Steven Assarian
Let's get started by sharing your name and a bit of your background.
Matthew Robles
My name is Matthew Robles. I work for the Urban League of Western Michigan as a program manager overseeing the Capital Access Fund of Western Michigan.
A little bit about me: I've lived in a lot of different places throughout my life, had a lot of different roles and experienced a lot of different things. So initially, I studied music education at the University of Central Florida. I was a violinist; that took me to the Peace Corps, where I was working with the Namibian government to teach English to their population. They had recently selected English as their national language—when they broke apart from South Africa, which was under apartheid. 
I joined the U.S. military after that as a Civil Corps officer, taking me to Georgia, Arizona, and then South Korea. After finishing my time in the military, I actually went to get my MBA, studying finance; and from there, I worked at Ericsson, and then at Amazon on the operations side.
It was during that time that I realized I wanted to get more nested into what I actually learned in my business courses, so I took a new position at the Urban League of West Michigan, overseeing the Capital Access Fund of West Michigan.
Steven Assarian
What is the Capital Access Fund?
Matthew Robles
The Capital Access Fund is a loan fund tailored to augment the ability for Black and Brown business owners to be able to succeed in Michigan.
We’ve noticed that there was a big gap, a big capital divide, between non-minority owned businesses and minority-owned businesses and their ability to grow and scale. A large reason for this is that there was a limit to the amount of capital these entrepreneurs could access through traditional lenders. So the Urban League decided to step in and establish a fund, through funds from Kent County, to create the Capital Access Fund as a CDFI.
Steven Assarian
What exactly is a CDFI, and how does that compare to, say, a bank for people that are seeking funding?
Matthew Robles
So a CDFI is a community development financial institution that uses financial resources to increase investment and development, rather than a traditional lender, which is primarily profit-driven. Because a CDFI is less focused on profit incentives, they can be more creative with the services they offer. You're trying to get people through the loan-seeking process in a way that makes them effective seekers of funds, as well.
There's two sides to that. There's the pre-loan counseling that’s just a frank discussion with me and the business owner. When we look at financials, we discuss what would be, and ask questions: Should you be taken when you're looking at this loan, how much should you be looking at? What's it going to do to your books? Is it going to actually lead to success, or is it going to actually be a burden on your company?
I often assist clients on the generation of products that they may not have coming into loan profits. We're looking for a yes, rather than just simply saying no. We want to get entrepreneurs across the finish line, which means access to capital. And the finish line is not just the one loan; it’s entering into the traditional lending market so that businesses no longer need the services of the Capital Access Fund or any other CDFI. They can go to a traditional lender.
Steven Assarian
Are the businesses you’re seeing in particular industries, or is it more varied than you’d expect?
Matthew Robles
I've actually been surprised at the number of different business models that have approached the fund thus far. We see a lot of salons and car washes, but we've also seen funeral homes and restaurants, and restaurants that are seeking to be franchised, so there's somewhat of a spread.
But the real challenge that we're seeing—and this is part of the Black and Brown business owner community—is that they're hyper-concentrated in certain industries or grant assets. And the goal is to try to expand businesses outside that, investing in companies that are in construction, professional services, etc. We're actually working with a company that offers CPA services right now.
We want to invest in those companies, because we want to spread our risk, not just for the loan fund, but for the growth of the Black and Brown community as a whole. That way, we can be more risk tolerant, more resilient.
Steven Assarian
Success isn’t wholly profit-driven for a CDFI. So what does success look like to you?
Matthew Robles
My hopes for the fund itself are, of course, a growth of the fund. There's going to be some natural growth as we lend, once we cover administrative costs. But the challenge when it comes to loan funds is that once you get it out into the community, we have to wait for it to come back. So as fast as we want to get it out, we recognize that once it's out there, it's a waiting game. We'd like to raise more capital so we can offer more.
On top of that, we would like to see a high turnover when it comes to the funds being let out and returned in a fast cycle. That's not to say we can’t be flexible. We are willing to work with people to extend terms as long as they need. But our intent is to get the money back quickly, because the faster we get it back, the faster we can get it out again. That way, our resources can impact more businesses, and help more people in the community.
Steven Assarian
Thanks so much for your time. If a small business is interested in understanding your services and interfacing with you, what should be their first move?
Matthew Robles
They should go to www.capitalaccessfund.org and click on either my email address, or “Apply Now.” One of those two to get in contact with me if you want to talk. If you're ready and want to do an inquiry application, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to fill out, and you'll be contacted by myself to find out more about your company and how we can best serve you.
