Brad is an Afro-Latino footwear designer in Los Angeles. He spent nearly ten years building and running a women’s footwear company, was told a partnership was coming after his tenth year, and instead watched his whole division get cut when the owner brought in an investor. So he started Jionni Jade — a women’s wholesale line in extended sizes and wide widths, built for the ethnic and trans customers other brands treat as an afterthought. He came to Granted needing enough to bring in a first container and get the brand off the ground. What he shaped is the proposal that gets written by conversation: Brad never filled out a form-heavy draft — he pointed Granted at the Pride Fund for LGBTQIA+ Business Owners, a Founders First CDC program for LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs nationwide, and built the whole request through chat, refining the ask and the use-of-funds line by line until the full proposal was done. Then he hit the wall that taught Granted something: he came back to submit and the cycle had already closed, with no clear way forward. Deadline-awareness before the work, and a next-funder hand-off when a cycle closes, are on the roadmap because of his session.
My designs ultimately improve confidence — petite, plus size, or extended sizes. We make products to suit everyone.
