Pitch deck · Text version · 15 slides
The Solutions Lab Pitch Deck
The Solutions Lab
Backing Entrepreneurs Who Use Disability to Change What’s Possible. Pitch Deck.
The Mission
The Solutions Lab is built for individuals with disabilities who are pursuing self-employment, whether at the idea stage or already in operation.
Unlike accelerators focused on rapid scaling, the Solutions Lab supports small-scale businesses founded to provide real, sustained employment for the owner and their team.
The Problem to Solve
People with disabilities are self-employed at a higher rate than the general population, but the capital and support that would let those businesses grow is nearly impossible to access.
- The Entrepreneurs: 9.1% of people with a disability are self-employed, compared with 5.9% of people without one (BLS, 2025), often because traditional employment wasn’t built for them.
- The Capital Gap: The “Disability Squeeze,” benefit limits, thin credit files, and inaccessible lending processes leave entrepreneurs unbanked, underbanked, or shut out of financing entirely.
- The System Gap: Less than 3% of vocational rehabilitation case closures result in self-employment. Existing accelerators are built for high-growth ventures, not small, durable businesses.
The Cash Crunch
According to the Federal Reserve, small business owners with disabilities are using personal funds and debt to cover financial challenges.
This slide shows a chart from the Federal Reserve System’s 2026 Firms in Focus: Findings from the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, Chartbook on Firms by Disability Status of Ownership. It compares three groups: firms majority owned by persons with disabilities (320 firms surveyed), firms partially owned by persons with disabilities (165), and firms with no owners with disabilities (5,411).
Actions taken in response to financial challenges in the prior 12 months, as a percent of employer firms with financial challenges (majority owned by persons with disabilities / partially owned / no owners with disabilities):
- Used personal funds: 68% / 56% / 52%
- Used cash reserves: 52% / 48% / 47%
- Took out debt: 49% / 34% / 35%
- Reduced costs: 45% / 44% / 48%
- Raised prices the business charges: 44% / 41% / 48%
- Downsized operations: 32% / 28% / 31%
The Disability Squeeze
Not only are entrepreneurs with disabilities burning cash just to stay in business, but their costs of living are very high.
- Startup costs stack before revenue does. Adaptive equipment, accessible space, and personal care assistance are upfront costs.
- High cost of living squeezes working capital. Medical care and assistive tech eat into the cash cushion needed to invest in the business.
- Benefits cliffs penalize growth. Rising income risks Medicaid, SSI, or SSDI, discouraging entrepreneurs from scaling.
- Inability to access capital from day one. Credit gaps and lender bias mean many businesses start undercapitalized, so every added cost hits harder, and it’s that much harder to scale.
Why Now?
- $675B: Disposable income held by working-age adults with disabilities in the U.S., nearly 7% of the national total (Disability:IN / AIR, 2026).
- 1.8M: Business owners with disabilities currently operating in the U.S. (National Disability Institute).
- 9.1%: Self-employment rate among people with disabilities, already outpacing the general population and rising.
- Now: A new book, Case Studies in Disability-Driven Innovation, and a growing national conversation are building visibility for this population’s track record.
The Solution
The Solutions Lab pairs two resources that are rarely available to entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Social Capital: Design thinking, financial literacy and coaching, business plan and pitch development, and network building for market opportunity, making entrepreneurs “capital ready.” The Solutions Lab also will provide benefits navigator services so that entrepreneurs can better understand the growth of their business in the context of managing eligibility for benefits.
Financial Capital: Patient, flexible loans of $5,000 to $25,000 (up to $50,000), at market rates (4% to 5%) for this credit-risk profile. No equity taken. Every loan is real capital, built to establish credit history. Examples of capital uses include (but are not limited to):
- Equipment purchases
- Facility upgrades
- Trainings and certifications
- Website / IT upgrades
- Inventory
How It Works
- Apply and Select: Selection is based on capital-readiness, ability to create immediate impact, and long-term potential, not prior credit history.
- Get Capital-Ready: Design thinking, financial literacy, business-plan development, and benefits navigation prepare each entrepreneur to use funding well.
- Fund: Patient, flexible loans of $5,000 to $50,000, priced at market rate (4% to 5%), with no equity taken.
- Sustain and Connect: Ongoing mentoring, peer cohort structures, and community networking continue well past the loan itself.
Early Proof Point
$25,000 committed by Ludke Consulting, LLC in founding capital.
$10,000 has already gone out as a loan to Sekond Skin Society, a fitness app, a community, and a movement built on one belief: fitness should work for every body, not just some bodies.
The loan provided a catalytic opportunity for Sekond Skin Society to launch its instructor certification program, an ongoing revenue generator for the company.
Market Opportunity
- 1.8M, Total Addressable Market: An estimated 1.8 million business owners with disabilities currently operate in the U.S. (National Disability Institute).
- About 720K, Serviceable Addressable Market: If roughly 40% are in small or mid-size communities and rural areas, where the capital and social-capital gap is most acute, that’s an estimated 720,000 entrepreneurs.
- 3 to 5, Near-Term Capacity: The Year 1 pilot is designed to support 3 to 5 entrepreneurs, scaling as the loan fund and social capital program grow.
The Serviceable Addressable Market figure reflects an illustrative estimate based on the stated small, mid-size, and rural community focus, not a published third-party statistic.
Business Model
The Solutions Lab is a nonprofit powered by patient capital and hands-on support.
Revenue and Support: Ludke Consulting founding capital; philanthropic foundations, corporate inclusion funds, and individual impact investors.
Allocation: 70% loan fund, 20% social capital delivery, 10% day-to-day operations. Additional dedicated funds are raised separately for operating costs.
Loans to businesses are priced at competitive but accessible market rates by design. Every loan is a real loan, not a gift.
Competitive Landscape
- Synergies SEED Fund: Nonprofit CDFI (collaborator). Focus: national scale and reach.
- Accion Opportunity Fund: Nonprofit community lender. Focus: broad underserved population; not disability-specific.
- Disability-focused accelerators: Pitch competitions and accelerators. Focus: high-growth, investor-readiness.
- The Solutions Lab: Nonprofit backed by a fiscal sponsor. Focus: small businesses grounded in self-employment where a cash injection provides an immediate growth opportunity.
The Solutions Lab Difference:
- Combines patient capital with hands-on social capital
- Focus on small businesses owned by persons with disabilities that need a capital injection, and a clear plan to use it
- Character-based underwriting; no equity ever taken
- Built to collaborate, not compete, with the broader ecosystem, including other accelerators
Leadership and Governance
Ludke Consulting, LLC, Operator: Day-to-day management: program design, entrepreneur selection support, mentoring network coordination, and partner development. Founded by Bob Ludke.
Steering Committee: Funding decisions are made by a steering committee of five: representatives from Ludke Consulting and independent members with lending, disability-community, and small-business expertise.
The Ask
- Help Secure Capital: Fully capitalize the loan fund ($25,000 is already committed) and secure operational support to deliver the social capital.
- Strategic Partners: Corporate funds, individual contributions, and philanthropic partners to co-invest and refer entrepreneurs.
- Institutional Collaboration: Fiscal sponsors, accelerators, and peer organizations ready to collaborate and scale the delivery of financial and social capital to entrepreneurs.
Join The Solutions Lab in advancing entrepreneurship and self-employment of persons with disabilities.
Partner With Us
Bob Ludke. Phone: 202-445-9345. Email: robert@thesolutions-lab.org.