COMMUNITY IMPACT

What happens when you combine two fun, hard-working wine lovers? In the case of Kristen Gardner Beal and Lance Lemon, you get a boutique wine retailer with big taste and a lot of heart. Virginia natives and longtime friends, Kristen and Lance started RichWine to bring quality, clean-farmed, organic, biodynamic wine at an affordable price to the community in Richmond, VA. 

After finding success as an online retailer in 2020, Kristen and Lance began exploring options for a brick-and-mortar location. Through their connection to the Jackson Ward Collective, the Capital Region Small Business Development Center, Bridging Virginia, and the Community Investment Collaborative, Kristen and Lance’s drive to succeed was supported by community partners invested in their success. 

“It's kind of like it's a relationship. It's like it doesn't have to start with paperwork and end with paperwork.” 

In 2023 Kristen and Lance opened their shop, Penny’s, with a special ribbon cutting hosted by JWC. With their doors open and online business booming, Kristen and Lance are now looking forward to future expansion and a long life in the Richmond community.  

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LillyBean by PastryBase Baking Mixes and Kits are made locally in Virginia in a completely allergen-free space, ensuring that dietary limitations don’t have to mean a limitation on flavor. Following a long career as a pastry chef, Lebanese founder Jill Donaldson built PastryBase in 2017 after developing her own food intolerances. Named after the maternal grandmother who instilled her love of baking, LillyBean by PastryBase was born.

After several successful years meant Jill had outgrown her home kitchen, it was time to find a new home for manufacturing. Jill soon realized finding an affordable, local space at the right size proved almost impossible, but she had an opportunity to do it if she could secure the capital.

“It's been a great experience and it's been...all about relationship building…It feels like we're sort of in this together now. And we're trying to figure out, how can we do other things together in the community?”

After partnering with Bridging Virginia, Jill was able to secure a facility in Richmond and bring production back in-house. PastryBase’s new allergen-free space allows them to produce, hire, and purchase locally, plus room to expand. Now the only limits to PastryBase’s growth are Jill’s imagination as she brings jobs, and cake, to the Richmond area.  

While Devon Chester was familiar with “wash and fold” services in major cities across the US, his own background was initially in construction management. However, when he saw a small laundromat in the Richmond, VA area up for sale, he quickly identified a gap in the local market. Devon seized the chance to build a small business which would provide an essential service to the neighborhood and offer an opportunity for growth. 

In 2020, the sudden transition to virtual work meant a sharp decline in demand for dry cleaning services. Devon knew workers would return to offices at some point, but found himself in need of capital to sustain him in the interim.  

“From the beginning it was more than just lip service, they came through…[The funding] came right on time.”

Bridging Virginia partnered with Devon to find the right capital solution and provide technical assistance to prepare for long-term stability and growth. Now, as offices have begun to reopen, Brooks Stitch and Fold is again serving local workers and even looking to expand into the Greater Richmond area.

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100% woman-owned, Creative NxGen Petroleum stands alone as the only woman-owned fuel supplier in Virginia. Charlene Reynolds, the organization’s founder, remains at the helm of this Richmond-based small business. A sharp business woman, Charlene saw an opportunity in 2017 to provide local, flexible fuel services with quick delivery in an otherwise corporate market. In 2018 Creative NxGen had already secured their first contract and was beginning to expand.

However, in 2020, Creative NxGen needed additional cash flow to continue growing amidst a fluctuating market. Bridging Virginia was able to provide Charlene $30,000 of working capital to sustain and expand her business. Our team also partnered with Charlene to plan for sustainable financial success, offering one-on-one business counseling and connecting her to other resources.

“It has been more than just a financial resource…it’s a connection”

With this capital flow secured, Creative NxGen can continue confidently serving Virginia communities with fuel, products, and superior service.

Joye Moore has been impressing friends with her sweet potato pies for more than 30 years. The secret to these delicious pies is in a family recipe passed down over 6 generations. So in 2019, when unexpected budget cuts put Joye out of work, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to capitalize on the popularity of these sweet treats. With years of experience in administration and marketing from an independent music career, Joye knew she had the skills and products to turn her pies into a profitable business: JOYEBELLS. 

When COVID-19 hit in early 2020, Joye found creative ways to get her products sold in grocery stores. Still, like many other small businesses, JOYEBELLS faced a cash flow problem as the pandemic persisted.  

Joye connected with Bridging Virginia through a referral from the Metropolitan Business League, a local partner of BVa. After learning about Joye's needs, BVa provided a mixture of low-interest capital and technical assistance to facilitate more than $100,000 in credit.   

"It was the sustaining lifeline that we needed to be able to bridge inventory, supply, and demand and be able to stay afloat to make it to the next quarter.”

Since then, JOYEBELLS has grown from retailing in 46 stores to over 640 stores, and Joye has been named one of Inc. Magazine's 100 Female Founders, 2022 Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year by the Metropolitan Business League, and 2022 Rising Star of the Year by the National Association of Women-Owned Businesses.

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The success of Shoe Crazy Wine, a Black woman-owned business, can truly be attributed to the resiliency and dedication of founders Gwen Hurt and her daughter Brittny. Despite a professional setback and a severe car accident in 2013, the Hurt women found new energy in creating a new business that combined their love of wine and shoes. By 2019 Shoe Crazy Wine was growing steadily and increasing its retail accounts. 

However, when COVID-19 began to disrupt small businesses across the country in 2020, the Hurts once again needed to get resourceful. They started by pursuing options at traditional banks but couldn’t secure the capital they needed. Because they had liquidated their assets in order to establish the businesses, even with Shoe Crazy Wine’s success they couldn’t meet the requirements for more traditional lenders.  

Bridging Virginia was able to provide Shoe Crazy Wine with a much-needed capital infusion to keep the Hurts self-distributing product to major retailers across 11 states.   

“I would wholeheartedly recommend [Bridging Virginia] to businesses that are typically shut out of access to traditional banking and capital.” 

Since then, Shoe Crazy Wine has been featured in major local and national news outlets, showcasing Gwen and Brittny as entrepreneurial leaders in their community.