In Michigan’s $50 billion construction industry, small businesses dominate the landscape. Yet for many of those businesses, particularly women- and immigrant-owned firms, access to capital remains one of the most significant barriers to growth.
Elisa Rodriguez knows that reality firsthand. Seven years ago, Rodriguez co-founded M&I Interiors, a Grand Rapids-based construction company specializing in drywall, painting, framing, and interior finishing. The journey was challenging not due to a lack of entrepreneurial talent, but a lack of access to capital.
As Rodriguez recalls, “Traditional funding was not an option. I knocked on so many doors, banks, calls, and nobody was opening the door.” Even alternative lenders offered little relief. Rodriguez spent nine months applying for a $100,000 loan through a nontraditional lender, only to be denied at the end of the process. “It was extremely discouraging,” she recalls.
After connecting with OppFund’s loan officer Alexis Hill, the experience was fundamentally different from what she had encountered before. “It was the first time someone approached financing with compassion,” she says. “They were clear, transparent, and actually interested in helping underserved businesses.” Within just three to four months, M&I Interiors secured its first-ever loan, something the company had never accessed since its founding in 2019. The timing couldn’t have been more critical. “If it wasn’t for that funding,” Rodriguez says plainly, “we would not have been able to stay in business.”
This loan’s impact was immediate. Within weeks of receiving financing, M&I Interiors was able to take on its largest commercial project to date—something that would have been impossible without working capital to support upfront costs. “Because of this funding, we were able to go into our largest project,” Rodriguez says. “It opened the doors of who we are and what we can do.”
The company has since expanded its portfolio, strengthened its operations, and grown revenue into the millions. Today, it maintains a five-star reputation and is positioning itself for further expansion into residential builder partnerships nationwide. But Rodriguez emphasizes that the impact goes beyond her own business. One of the less visible dynamics in construction is how capital access affects entire ecosystems.
When firms like M&I Interiors grow, they create opportunities for subcontractors, suppliers, and other small businesses, many of whom face similar barriers. Rodriguez has seen this firsthand. With new financing in place, her company was able to participate in a childcare construction project in West Michigan, contributing framing, drywall, and finishing work.
More importantly, she now actively connects other small contractors, especially Latino-owned businesses, to funding resources. “I’ve helped my subcontractors get connected,” she says. “Because they struggle daily financially. They just don’t know who to reach out to.” This kind of informal network-building is critical in communities where access to institutional resources remains limited. “I think we need more resources that are accessible,” Rodriguez says. “More education, more connection—and in people’s native language. Otherwise, they won’t engage.”
If her business continues on its current trajectory, she hopes one day to come full circle, not just as a borrower, but as an investor of OppFund to support the next generation of entrepreneurs. “I would love to invest back,” she says. “Because they helped move us from nothing to where we are today.”
