Need to Know

• Asian American women are the second-fastest growing group of business owners in the United States, yet they remain nearly invisible to investors and underfunded at every stage of growth.

• Annabelle Santos, founder of Spadét, is a first-generation American, a biochemist, and a bootstrapped entrepreneur who built her way into 25 Whole Foods locations. What accelerated her next chapter was not capital. It was the right support at the right moment.

• TAP provides free 1:1 consulting, small group coaching, and programs like EDGE to help under-resourced small business owners grow stronger, with every $1 invested in TAP generating $10 in economic value.

Women own 40.6% of all businesses in the United States. They generate just 4.6% of total national firm revenue.

That gap is not a pipeline problem. It is an architecture problem. And it is exactly what The Acceleration Project was built to address.

On May 26, 2026, Forbes contributor Geri Stengel published a feature that tells that story through the journey of Annabelle Santos, founder of Spadét, and the work TAP is doing to close the gap between what under-resourced entrepreneurs have built and what the economy has returned to them. Our CEO Jane Veron had the privilege of meeting both Geri and Annabelle, and the experience left a mark.

Meet Annabelle Santos: The Biochemist Who Formulated Her Way Into Business

Annabelle Santos is the first person in her family to be born in America.

Her parents immigrated to New York City in the 1970s. Her mother worked as a chemist. Her father ran a small shop. From the very beginning, Annabelle grew up at the intersection of science, entrepreneurship, and the quiet determination that first-generation American families carry in their bones.

She went on to earn a degree in biochemistry and spent eight years doing DNA sequencing work at a research company. She was also, from an early age, someone who believed that the earth itself held answers. In the early 1990s, as a student at UC Santa Cruz, she spent her summers canvassing door to door for CALPIRG, rallying her neighbors around Reduce, Reuse, Recycle long before sustainability became a mainstream conversation. That was not a phase. It was a foundation.

Then her two-year-old daughter developed severe eczema.

What happened next is what we at TAP recognize immediately when we meet a founder like Annabelle. She did not reach for a product off a shelf. She reached for everything she knew. Her biochemistry training. Her mother's knowledge of holistic healing. Her deep personal experience with natural remedies. She investigated the therapeutic properties of olives, herbs, and flowers. She formulated a solution. It worked. Word spread fast among friends whose children faced the same raw, inflamed skin. By 2014, Spadét was a business.

How Spadét Built a Natural Skincare Brand on Science, Sustainability, and Trust

Annabelle did not stumble into entrepreneurship. She formulated her way into it, drawing on a lifetime of science, sustainability, and care.

Spadét is now carried in 25 Whole Foods locations across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Institutional clients include Columbia University's Faculty House, CUNY LaGuardia Community College, and the NYC Administration for Children's Services. The product line includes serums, scrubs, soaps, and conditioners, all plant-based, sulfate-free, and built around a proprietary olive oil glycerin that Annabelle developed herself.

This is a brand built on trust, transparency, and a commitment to ingredients that are better for people and better for the planet. Annabelle's goal has always been to offer high value with concentrated products made from pure all-natural ingredients that effectively solve problems, with safety and transparency at the center.

This is what we mean when we talk about superpowers. Annabelle brought years of scientific rigor, cultural knowledge, generational resilience, and a mother's determination to building something real. The market just had not yet built the infrastructure to meet her where she was.

That is the heartbreak at the center of this story. And it is also the opportunity.

Understanding the Funding Gap: Why Asian American Women Entrepreneurs Remain Invisible to Investors

Asian American women own 1.7 million businesses in the United States, representing 10.6% of all women-owned businesses. Between 2022 and 2025, that number grew by 21%, the second fastest growth rate of any demographic group. Their businesses carry the highest average revenue per firm among all women-owned groups at $213,000.

That invisibility is structural, not incidental. Women-owned businesses employ others at roughly half the rate of men-owned businesses. Crossing that employer threshold, the point at which a business stops being a solo operation and starts building jobs, wealth, and community assets, is where women entrepreneurs most consistently stall.

Annabelle has been navigating that crossing for over a decade. She has not yet crossed a million dollars in revenue. Only about 2% of all women-owned businesses ever do. That number is not a reflection of what she has built. It is a reflection of the systems she has been building within.

Beyond Capital: Why Expert Consulting Is the Missing Infrastructure for Small Business Growth

Annabelle funded Spadét through CDFI loans, competition grants, and sales. Twelve years of what she now calls R&D. Learning what works. Learning what she wants. Learning what she is actually building.

What she could not buy was the strategic clarity to articulate that vision to the right people in the right room.

That is where TAP came in.

Annabelle has engaged with TAP across multiple touchpoints. She has worked through 1:1 consulting sessions, participated in small group coaching, and is currently enrolled in our EDGE program, which supports personal and business financial health through clear modules and hands-on guidance. Each layer of support has built on the last, deepening her clarity, strengthening her financial foundation, and sharpening the vision she is now ready to pursue.

TAP's more than 200 consultants, 69% of them actively working professionals, deliver free, bespoke advisory services covering finance, operations, strategy, marketing, and capital readiness. The support that changed Annabelle's trajectory was not a single workshop or financial model. It was a relationship built over time, one that helped her see she had spent years pitching to the wrong investors entirely.

Traditional investors wanted financial returns on a product category they did not recognize. What Spadét's next chapter demands is impact capital, investors who understand that Annabelle is building a platform for women entrepreneurs, not just a product line. A physical space. A hub. A place for women founders to share knowledge, celebrate wins, and build the kind of peer infrastructure that well-capitalized founders access through alumni networks and investor relationships.

At TAP, we see this frequently. The passion was never the problem. The unwavering commitment was never the problem. What founders like Annabelle need is a trusted space where their vision can be seen clearly, sharpened honestly, and pointed in the right direction.

Measuring Impact: How TAP Delivers a 10 to 1 Social Return on Investment

The results TAP produces are measurable. According to an analysis by the Bridgespan Group, every dollar invested in TAP generates $10 in economic and community value, a 10:1 social return on investment driven by revenue growth, job creation, and local reinvestment.

Against a national backdrop where half of all small businesses close within five years, 92% of businesses TAP supports remain open a year after engagement, and 86% maintain or grow revenue.

That is not charity. That is leverage.

Scaling Small Business Support: TAP's Vision for Reaching Under-Resourced Entrepreneurs Nationwide

Jane's vision for TAP is explicit. She calls it TAP for America, modeled on the national infrastructure of Teach for America, present in every market, meeting businesses where they are at the moment they need help.

The organizational infrastructure to scale already exists. TAP has Salesforce-backed systems, documented outcomes, and a growing roster of funders including Ares Charitable Foundation, Apollo Opportunity Foundation, Citi Foundation, eBay Foundation, and JPMorganChase.

For Annabelle, the stakes are both personal and representative. The founder who spent her summers as a young woman canvassing for the environment, who formulated a remedy for her daughter's skin, who built a brand on science and trust and transparency, is now ready to ask for what she is worth.

To read the full Forbes article by Geri Stengel, click here

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