Black entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful pathways to wealth generation, job creation, and long-term community stability. Across Connecticut, Black-owned businesses anchor neighborhoods, circulate local dollars, and create opportunities in places that have experienced decades of disinvestment. Yet despite their economic and social impact, Black entrepreneurs continue to face disproportionately high barriers at every stage of business growth. ConnCORP believes that eliminating these disparities begins with understanding them clearly, honestly, and at scale.

The State of Black Business Report is a tool for truth-telling. It was designed to move beyond anecdotes and assumptions and instead ground Connecticut’s economic development efforts in data, lived experience, and structural analysis. Through this work, ConnCORP seeks to identify systemic inequities that shape business outcomes, improve coordination across the entrepreneurial ecosystem, expand access to capital, strengthen municipal partnerships, and inform more equitable philanthropic and policy strategies.  This research is foundational to ConnCORP’s broader mission to close the racial wealth gap and build an entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports long-term Black economic mobility.

To accomplish this, ConnCORP—through The Lab at ConnCORP—led a yearlong research effort in partnership with The Narrative Project. The State of Black Business Project was designed to capture the realities of Black entrepreneurship across Connecticut by centering the voices of business owners themselves. The project combined statewide survey data with demographic, operational, and financial insights, while also examining entrepreneurs’ experiences navigating ecosystem support organizations, municipal systems, and capital access.