Redefining Capital Readiness for Indigenous Entrepreneurs

One of the key barriers Indigenous business owners face is navigating Western financial systems that are not designed for our communities. Due diligence, underwriting, and investor language often create more barriers than opportunities. For many rural entrepreneurs, capital access is not just about financial literacy; it’s about culturally relevant education, trust-building, and ensuring that financing structures align with Indigenous ways of doing business.
In this session, I will discuss how we must define our own lexicon within economic development spaces. We need to decolonize the language and frameworks we use when preparing Indigenous entrepreneurs for capital. Instead of relying on rigid, institutional metrics of readiness, we should be designing flexible, Indigenous-centered pathways that meet our entrepreneurs where they are—without forcing them to conform to non-Indigenous models of success.
This session will also examine how our 5 year old Change Labs incubator program is incorporating community-defined success metrics into its curriculum, moving beyond credit scores and financial projections to center social impact, sustainability, and cultural preservation as key indicators of business viability. I hope to ignite conversations on how we can redefine capital readiness, redesign Indigenous-centered business support, and build leadership pipelines that put decision-making power back in the hands of Indigenous communities.