Relaunching RUNWAY
by Jessica Norwood
After the pandemic began, I would wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air. “This is it,” I would think as I struggled to breathe deeply enough to feel alive. As the weeks wore on, I realized that this ritual of nightly terror wasn’t actually new. I had been trying to breathe deeply in America inside of a Black woman’s body my whole life.
I’ve been working to create breathing room for Black business owners since Runway’s founding in 2016. I remember the very first article that was ever written about Runway was written by a dear friend of mine, Oscar Perry Abello for Next City. The heading of the article was, ‘Believe in You Money.’ That phrase became a refrain within Runway because it reminded us that what Black business owners really needed was an investing home that gave them the breathing room to develop, grow and pivot their ideas.
That phrase had been my north star up until the night George Floyd was murdered. Again, I sat straight up in my bed struggling to breathe. This time it wasn’t the virus, but the officer’s leg on my neck that was suffocating me. I knew, in that moment, that breathing room would never be spacious enough. What we needed was a reimagined world– one that affirmed our humanity and our brilliance. That night, in the darkness, I wrote on a piece of paper: “What would it look like if the financial system loved Black people?”
From chattel slavery to prisons, the American economic system has generationally exploited and tormented Black people. As a result, over 50% of Black businesses have closed during the pandemic. Claire Mills, Assistant Vice President of the New York Federal Reserve is clear that the reason for this failure is systemic racism saying, “These firms had weaker financial cushions, weaker bank relationships, and pre-existing funding gaps prior to the pandemic. COVID-19 has exacerbated these issues and businesses in the hardest hit communities have witnessed huge disparities in access to federal relief funds and a higher rate of business closures.”
As more businesses closed, our team knew that we were not only navigating the realities of the pandemic, but we are also mourning the tragic loss of Black lives at the hands of police and sustained injustice while trying to survive inside of a racial wealth gap that was doubling down on its vengeance. It was clear, Runway would need to expand its position and strategies to meet this moment in time.
One of the first things we did was change our name and retool our mission statement. We knew it was time to drop the word “project” from our name. By becoming “RUNWAY,” we wanted to signal our long-term commitment to dismantling systemic barriers and reimagining financial policies and practices--all in the name of Black liberation.
We also introduced a new way of talking about our programmatic work called “Labs.” For us to answer the question, “What would it look like if the financial system loved Black people?” RUNWAY would have to lean into experimentation and using the framing of a laboratory seemed to fit better. The truth is, nobody has ever lived inside of a financial system that loved Black people and we may not know what that looks like yet. But we do know some things; we know that Black businesses succeed when we invest in them like a friend or family member.
Days after shelter in place orders were enacted in the Bay Area and Boston, we launched our first lab – the Pandemic Emergency Fund. It was critical that we did not rely solely on traditional strings-attached debt funding, being underwritten based on a future reality that no one could actually predict. We called on RUNWAY funders and allies to immediately and comprehensively support our local Black entrepreneurs and they responded. With their support, we did something that had never been done before, we launched a no strings attached 6-month pilot Universal Basic Income (UBI) for our business owners. As a result, 100% of our businesses are open and thriving.
As we move from pandemic to endemic, it becomes deeply important that we get this moment in history right. It’s clear that the real virus is racial inequality and systemic violence. In order to heal, we have to reimagine everything. The medicine finance needs right now is anti-racist and anti-oppressive, community-led, underwritten and cooperative in such a way that builds authentic relationships, shifts power and lovingly centers Black women. Thankfully, that is what RUNWAY is bringing to the table.
Jessica Norwood is RUNWAY’s Founder & CEO. Learn more about Jessica and our amazing team here.