connect with The Wealth Salons to learn how you can help build wealth in The Great 38. Let’s co-create a future where every community has the tools to thrive.

Ready to build with us?

Whether you're a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

👉 Apply Now

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This is the real macroeconomic crisis no one’s naming directly: an economic black hole formed not by market failure, but by intentional neglect.

The Cost of Being Left Behind (Repeatedly)

In the U.S., entire regions — particularly across the Midwest, the South, and parts of the Mountain West — have been treated as flyover territory when it comes to capital access, innovation infrastructure, and institutional investment. Pair this with communities historically locked out of wealth-building — Indigenous, Black, Latiné, Appalachian, and rural white populations disproportionately affected by industry collapse and public disinvestment — and you’ve got a double helix of exclusion.

We’re not just talking about individual missed chances. We’re talking about:

• Startups that never got funded.

• Talent that moved away or was never trained.

• Neighborhoods that saw capital extracted but never reinvested.

• Entire generations whose financial literacy was stunted by design.

The numbers get staggering when we extrapolate. For example, if even a fraction of the underinvested individuals across these regions had been supported with the same capital, education, and opportunity density seen in high-investment coastal markets, the national economy could be hundreds of trillions of dollars larger across cumulative generations.

This isn’t theoretical. This is the debt we owe the future.

The Wealth Salons: Financial Literacy as an Intervention Engine

The Wealth Salons were created to serve as both mirror and remedy. We don’t just teach people how to manage money — we reveal the systems that have been managing them.

Every event, every video, every coaching moment is part of a larger campaign: to interrupt financial exclusion with culturally resonant, community-based, high-impact education and resource-sharing.

Our salons work because they are:

• Relational, not extractive — We center community and trust, not performance metrics.

• Hyper-local and globally aware — We understand the unique economic context of Detroit and Dakar.

• Designed for people who’ve been left out of traditional financial ecosystems — Not just teaching budgeting, but breaking down cap tables, business structuring, and legacy building.

What We’re Building Is Bigger Than Personal Finance

The salons are infrastructure.

• We’re planting seeds for founder capital that doesn’t rely on predatory terms.

• We’re educating future family office architects who can control intergenerational wealth transfer.

• We’re activating talent pipelines for industries ignored by traditional VC but critical to regional economies (logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, local media, energy transition).

We’re not just teaching you how to manage your money — we’re preparing you to reshape your local economy.

Because This Isn't Just About You — It's About All of Us

There’s a popular phrase in economics: “Cumulative advantage.” It means if you start ahead, you tend to stay ahead. But there’s a shadow concept too: cumulative neglect.

That’s what The Wealth Salons are fighting. That’s what we’re undoing — one community, one conversation, one well-placed dollar at a time.

Ready to build with us?

Whether you're a founder, operator, or advisor—if you’re brilliant and ready to execute, we want to hear from you.

👉 Apply Now

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Too often, founders—the people at the core of economic movement—are absent from the room. Not because they don’t care. Because they’re exhausted. Building a business from scratch doesn’t leave much time for joy, let alone for meaningful support.

That changes now.

We’re proud to announce the launch of a new vertical: The Founders Wealth Salons—a virtual-first community built specifically for founders, by people who understand the weight they carry.

Why Founders?

Because they are the ones risking everything to build something better. Whether it’s a unicorn startup or a local bakery, founders take on the responsibility of creating jobs, sustaining families, and fueling their cities.

But here’s the problem: there's no real place for them to ask the basic questions.

• “How do I finance purchase orders without draining my savings?”

• “What kind of key person insurance makes sense for my stage?”

• “Is there a low-cost therapist in my city who gets startup stress?”

These are not Google questions. They’re real-world needs that require trusted insight—and fast.

A Knowledge Network, Not Just Another Chatroom

Founders Wealth Salons will be more than just a support group. We’ll be curating a living library of answers, insights, and shared experience. We’ll seed in experts from across industries and geographies. We’ll make knowledge accessible, searchable, and useful—from city to city, country to country.

Because founders need each other, and the world needs founders.

No Borders. No Delays. No Excuses.

This isn’t limited to any one country or sector. Economies are global now. If we’re serious about building resilient systems—economically, socially, politically—we have to learn from one another in real time, not in case studies or post-mortems.

The Founders Wealth Salons are for those building now, leading now, pushing forward despite everything. We don’t have time to wait for perfect conditions. We’ll figure it out together.

Because business doesn’t wait. Community shouldn’t either.

We’re live. And we’re just getting started.

It’s liquidity.

Imagine landing your biggest order to date which is validation from the market that your product is ready to scale. But then, a familiar paradox hits: you don’t yet have the capital to produce and deliver on that order. The opportunity is within reach, yet cash flow limitations threaten to stall your momentum.

At DVRGNT Ventures, we call this the growth paradox, and we’ve seen it time and again in the Great 38™. Our mission is to break this cycle by equipping founders with not only funding, but the financial literacy and network capital to scale confidently and ethically.

The Growth Paradox in Action

Take a founder we recently worked with and are planning on investing in- Rejuvenation -creator of a wellness beverage made with okra and inspired by cultural tradition. Buyers were interested. Retailers like Whole Foods were listening. Orders were growing. But like many founders, she faced a cash gap between today’s resources and tomorrow’s opportunity.

Traditional bank loans weren’t viable. And venture capital wasn’t the answer—nor should it always be.

She didn’t need dilution. She needed strategic liquidity.

Enter: Purchase Order (PO) Financing

PO Financing is a non-dilutive solution that allows founders to finance the cost of fulfilling a customer order without having to raise equity or rely on personal savings.

Here’s how it works:

• You receive a confirmed purchase order from a retailer or business buyer.

• A lender fronts the capital needed to produce, package, and deliver the product.

• Once the order is fulfilled and your customer pays, the lender takes their cut—and you keep the rest.

It’s not about “taking on debt.” It’s about converting demand into revenue—without giving away ownership or missing out on your moment.

Building More Than Capital Access

At DVRGNT, we go deeper than just dollars. Our approach to supporting founders is holistic, relational, and rooted in trust:

🔎 Financial Education

From barbers with brilliant business plans to product innovators building new markets, many founders don’t know PO financing, SBA loans, or CDFIs exist. We’re here to demystify capital and rewrite what financial literacy looks like in underserved communities.

🧱 Structural Guidance

When we worked with a startup founder paying off high-interest personal loans, we restructured the business entirely—setting up a clean corporate entity, consolidating liabilities, and creating an investment-worthy foundation. It's scaffolding, not just a check.

🌐 Network Capital

We plug founders into a network of operators, investors, and advisors—what we call “deep connective tissue.” This ensures that founders don’t just grow faster—they grow smarter.

Why This Matters

We invest in people with ideas that make us sit up and pay attention. Our belief is simple: when you unlock potential, you unlock prosperity.

PO financing is just one lever in a broader toolkit. But for the right founder, at the right moment, it can be the bridge between now and next. And it’s exactly the kind of solution that too many brilliant entrepreneurs don’t know is available to them.

Next Steps

If you're a founder facing the growth paradox, here’s what we recommend:

• Download our PO Financing + Invoice Factoring Quick Guide

• Explore lenders who specialize in startup-friendly terms

• Understand your profit margins and prepare your documents

• Talk to us—we’re here to help you build the muscle and mindset of strategic financing

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The B. Pagels-Minor Approach: Having served on multiple nonprofit boards and scaled tech companies, B. has seen firsthand that sustainable impact requires both mission focus AND financial savvy. These strategies reflect what actually works.

Hey changemakers,

When B. Pagels-Minor joined the boards of Howard Brown Health and YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, they quickly observed that nonprofits face the same strategic challenges as the tech companies they've helped scale—with even tighter resources. In a sector employing 12.5 million people and growing at 4.1% annually, these seven evidence-based strategies can transform your nonprofit from struggling to sustainable.

1. Kill the "Poor Nonprofit" Mindset

Let's be blunt: your mission won't survive on passion alone. Despite the misconception that nonprofits shouldn't generate revenue, sustainable finances are essential for creating lasting impact. B. grew up watching their mother make ends meet on $24K a year, so they understand resource constraints. The data is clear: approximately 30% of large nonprofits now maintain diverse revenue streams to ensure sustainability.

2. What Gets Measured Gets Done

In their product strategy work with 30+ high-growth companies, B. has seen this truth repeatedly: you can't improve what you don't measure. Every nonprofit needs clear KPIs that track both mission impact AND operational efficiency—particularly as charitable giving reached $557.16 billion in 2023. Without measurable outcomes, you're flying blind in a complex funding landscape.

3. Focus Your Metrics Where They Matter

Let's cut to the chase: too many nonprofits are wasting time tracking a bunch of meaningless metrics. If you really want to know if you're making a difference zero in on what truly counts. That means focusing on your actual impact—the real change you're creating and how that's growing. Plus, keep a sharp eye on your financial health to ensure you're sustainable and improving year-over-year. Don't forget about keeping your donors happy and engaged, seeing that support expand over time, and making sure your operations run like a well-oiled machine that's always getting better. Align your KPIs with these core areas, and you'll have a strategy that actually shows what you're achieving, how you're growing, and where you're improving, not just how busy you are.

4. Build Real Accountability Systems

Having led multiple tech teams and served on several nonprofit boards, B. can tell you—accountability isn't about blame, it's about clarity . With the nonprofit sector experiencing a 23% decline in formal volunteering in just two years, implementing regular reviews and clear ownership structures is more crucial than ever. When everyone knows exactly what they're responsible for, magic happens.

5. Partner Strategically, Measure Rigorously

In the Great 38™ where B. is from—a region generating 60% of the GDP but receiving only 20% of VC investments —people learned to multiply impact through smart partnerships. With online giving growing by 15-37% across sectors, tracking those relationships with metrics like collaborator performance and partnership ROI creates exponential impact.

6. Diversify Your Board Strategically

Your board isn't a group of friends—it's your strategic backbone. You need specific expertise: fundraising prowess, compliance knowledge, financial acumen, and strategic business mindsets. B.'s leadership on multiple boards has demonstrated that diverse perspectives—reflecting your community and challenging groupthink—drive stronger governance.

7. Invest in Development Expertise

A skilled development director isn't an expense—they're a revenue generator. With 38% of nonprofit revenue now coming from online sources, having someone who understands both institutional relationships and grassroots fundraising can transform your financial trajectory. This investment pays dividends far beyond its cost.

Moving From Insight to Action

What excites B. most is seeing these principles transform organizations in real time. As one client told them after implementing these strategies:

Ready to apply these frameworks to your specific context? Connect for a focused coaching session. With B.’s background scaling organizations and driving sustainable growth, B. can help you develop strategies tailored to your unique mission and challenges.

Building something that lasts,

The B.PM Consulting Team