Mentors: FUNDING
Summary of Qualifications Shantell is an accomplished serial entrepreneur, business strategist, nonprofit expert, and author with an impressive business portfolio that includes ventures in healthcare, the nonprofit sector, consulting, media, and cultural arts. As a Master Business Strategist Shantell specializes in equipping entrepreneurs with the tools and strategies to build amazing brands, realize financial goals, and dominate in the market. A true student of organizational development Shantell has matched extensive education and training with over 17 years of experience as a coach and consultant to create methods that help businesses launch, grow, and maximize their profit. Always keeping community engagement and outreach at the forefront of her entrepreneurial endeavors, Shantell founded and currently serves as the Executive Director of Dress for Success® Central Virginia, a Richmond, VA based affiliate of the international nonprofit organization that empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. Under her leadership, Dress for Success has served over 1500 women in the metro area in less than 5 years. In addition to leading Dress for Success Central Virginia, Shantell is the co-Founder and CEO of SheEmpowers™ International, a professional women’s network offering programs designed to transform women leaders, empower women to grow their businesses, pursue greater entrepreneurial ventures, and become more active in philanthropy. She is also the Principal Consultant of Nonprofitability, a boutique consulting firm specializing in emerging nonprofits and faith based organizations. Shantell currently sits on the Board of Directors for Children Incorporated where she is the Vice Chairperson and serves a fellow to...
Summary of Qualifications Leslie is a C.P.A. who has specialized in working with small businesses for over 20 years. She provides a wide range of small business financial and accounting services ranging from business set up and income tax preparation to financial and profitability analysis. With a focus of working with small businesses in the Richmond area, Leslie works in the areas of tax return preparation, tax strategies, financial statement preparation, business set up, and financial analysis. She has an accounting degree from JMU and an MBA with a concentration in Marketing from VCU. She is a C.P.A. and a QuickBooks Online Certified ProAdvisor. Over the years Leslie has worked with various industries and business structures. Her clients come from the manufacturing, retail, and service industries. She works with S-corporations, C-Corporations, LLCs, partnerships, and sole proprietor entities. Leslie has a relationship based approach to working with small businesses. She works with businesses in all phases of business development from the initial start-up stage to mature businesses looking at growth and strategic planning. She believes knowing the client and establishing a relationship enables greater success for the small business. In her spare time Leslie enjoys spending time on the James River boating, kayaking, and hiking with her family and Chocolate Labrador Retrievers. Want to meet with this mentor? Schedule an...
Summary of Qualifications Doug is a veteran entrepreneur and consultant whose experience focuses on strategy, operations, analytics, and finance. He is a founding partner and owner of Gather, whose coworking spaces provide a community to more than 200 entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business people. Doug White spends his time solving business problems for entrepreneurs and their organizations. His background in physics, math, engineering and business gives him an ability to go beyond the easy, surface solution; to dig deeper and find unique answers to the problems that plague small businesses. He has a talent for making the complex simple and guiding others to see and understand the key that will solve their puzzle. He helps organizations develop strategies to take them to the next level, grasp what their financials are really telling them, develops metrics to keep track and measure what is important and fixes operational issues by finding the root cause of the problem. Doug has successfully led start-ups and turnarounds. He has been a part of executing acquisitions on both the buy side and the sell side. He has worked successfully in fields ranging from heavy duty manufacturing to sales and distribution, from consumer lending to investment brokerage. The common thread through each assignment is that Doug has been the catalyst for creating significant bottom line value and he can teach you his methods. He has specialized in taking businesses that were broken and fixing them or taking businesses that were successful and raising their performance to the next level. Currently, Doug works with his wife Polly at Whitestone Partners, their full-service small-business consulting firm. Together, they...
Summary of Qualifications John is a financial professional with over 19 years of experience helping to meet the financial needs of consumers and small businesses. In banking since 1998, John Ramirez III Group Manager and Vice President for Fulton Bank has focused primarily on business development, strategic planning, management, small business lending, consumer lending, team development, coaching and community development. Additional abilities include building successful work teams, project management, multi-layer communication, networking, and relationship building. Throughout his banking experience, he has been able to bring value in the form of financial education, service, open communication, and ownership. John’s career in banking began as a Teller through Crestar Bank and continued in growth over the years through many roles and levels of responsibilities. These roles included Customer Service Representative, Assistant Branch Manager, Branch Manager, Area Manager, and current role of Group Manager. While working as a full-time banker, continuing education was a priority. He began his academic career or life-long learning journey at Northern Virginia Community college to which he received three career study certificates (Bookkeeping, Small Business, and Information Technology) along with two Associate Degrees (Business Management and Business Administration). Upon graduation, he attended George Mason University graduating in 2005 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Management. The journey continued in learning by completing the Virginia Bankers School of Bank Management in 2012 and working towards a MBA to which was completed in 2014 from Bellevue University. As a strong believer in life-long learning, he has been privileged to participate in two community leadership programs. One was the Leadership Fredericksburg program in which participants learned about leadership skills and...
Summary of Qualifications Building on a career of working with business owners, David is practical in his approach to leverage, growth and funding. He values the relationships forged with his clients as a partner through periods of challenge and change. David Lipscomb has worked with business owners for 19 years as an entrepreneur, a community banker and now the director of SBA lending for a regional bank. He enjoys these relationships because owners are invested in their businesses, and David makes a difference in their lives by helping them through challenges or by helping to solve their problems. Given David’s experience working with many types of businesses and business owners, his knowledge of available debt and equity options, and his experience as an entrepreneur, he is well positioned to identify and understand stresses and offer solutions. David believes in efficiency, so he listens and empathizes and responds honestly and directly. As the manager of the SBA Group at IBERIABANK, he works to maintain a good credit quality, compliant loan portfolio, while providing shareholder value and keeping his team happy. However, he remains involved in the SBA loans made at IBERIABANK as it provides him an opportunity to learn about businesses more interesting than banking. David lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife and two daughters and enjoys the outdoors, cooking and tinkering. Want to meet with this mentor? Schedule an...
