Kalamazoo Forward Ventures

06/01/2026

Tsunami Lab Spotlight Series: Meet Ramon Huerta! ✨

From building homes to protecting local businesses, today we are excited to introduce our next Tsunami Lab Kalamazoo Valley Community College cohort member: Ramon Huerta! 🤌🏿

As an Associate Broker, real estate strategist, and veteran, Ramon has dedicated his career to helping families build stability. Through Tsunami Lab at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Ramon is taking his deep expertise in construction and property development to step into the world of business acquisition. He is focused on buying a local legacy business, preserving its heritage, and guiding it into a prosperous new chapter of growth.

Why Acquisition?
Ramon is pursuing acquisition to expand the long-term impact of his work in construction and community development. For him, acquiring an established company is a powerful way to build generational wealth and strengthen our local economy, combining a deep respect for a founder's legacy with fresh strategic growth.

About Ramon:
Ramon is a real estate strategist, builder, veteran, and dedicated community advocate. He is the founder of Hunt for Home and serves as an Associate Broker and Managing Partner at Bellabay Realty. Guided by faith and service, Ramon is leveraging his extensive background to acquire and scale a legacy Michigan business, driving regional economic growth and sustainable community impact. 💰✨

📸: Jake Waggoner of Defined Lines Marketing.

05/28/2026

Tsunami Lab Spotlight Series: Meet Stacey R. Ledbetter! ✨

When we talk about the "WHO" of Tsunami Lab, we are talking about absolute pillars of our community. Today, we have the distinct honor of spotlighting one of Kalamazoo’s most treasured leaders: Stacey R. Ledbetter! 🤌🏿

Known warmly as "Cap" or "Ms. Stacey," she is the visionary Executive Director of the historic Douglass Community Association (DCA) and a retired public safety Captain. Her dedication to social justice, equity, and local growth is unmatched, as recognized by her recent 2026 YWCA Dorothy I. Height Social Justice Innovation Award and the NAACP Humanitarian Award.

Now, through Tsunami Lab, Stacey is taking her operational leadership to the next level by pursuing small business acquisition to build long-term, community-centered wealth.

Why Acquisition?
Stacey is pursuing acquisition to build innovative, diversified revenue streams that anchor long-term community sustainability. For her, this journey is about protecting the legacies of established local businesses, keeping jobs in our neighborhoods, and creating powerful models where small business success directly fuels non-profit resilience and regional equity.

About Stacey:
Stacey R. Ledbetter has spearheaded the comprehensive transformation of "The New Douglass" at the DCA, expanding it to over 100 strategic partnerships and establishing its first endowed fund. She is the founder of Black and Blue Networking and Consulting, LLC, a TRHT-certified racial healing practitioner, and holds a DEI certification from Cornell University. Through Tsunami Lab, Stacey is merging her deep operational experience with her passion for public service to acquire, protect, and scale a legacy local business. 💰✨

📸: Jake Waggoner of Defined Lines Marketing

Kalamazoo Valley Community College

05/27/2026

Tsunami Lab Spotlight Series: Meet Andre Aro! ✨

When we think about business preservation, youth means longevity. Today, we are excited to introduce the youngest member of our inaugural Tsunami Lab cohort at Kalamazoo Valley Community College: Andre Aro! 🤌🏿

Having Andre in the classroom brings an incredible cross-generational perspective to the table. As a proud recipient of The Kalamazoo Promise, Andre is the perfect example of local investment coming full circle. His journey proves that our youngest leaders are ready to step up, protect established local jobs, and run legacy companies with intention.

Why Acquisition?
Andre is pursuing acquisition to invest deeply in the community that first invested in him. As a proud product of Kalamazoo, acquiring an established local business is his way of protecting neighborhood jobs, preserving a founder's hard work, and creating new economic opportunities in the city he calls home.

About Andre:
Andre is a Kalamazoo-based Latino entrepreneur, real estate investor, and tech sales professional. He combines a distinct tech sales background with a builder's mindset and a servant's heart, operating with a continuous drive to add value to the local economy. Through Tsunami Lab, Andre is channeling his operational grit and passion for community impact into entrepreneurship through acquisition, focusing on stepping into long-term small business ownership to carry a local legacy forward. 💰✨

📸: Jake Waggoner of Defined Lines Marketing

05/26/2026

It has been two weeks since our Tsunami Lab field trip to LKF Marketing, and we are still riding the wave (ba-dum-ch) of energy we experienced during this incredible session! 🤌🏿

Sometimes, a sudden pivot is exactly what you need. When our original site visit fell through a week before the trip, Maddie (our amazing Kalamazoo Valley Community College Liaison and Director) stepped up and offered her mother's business as our host.

Here is the wild part: LKF Marketing is the exact firm that helped us create the promotional strategy for the launch of Tsunami Lab. Even wilder? We found out LKF Marketing was actually acquired through an acquisition itself! The way this all folded together was as beautiful as an origami crane.

When building brand-new programming, you always hope the theory translates into real life. Seeing our cohort in the space at LKF was proof of concept. We watched daughters shower their mothers with affirmations, saw future business owners soak a current owner in praise, and witnessed a level of vulnerability and joy that the photos only begin to capture.

Our cohort got to experience exactly what they are striving for first hand. Localizing this work is everything, and it is the key to our future success.

This is Kalamazoo.
This is Tsunami Lab.
And the magic is just beginning!
💰✨

📸: Carlos Vargas, KVCC.

05/22/2026

Happy Friday! Meet Alonzo Wilson II: Tsunami Lab Spotlight Series ✨

To close out your week with a BANG, we are bringing you the second of our 13 Tsunami Lab KZO cohort spotlights! 🤌🏿

This group is made up of individuals who are incredibly unique, yet they share an uncanny drive and alignment that brings the classroom at Kalamazoo Valley Community College to life. What they all have in common is the core intangibles required for business leadership, and our firm belief that they have what it takes to protect, run, and scale local legacy businesses.

Today, we are highlighting Alonzo Wilson II.

Why Acquisition?
Alonzo is pursuing acquisition to accelerate generational wealth while breaking down historical barriers to ownership and capital. For him, acquiring an established business is a powerful way to build upon an existing local foundation, combining his industrial engineering background with a lifelong commitment to creating lasting economic opportunity for his family and the Kalamazoo community.

About Alonzo:
Alonzo is a lifelong resident of Kalamazoo, a dedicated public servant, and an entrepreneur focused on building a stronger regional economy. He currently serves as a City Commissioner for the City of Kalamazoo, championing equitable development and community engagement. Alonzo is also the founder of Wilson Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in AI enablement, data analytics, and workflow optimization, and he holds an Industrial and Operations Engineering degree from the University of Michigan.

Through Tsunami Lab, Alonzo is merging his deep expertise in systems thinking and operational strategy with his passion for public service to acquire and scale a legacy local business. 💰✨

📸: Jake Waggoner of Defined Lines Marketing

05/20/2026

Tsunami Lab Spotlight Series: Meet Leilani Marêe Wells! ✨

To our Kalamazoo community and everyone on this journey with us: we are so excited to begin introducing the 13 incredible minds behind our inaugural Tsunami Lab cohort! 🤌🏿

This cohort is a vibrant, eclectic group of leaders. Every week during our sessions at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, the room is filled with an uncanny, shared energy. While we keep our pilot selection process under wraps, we are thrilled to show you the "WHO" behind the program. We will be featuring two cohort members every week, starting today!

First up in the spotlight is the incredible Leilani Wells.

Why Acquisition?
Leilani is pursuing acquisition to step into a proven business and guide it into its next chapter. For her, this path is about honoring the existing value a founder has built while injecting the fresh vision, modern marketing, and leadership needed to scale with intention.

About Leilani:
Leilani is a creative director, content marketing strategist, and the founder of Leilani Media, specializing in brand narrative and visibility. A true champion of our local ecosystem, she hosts the GET SEEN marketing podcast as well as The Sandbox Collective Podcast: a platform for local creatives and innovators.

With her deep roots in sales, media, and community building, Leilani is using Tsunami Lab to combine her digital growth expertise with her leadership skills to acquire and scale a regional legacy business.

Let's show Leilani some love as she prepares to ride the wave of business ownership! ✨

📸: Jake Waggoner of Defined Lines Marketing

05/19/2026

📈 Early-stage founders: you have more traction than you think. Here's how to frame it for investors.

You don't need millions in revenue to show momentum.

– You need to show that you execute and do so quickly.
– Anchor every win to a timeframe and watch your pitch land differently.
– Momentum without a timeline is just noise. Real traction tells a story.

Skip the vanity metrics and show the work that actually proves your business is moving. That's what gets investors excited.

💡 Save this and look out for more pitch tips from KzFV!

Source: How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup with Y Combinator's Michael Sibel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw2X3PxKlAY)

05/15/2026

🎉 We are pleased to welcome ConStrat Ai to the KzFV portfolio!

Construction runs on trust between owners, lenders, subs, and crews. But trust is hard to build when cash flow, margin, and risk are scattered across disconnected systems. When everyone is working from a different version of the truth, decisions slow down, and deals fall apart. ConStrat connects those signals into one clear picture so that the right people can move with confidence.

💡 Learn more and see the whole picture at ConStrat.ai.

05/12/2026

🤤

Share the love and support your cause with Papa’s Brittle! 🧡

Our fundraising program is a SWEET way to raise money for schools, teams, clubs, and organizations.

Visit our website, give us a call, or send us an e-mail [email protected] for more information and let’s make your fundraiser a success!

05/12/2026

(ish): Throwing it back to the magic of Cultivate 269! 🗞️✨

We are still buzzing from the energy of our inaugural year! Huge thanks to WOOD TV8 for the incredible interview with our own Dwayne Powell Jr. and the winner of the ENTIRE $100,000, Samuel Marseille of Oneshot AI. 🤌🏿

This event was about so much more than just one night. As of this week, we have met with nearly all nine of our finalists to keep the momentum rolling. We are officially connecting them with community partners for financial support and making a boat-load of introductions to mentors, investors, and future customers. 🚀💰

To the 20+ people who filled out our feedback survey: thank you! We appreciate your honesty and your excitement as we look for ways to make next year even better.

Kalamazoo, you showed the state exactly how we get down.
We are so proud to build alongside you!

👉 Read the full story and watch the interview here: https://www.woodtv.com/news/kalamazoo-county/wmu-students-translation-tool-wins-major-backing/

The Western Michigan University student behind an AI-powered translation app has won $75,000 to continue the endeavor.