Q & A

We recently sat down with Jamie Gloshay to find out more about her passions, her calling and generally dive in deeper to get to know her.

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What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your work over the last few years?

Collectively we’ve all experienced the grief and shock of the pandemic. We went through significant collective trauma on top of historical, intergenerational, and current trauma we face as individuals and communities of color. Our history in this country as Indigenous people started with biological warfare and theft when colonizers came over, spread disease, and used violence to enact genocide. When COVID hit, my genetic memory and survival response kicked into overdrive. I think a lot of us are still suffering from burnout and trying to reacclimate. As a response to this, Native Women Lead will be  holding space for Native women entrepreneurs at the  Native Women’s Business Retreat. It’s the first inaugural event where our intention is to center Indigenous women for four days to retreat,  restore, and find refuge with one another, to acknowledge the loss and the grief, but also to just reconnect as people.

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Developing alternative business models to the startup status quo has become a central moral challenge of our time. These alternatives want to balance profit and purpose and put a premium on sharing power and resources.

Why is getting investments in this alternative model crucial for those who seek it?

Alternative models are built from the ground up and often from the communities they aim to serve. Because of this, the products and services created or shaped, take into account the nuance of the challenge and barriers these communities face through lived experience. I think it is incredibly hard for women of color to be all the things - leaders, entrepreneurs, mothers, caretakers, breadwinners, activists, advocates, and whatever label, responsibility, or roles we have to continue to be. Not only are we trying to meet our community where they are at but the trust they give us comes with responsibility to not replicate the harm already caused by institutions and systems shaped by white supremacy and patriarchy. The work we’ve gotten to do with Community Credit Lab and Common Future is also very much woven with trust and proving that Native women are investable. As a partner,Native Women Lead does not have to take on the legal or financial burden of holding millions of dollars. From our experience in other pilots with Nusenda Credit Union, we were able to say that real commitment is behind this with infrastructure in place. As many of us know, large financial institutions don't have a lot of direct connection to community to build trust and there is still a lot of distrust to work through especially with communities that have not had equitable access to capital. Building better relationships with governments, philanthropy, financial institutions, or other systems requires deep trust and repair with communities that have histories rooted in theft, exclusion, and extraction.

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How do we shift the narrative about the role of capital in BIPOC communities and reframe the perceptions of the risk involved?

With our capital products that we’ve piloted, we’re showing that Indigenous women are investable and not risky at all, we’ve lent over a half a million dollars to 65 Indigenous women across four states and have a repayment rate of 99%. We continue to see phenomenal engagement with our community and utilization of the resources that we provide. The narrative shift is challenging harmful stereotypes, reclaiming our narrative that Indigenous people have always been incredibly entrepreneurial, and our cultural and communal focus actually demonstrates why and how we are social entrepreneurs. . The underwriting that is often used to demonstrate risk does not take into account the systemic and structural inequities that prevent Indigenous people from building intergenerational wealth and or accessing economic opportunity.

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What are the top three pieces of  advice you would give to BIPOC entrepreneurs, who are dedicated to both purpose and profit, as they are starting or scaling their business?

• Get your idea down on paper - draft a business canvas or plan.

• Surround yourself with people who are going to champion and challenge you with their support and expertise.

• Come to one of our Native Women Lead convenings to find a community and network that you can lean into.

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What is the call to action for investors who seek to promote social justice through investment solutions?

Be generous with your resources and don’t get hung up on traditional ROI, especially when you’re looking for a financial return if you really are about social impact and social justice. Honor the communities that you’re funding with what they believe success looks like. When we see the statistics that 4 out of 5 indigenous women will experience violence in their lifetime and think of my daughters, the ROI I am interested in relates to economic safety and overall safety so I really push on investors to expand their definition of ROI. As a social impact measure, someone’s life and their safety is immeasurable and also enough.