Funding to Flourishing: Grant-Driven Success Stories of U.S. Women Entrepreneurs

Grants can play a pivotal role for women entrepreneurs by providing non-repayable funding to invest in growth.  As one industry commentator notes, women-led businesses like Stella & Dot (Jessica Herrin) and Kellee Edwards’s travel company have harnessed such awards to “create meaningful change” in their industries .  Grants designed for women often help close the funding gap – women receive only a small share of venture capital, so grants “provide much-needed financial support without the burden of repayment” . 

 The cases below illustrate how U.S. women business owners leveraged grants to jumpstart new products, expand operations, and overcome early challenges.

Afuera Productions (Dani Reyes-Acosta, Colorado) – Diversifying Funding

Colorado filmmaker Dani Reyes-Acosta founded Afuera Productions (branded as Outlier Film Series), a documentary storytelling company, in 2022 .  To sustain her vision she pursued project grants and sponsorships.  In early 2024 Reyes-Acosta won a grant from the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC), a nonprofit that funds Latino arts initiatives .  The award – part of a competitive national grant program – gave her team vital runway.  Reyes-Acosta says the NALAC grant “enabled her to diversify [Afuera’s] funding portfolio” beyond corporate sponsors, allowing new investments in creative projects .  She explains:

“I pursued this grant because I had higher confidence that the funding organization would see value in the story itself… Know what your story is about, who can get behind it, and what’s in it for them.”

This advice underscored how the grant helped her pivot: instead of relying on one sponsor at a time, Afuera could mix grant funding, direct sponsorships, crowdfunding and partnerships.  The result was a more stable business model.  By sharing cultural stories through film, Reyes-Acosta has since broadened Afuera’s reach while securing new funds to support her crew.  Her key challenge had been funding uncertainty; the grant overcame that by validating her vision and signaling credibility to other backers.

Look Good, Live Well (Ariane Turner, Florida) – Network and Community Building

Ariane Turner, founder of beauty brand Look Good, Live Well, used a SheaMoisture/Brown Girl Jane grant to “create financial ease” and build a peer network .

Ariane Turner launched Look Good, Live Well – a skincare and beauty line aimed at simplifying self-care for Black and Brown women – in 2020.  In 2021 she won a SheaMoisture × Brown Girl Jane Grant (approximately a $10,000 award) targeted at Black women entrepreneurs .  Turner says the grant provided “financial ease” at a critical stage of her company .  More importantly, the program connected her into a community network: she notes that peer-to-peer networking through the grant “has proven to be invaluable” .

Turner invested the grant funds into business development and community outreach.  Within a year she founded The Pivot, a nonprofit initiative that offers resources and micro-grants to women of color (she was able to give away $10,000 across five mini-grants) .  This expansion of mission was an unintended but powerful outcome of the award.  In her own words:

“Receiving the SheaMoisture x Brown Girl Jane Grant not only helped to create financial ease within my business, but also gave me the ability to expand my network… I was able to provide a total of 5 grants, totaling $10,000” .

The grant thus transformed the trajectory of Look Good, Live Well by boosting Turner’s capital and enabling her to build a community organization.  Initially, Turner had struggled with limited startup funds and the challenge of entering a competitive beauty market.  By leveraging the grant’s resources and mentorship, she overcame those hurdles, expanded her brand’s social impact, and now mentors others.

Equine Amnio Solutions (Ginger Johnson, Texas) – R&D and Growth

Equine Amnio Solutions co-founder Ginger Johnson (holding award) celebrates winning FedEx’s 2021 Small Business Grant ($50K) , which she used to fund new veterinary products. (Image: FedEx Newsroom)

Ginger Johnson is co-founder of Equine Amnio Solutions (EAS), a veterinary biotech firm in Texas that produces regenerative products for horse health.  In May 2021, EAS won FedEx’s national Small Business Grant Contest grand prize – $50,000 plus $7,500 in FedEx Office services .  The grant was explicitly earmarked for product development: Johnson reported that the funds would support clinical trials and R&D to launch a new canine (dog) health product in addition to their equine line .  In announcing the award FedEx noted that it “champions” small business success .

Johnson says the infusion of capital accelerated EAS’s growth.  “We are honored to be named the 2021 FedEx Small Business Grant Contest Grand Prize Winner,” she told FedEx, highlighting how RenoVō® (their flagship horse-health product) represented “an advancement in regenerative medicine” .  In practice, the grant paid for continued testing of RenoVō® and expedited development of the dog product line.  By late 2022 EAS had begun expanding national distribution.

The grant also helped EAS weather unexpected setbacks.  For example, Johnson recalls that just before the pandemic, EAS had staged a trade-show launch and saw record sales in Jan–Feb 2020.  But all subsequent shows were canceled by COVID-19 .  To overcome this loss of marketing venues, the team pivoted aggressively: “we’ve really just gone vet to vet…from referrals, friends of friends, and gotten into all these veterinarian clinics,” Johnson explains .  They also sponsored top equine athletes to showcase their product.  In sum, the FedEx grant gave EAS the funds and visibility needed to pursue innovation even as the pandemic closed traditional channels.

Coyotas (Janet Flores, California) – Retail Expansion

Janet Flores co-founded Coyotas (Eat Coyotas) in 2019 in San Diego.  Coyotas makes gluten-free, grain-free tortillas inspired by traditional Mexican recipes.  In FedEx’s 2021 Small Business Grant Contest, Flores’s company won a third-place prize of $15,000 .  Flores invested this award mainly into scaling up production and marketing.  The results were tangible: by 2021 Coyotas was selling online nationwide and had secured shelf space in over 20 grocery stores .  Orders came from “as far away as Hawaii” according to FedEx’s profile .

Flores credits the grant with helping expand her team’s reach.  She recounts that her original strategy was grassroots – selling at San Diego farmers markets in late 2019 – but when the pandemic shuttered markets, she “pivoted to selling directly to customers on [our] website” .  That online launch was surprisingly smooth: customers started placing orders immediately.  To land retail deals, Flores took a hands-on approach: “We knocked on doors…we went to every store we like…Some other stores contacted us, because of customer requests,” she says, noting, “we know everybody in the stores” .  In other words, the combination of the grant money and an entrepreneurial hustle turned Coyotas into a regional brand.

Flores faced early challenges of being a small food producer with limited visibility.  The FedEx grant’s funding helped her buy ingredients and packaging at higher volume, and to produce samples for stores.  As a result, Coyotas grew from a local market vendor into a distributed food brand.  By late 2022, Flores had scaled to several employees and was supplying restaurants and grocery chains across California and beyound.

How We Support Women a

The stories above clearly demonstrate how targeted grants can transform the trajectory of women-led businesses. Whether it’s providing critical capital to launch a product, expand operations, or navigate unforeseen challenges, grants serve as a powerful tool to help women entrepreneurs build resilience and grow.

At Yippittydoo we are proud to contribute to this mission. Recognizing that many traditional funding sources are highly competitive and often difficult to access, we’ve created a grant program that is intentionally less competitive and more accessible, giving more women the opportunity to secure the resources they need.

We offer $1,000 grants to women entrepreneurs who are ready to move their businesses forward. But beyond the financial support, we provide much more:

• A dedicated platform to promote your business — helping you gain visibility and attract new customers or partners.
  
• Mentorship opportunities — connecting you with experienced professionals who can guide you through challenges, offer expert advice, and support your long-term success.