BREAUX Capital

7 out of 10 Black Americans could not afford a $1,000 emergency if they needed to tomorrow. Put another way, in the wealthiest nation in the world – the majority of Black Americans are actively experiencing financial insecurity.

Historically,  the consensus has been to address this issue by increasing financial literacy.

That is, having a basic set of knowledge around important topics related to personal finance. 

The logic being – if people are taught the importance of saving and managing their money, they will increase  financial stability. 

On the surface, this logic is sound. However, research shows that there are a number of factors outside of financial literacy that impact the financial health of marginalized populations. BREAUX Capital’s model addresses these outlying and research validated pain points for Black men.

BREAUX Capital is the first nonprofit financial services platform and community for Black men. With Membership representing neighborhoods within, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Raleigh-Durham, New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, Tucson, and Washington DC, BREAUX Capital is providing a blueprint to rethink how one of the worlds largest industries provides services to those who have been historically marginalized and underserved.

We are on a mission to increase the financial health of Black families through a digital community for fathers, brothers, and sons supporting each other in combination with a software platform that pools savings and assets that are then managed by our Members.

BREAUX Capital exists to benefit families of the global Black diaspora, with families residing in the United States being our primary population. We benefit Black families by focusing on Black Men between the ages of 21-60, who happen to experience the highest rates of unemployment and are the single most underbanked population in the United States. Thus, we consider Black Men ages 21-60 to be an overlooked linchpin to addressing the intergenerational racial wealth gap and overall economic insecurity that Black neighborhoods face. 

For example, Brandon is a Black male who is interested in increasing his personal financial wellness and building a legacy for his family. He is interested in doing this not as a solo experience, but alongside a community of other Black Men who are interested in and actively doing the same.

He comes across BREAUX Capital through a referral, on the internet, or through a news article and he does further research on our mission and our offering.

He is impressed by the fact that we have built a system that allows Black Men to pool their money alongside each other and support each other in numerous ways outside of simply financial capital.

He applies to become a Member and then goes through an onboarding process where he pays for Membership and becomes acclimated with the culture of BREAUX Capital – he has the option to become a Member-owner of BREAUX Capital or to obtain Membership that does not have the responsibilities of cooperative ownership. Upon onboarding he begin to set aside a certain amount of savings per month in collaboration with a community of Black Men who are setting aside similar amounts during the same time increments.

He uses this model to build a cash reserve fund that can be used for emergencies or major life events such as purchasing a home or the birth of a child. Long term he is also able to use these funds to invest alongside the BREAUX Capital community. Overall, this experience has created impact in a multitude of ways: 1. Brandon has access to an international community of Black Men who are interested in seeing him succeed 2. He has increased his financial wellness and ent worth through his new cash reserve and investments 3. He is better prepared to handle life events that require investment and financial emergencies 4. He is more knowledgeable of life insurance, investing, business ownership, career advancement through the Member exclusive educational resources and 5. He has access to discounted professional services through the network of business owners/suppliers represented in the BREAUX Capital Membership.

Our team is made up of three proud Morehouse College graduates who are natives of Brooklyn NY, Chicago, Illinois and Cleveland, OH. All of us are experienced and decorated in the fields of entrepreneurship and education with Ras and Derrius being serial entrepreneurs who built a successful education technology social enterprise prior to BREAUX Capital.

The vision that brought us together was the opportunity to shift the culture around financial wellness and health in communities of color starting with Black males. Myself (Derrius Quarles, C0-CEO) am a self-taught designer and developer and graduate in the Penn Graduate School of Education, Education Entrepreneurship Masters program.

As a nationally recognized storyteller, I bring a wealth of knowledge of connecting with diverse audiences and crafting narratives that inspire others to take action. The many lessons I have learned about using storytelling as a tool is something I would love to share with the cohort of Fellows. Through my professional experiences I have also gained deep expertise in both executing new social enterprise concepts and prioritizing issues of social justice. This balance of science and art – praxis and philosophy makes me particularly prepared to lead the scaling up of a social enterprise for significant impact.

We currently have 108 Members customers saving across 22 US States ranging in age from generation Z and baby boomers. All of this has been achieved with under $5000 in paid/growth advertising.

We have validated the desirability, feasibility, and viability of our technology and model for our target market. Now we are poised to validate these at greater scale.

BREAUX Capital is currently at an exciting inflection point in its history as an organization. We have proven that our technology, delivery model, and theory of change produces positive outcomes for our population. Now, we need to acquire the resources needed to expand our reach to our market and implement our go-to-market strategy.

Receiving an award through Solve is an opportunity to connect with resources, inclusive of funding that can help us grow our impact and ensure that we can staff the team that is ready and willing to continue doing this amazing work.

BREAUX Capital is innovative for various reasons, starting with the fact that there is no other financial services solution or model that focuses specifically on creating a safe space for Black Men to hold themselves accountable to building financial resilience and savings for life milestones in a peer environment.

By using an evidence-based model that facilitates positive savings behavior while also facilitating both online and offline interactions between peers seeking enhanced financial well-being, our technology and impact framework transform financial wellness from a discrete set of knowledge, into a set of small actions taken over a longer period of time.

In comparison to market dominant efforts by incumbent corporate institutions, our work is not single touch point charity or a simple diversity effort. Scalable impact on customer financial health and stability is directly incorporated into our model and the unique cultural capital of Black Men is both respected and celebrated.

At BREAUX Capital we seek to create impact by enhancing the financial wellness of Black families in three primary ways: 1) Ensuring that Black families have a simple pathway to save for financial shocks 2) Ensuring that Black families have a simple pathway to save for the investment into major life milestones such as homeownership, life insurance, and education 3) Reducing Black families barriers to asset accumulation and increased net worth through longer term investing and compound interest on savings.

We used results from academic studies related to the effects of peer accountability and peer networks on life insurance and savings behavior (Bernheim, Ariely, and Nembhard) to prototype and design our processes and community. To design key elements of our technology, we leveraged emerging behavioral science recommendations from leading institutions such as ideas42 and Common Sense Lab. Combining our technology and processes we mapped the inputs of our framework to the following:

1. Providing access to an international community of Black Men with vested interest in seeing one another succeed.

2. Assisting Members in developing a cash reserve, subsequently better preparing them to handle major life milestones or financial emergencies that require timely investment.

3. Increasing Members’ net worth through their new cash reserve and investments.

4. Aiding Members in increasing their knowledge of asset classes such as life insurance, homeownership, long-term investing, and business ownership through the Member exclusive education and resources.

5. Giving Members the opportunity to become more knowledgeable of business strategy, project management, and career advancement through Member exclusive access, education, and resources.

6. Providing access to a marketplace of discounted professional services through the network of business owners, experts, specialists, and suppliers represented in the BREAUX Capital Membership.

The primary outputs and metrics we use to evaluate our impact model and results are:

1. Number of Members we have assisted in developing a $1,000 or larger cash reserve fund (the evidence-based threshold)

2. Number of Members we have assisted in avoiding a personal financial crisis through their cash reserve fund

3. Number of Members we have assisted in executing their first investment in an asset

4. Total amount of assets pooled collectively by our Members

5. Number of Members and non-Member beneficiaries we have assisted in growing their financial knowledge and skill set

6. Number of Members we have assisted in growing their social and intellectual capital

We monitor our progress across these indicators through real-time and longitudinal gathering of quantitative and qualitative data. We evaluate these metrics and outcomes quarterly through multiple means including accounting, 1-to-1 interviews, surveys, Member-based panel discussions, and our platform analytics.

BREAUX Capital leverages a web application built on the Stripe API to deliver a end to end financial services experience including onboarding, the setup of bi-weekly automated savings that is then pool alongside a group, and the ability of Members to then provide input on the methods that will then be used to invest and grow the funds that have been saved..

By integrating the evidence based practices of 1) peer accountability 2) goals/milestones based savings and 3) small automated transactions occurring over extended periods, we facilitate positive savings behavior amongst our customers. Our technology and model transform financial wellness from a discrete set of knowledge, into a set of small actions taken over a longer period of time.

2 Full-time
16 part-time

5 years

BREAUX Capital is proudly owned and operated by a majority of Black male representation for the benefit of global Black families and all other marginalized communities. All of our current team and Board Members are also customers of our offering. Which reduces potential harms of our product offerings and ensures that all of our critical stakeholder groups have an active role in strategic decisions at our company.

Over the years of building our team, I have played a critical role in the team’s project management and culture building which allows me to undoubtedly say that there is an equity driven relationship between our team, Board, and customers

We intentionally invest in the training and leadership development of our team members and Board, ensuring that their experience with BREAUX Capital is a catalyst for their subsequent career and leadership experiences.

BREAUX Capital offers low-cost emergency savings accounts (ESA) as a service direct to consumers. We earn revenue through a small upfront fee for onboarding to our platform and then Members do not incur any subsequent subscription charges. We generate usage/value creation revenue on the back end by retaining a portion of the interest income generated from the savings that our Members have collectively pooled.

Via this model, we operate a non-predatory yet scalable offering for our target population to increase their financial security and save for future life milestones.

Our plan for financial sustainability is continued growth of our membership in combination with grant funding from corporate and community foundations. As membership grows our combination of earned revenue onboarding fees and revenue share of interest generated on pooled savings grows as well. We will also continue building our relationships with philanthropic sources such as social justice funds, community foundations, corporate foundations, and corporate social responsibility units.

We currently have 108 Members customers saving across 22 US States ranging in age from generation Z and baby boomers. All of this has been achieved with under $5000 in paid/growth advertising.

Starting with a $500 founder investment and part-time human capital, we have generated over $75,000 in lifetime earned revenue and $175,000 in philanthropic support. We are poised to continue being able to scale this model and our impact as we gain additional access to financial and relational capital to help expand our marketing mix and ability to compete for larger grants.