About Stepsmith
Skilled trades, smart capital,stronger blocks.
Stepsmith converts inner-city trades labor into equity-holding employers. Across Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis we wrap HVAC, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, and roofing trades in a four-layer stack: AI diagnostics, revenue-based financing with New Markets Tax Credit leverage, a paid 12-week apprenticeship pipeline, and an anchored buyer network that already contracts in the zip codes where the employer operates.
High-demand field labor should produce equity-holding employers —not a permanent subcontractor underclass.
The stack
Four layers, fused — not a stack of referrals.
Stepsmith wraps every founder in diagnostics, capital, an apprenticeship-to-ownership track, and a buyer network that already buys trades in the zip codes where the employer operates. Each layer strengthens the next — strip one and the rest stop paying out.
AI diagnostics
Every founder gets a market-grade read on licensing, pricing, and capacity — calibrated against local trade data, not generic SBA thresholds.
$5K–$250K + NMTC
Revenue-based micro-financing paired with New Markets Tax Credit leverage and matched philanthropic capital — sized to the bid, not the elevator pitch.
12-week paid pipeline
A structured apprenticeship-to-ownership track that turns journeyman skill into business ownership — instrumentation, estimating, and crew on the same payroll.
Anchored procurement
Municipal, healthcare, higher-ed, and developer procurement teams actively sourcing from Stepsmith graduates in the zip codes where they operate.
The pledge
60% of every financedcrew, hired from the sameneighborhood it serves.
Every Stepsmith cohort enforces the 60% standard against the same neighborhood the crew serves — three cities, three different demand signals, one operational rule. Enforceable in the ZIP band, not just stated in the marketing.
The 60% local-hire pledge is enforceable across the 482xx ZIP band — Detroit Land Bank Authority and Michigan Rehab anchor the buyer pipeline Stepsmith graduates into.
County-level set-asides (Cuyahoga, CEDI) plus anchor institutions (Cleveland Clinic, CSU) sourcing locally — the 60% pledge lines up against neighborhood-specific hiring zones.
North-side building trades with hospitals (BJC, SSM) and the brick north-corridor developers as buyers — the 60% pledge is enforced against the same neighborhood the crew serves.
Trade your sub role for a stake
Ready to stop carrying someone else'strademark?
Stepsmith accepts applications on a rolling basis in Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis. Founders with active trade experience in HVAC, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, or roofing get priority review.
Apply
Send a one-paragraph intro and the trade you want to scale.
Buyer network, press, partnerships — same inbox. We route fast.
Or just get updates
New cohorts, city announcements, founder stories — short notes only.