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Jeremiah Crow, right, pauses with his business partner, A.J. Carson, at a Benton Boulevard house they are transforming into a duplex.
The nonprofit, started by a group of Black business owners to help others gain access to capital, has been a boon for small businesses suffering from the economic toll of the coronavirus.
Jeremiah Crow was released from prison about five years ago after serving a five-year stretch for robbery, hoping to use some of the electrical wiring skills he learned in confinement to get a job.
But employers were wary of hiring an ex-felon. So with the odds stacked against him, Crow struck out on his own, doing residential handyman jobs like wiring, painting and remodeling.