Jewell Loyd is an avid bedtime reader.
Except, instead of curling up with a bestseller after a long day enduring the demands of life as one of the WNBA’s stars, Loyd unwinds with a stack of business briefs.
“Nothing is signed off on until I approve it,” she said with a grin.
Learning to juggle is a prerequisite for anyone looking to succeed as a multihypenate professional athlete.
Loyd isn’t just a two-time WNBA champion, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a six-time All-Star and the WNBA’s 2023 scoring champion, although that list of accolades is enough for anyone to rest upon. Loyd is a businesswoman who, in partnership with her brother Jarryd, is attempting to change the trajectory of underserved communities’ financial futures.
“A lot of times, the financial world makes it so complicated, and they feel intimidated,” Jewell said. “Like, ‘This is just too much,’ or ‘I’m not smart enough,’ ‘I have to be rich to invest.’ You can invest with a dollar. You can invest with whatever. The first hurdle is to make it not scary, make it understandable. Once you have that, you can make it accessible.”
Bridging the entrepreneurship gap
Loyd and Co. — the Chicago-based, mission-driven financial firm Jewell co-founded with Jarryd — announced the acquisition of Help With My Loan in February. The goal is to help entrepreneurs, specifically underrepresented business owners, grow and scale their companies.
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Report published in 2023, women are less likely to become entrepreneurs and are more likely to face hurdles when starting businesses. A report from CNBC detailed a 45% decline in venture capitalist investment in Black-founded startups in 2022. Startups run by Black women received less than 1% of U.S. venture capital investment that same year.
Statistics from the Small Business Administration for the 2023 fiscal year show that white business owners (35%) were more likely to be approved for loans versus Hispanic (19%), Black (16%) and Asian (15%) business owners.
Learning about these gaps in financial-growth opportunities for underrepresented entrepreneurs was a motivating factor in the year-and-a-half-long process to acquire Help With My Loan.
“In Chicago alone, there is a $146 million gap for funding across the board for entrepreneurs,” Jarryd said. “Across the United States, it’s $87 billion annually for loans people need access to for under $100,000. How we’re looking at that is the double impact. We’re able to employ folks in our company, so we consider that direct impact. Outside of that, what is our indirect impact? We did the math, and roughly, we think we can have — by providing loans and financial services to folks across the country — at least a $30 [million]-$40 million impact indirectly this year, providing close to $200 [million]-$300 million of access to entrepreneurs.”
Business starts at home
Jarryd’s discussions with his sister, who is seven years younger, regarding off-court business endeavors began when she was in high school. Their mother, Gwendolyn, worked in corporate America, and their father, Calvin, was an entrepreneur. Every Sunday dinner was like a master class on successfully navigating the world.
“There was a constant belief that if you really wanted to do something, you really could,” Jewell said. “It was never ‘I don’t know if you want to do that.’ My parents always allowed us to be creative. The biggest thing was looking at my family, and they’re really educated Black women.”
Beyond HWML, the Loyds have a minority stake in Major League Pickleball’s Miami club. They bought a Smoothie King in Skokie in 2023 and a 160-acre organic farm in 2021. Jewell attended Niles West High School in Skokie.
Loyd is one WNBA player among a handful providing examples of how to parlay a career in professional sports into one as an entrepreneur. Three-time WNBA champion Candace Parker had a full entrepreneurial résumé before she even retired and has only added to it. Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu and Sky forward Angel Reese are investors in professional women’s soccer teams. At 19 years old, USC guard JuJu Watkins became an investor in Unrivaled.
A significant driving force for Loyd and many of her peers when considering their off-court ventures is legacy. The WNBA’s new collective-bargaining agreement — which the league and WNBPA are currently negotiating — won’t just improve players’ salaries. It could have a substantial impact on players’ overall wealth.
“As the money grows, you’ll have less fear to invest,” Loyd said. “That’s still a thing, ‘Can I invest?’ It also takes a person who is ready to study and understand what they want to invest in and find the partners they want to work with.”
“Most people don’t dream big enough”
In preparation for the WNBA season, Loyd’s focus shifts slightly. Instead of being in every meeting, she’s given summaries and remains in communication with her brother.
At this time last year, that shift was beginning to take place ahead of her 10th season with the Storm, which came with lofty expectations after the franchise signed stars Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike in free agency. Both praised the organization and said Loyd was one of the reasons they wanted to play in Seattle.
Storm coach Noelle Quinn called Loyd “the connector” in an interview with the Sun-Times and echoed Diggins-Smith and Ogwumike, saying, “She’s why people want to come here.”
By the end of the year, Loyd had requested a trade after an investigation into alleged harassment and bullying by the Storm’s coaching staff, which concluded with no violations found. During a press conference, Storm general manager Talisa Rhea said there wasn’t a specific moment they could pinpoint when the relationship became irreparable.
For Loyd, it was a personal evolution that contributed to challenging realizations.
“As I got more confident in who I am and more bold in my decision-making and the vision I had for myself and my family, certain things just didn’t align,” Loyd said. “If someone goes back and watches games or hears interviews, you can see the shift more and more.
“It’s kind of like you’re a snake. When you’re shedding your skin, it’s not because it’s the end of something. It’s cause you’re growing.”
That growth landed Loyd in Las Vegas, where she’ll join Olympic teammates A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young in an attempt to return the Aces to title contention. Ten years into her WNBA career, the motivation is the same, but the force behind it is different.
Loyd isn’t a rookie in the Pacific Northwest for the first time, attempting to build a résumé that will one day prove she’s one of the league’s greats. She’s a veteran whose accomplishments earned her the right to be bold and confident in pursuit of more.
“Coming to Vegas is the perfect reset,” Loyd said. “It’s the thing that gives me a little more life, honestly. There’s a different perspective because you’re around other people who think like you. It’s almost like you’ve been in a class that you’ve been excelling in. Now you go to honors, and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, everyone understands what I’m thinking.’
“Maybe my crazy ideas aren’t crazy. Now you’re around people who can help elevate those things. Now it’s like, ‘Well, I’m going to dream bigger.’”
Loyd’s “crazy” ideas include winning a couple more championships and opening businesses in Las Vegas. The comfort that lies in knowing she has the right team behind her, whether on the court with the Aces or off the court with her brother, is the foundation she’s leaping from.
Whether she gets to five championships or reaches the highest goal she has set for herself in business is, in some ways, irrelevant. In Loyd’s mind, merely taking the risk will allow her to succeed in ways that have yet to come fully into focus.
“Most people don’t dream big enough,” she said. “I have accomplished a lot off and on the court. Now it’s like, ‘Why not? Go big.’”
