Everett K. Sands has been a major game changer when it comes to helping underserved small business owners who need access to responsible capital. Sands is the founder and CEO of Lendistry, a minority-led and technology-enabled small business and commercial real estate lender with Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Community Development Entity (CDE) certification.
Lendistry, along with its nonprofit partner organization, The Center by Lendistry, are dedicated to providing economic opportunities and progressive growth for underserved urban and rural small business borrowers and their communities. In 2022, Lendistry SBLC, LLC, a subsidiary of B.S.D. Capital, Inc., became the nation’s only African American-led SBA designated Small Business Lending Company.
Sands recently opened an office at 2002 Clipper Park Road in Baltimore, Maryland. It is also home to MCB Real Estate, a privately held, institutionally capitalized commercial real estate investment firm. co-founded by P. David Bramble, son of Baltimore Times publisher Joy Bramble, MCB Real Estate acquires, develops, manages, and capitalizes assets in retail, industrial, office and mixed-use sectors. MCB Real Estate currently owns and operates approximately six million square feet of commercial real estate.
“During the pandemic, Lendistry started hiring team members in Maryland with a focus on having an office in Baltimore,” said Sands. “Now that we are in a new normal of returning to work, we have opened that office and share it with MCB Real Estate. The team is excited about partnering with MCB Real Estate which is pumping and inspiring the construction of commercial units around Baltimore. This is an opportunity to provide those tenants with working capital and access to capital, so we are certainly excited about that.”
Leveraging his more than 20 years of experience in banking to help underserved small business owners access capital, Sands has shared his recommendations before Congressional committees and at conferences hosted by FORTUNE, the National Urban League, and several industry-related events. His long and impressive resume also includes serving as a presenter at The Baltimore Times’ Business Forum: “Mind Your Business Building resources for business owners and entrepreneurs.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lendistry was one of the top ten Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lenders in 2021. To support as many small businesses as possible, Lendistry also raised its hand to administer state-funded small business relief grant programs in California, Pennsylvania, and New York.
“What we hope is that we have a regional office in Baltimore that’s able to serve the Mid-Atlantic community and do what we did for PPP where we were helping small businesses in Baltimore, and the Greater Baltimore area,” said Sands. “We’re now taking that to the next level and finding other programs.”
He continued, “For example, the state of Maryland is participating in a program called the State Small Business Credit Initiative, which is a program that will help small businesses that don’t have credit, or a traditional credit profile. Their lenders will be able to leverage this program to help them get access to capital. So, if you didn’t have collateral for a loan, or maybe your credit scores are a little bit lower than the traditional guidelines, Lendistry can come in and provide access to capital to those businesses.”
Clarence Campbell is Executive Vice President of Sales for Lendistry.
“As a native Baltimorean, I can speak to the city’s rich community presence, and small business plays a critical role here in Baltimore,” said Campbell. “But access to capital is one of the greatest challenges for many business owners. That’s why we are excited to have a presence here in Maryland and focused on supporting small businesses and the communities they serve.”
Fashion designers Dominick Davis and Steven White are the owners of DifferentRegard. The company, which specializes in sustainable clothing products, is one of the many businesses assisted by Lendistry during the COVID pandemic.
“Lendistry was offering the PPP and we started doing business with them,” said Davis. “We really received good connections through Lendistry. We met with different loan officers through Lendistry who are now talking to us about expanding with new loans and SBA loans. We have been around for eleven years, and this type of support will help ensure we are around another eleven years.”
White added, “We purchased more machinery and funded our employees during the pandemic. We were able to take advantage of the opportunities that were out there. We were able to reinvest in our systems and equipment to keep our company going. We were able to pay our employees and increase our space during the pandemic to make our employees feel comfortable. It has opened us up to be a viable player. That speaks volumes about Lendistry. Their assistance allowed us to grow.”
For more information about Lendistry, visit https://lendistry.com.