TAMPA, Fla. — JPMorgan Chase has awarded a $134,000 grant to Tampa’s Chamber of Commerce for its Minority Business Accelerator program.

The grant will be used to help minority-owned business receive training on managing a business and growing in the community.

What You Need To Know

  • The Tampa Chamber of Commerce launched its Minority Business Accelerator program in 2019

  • MBA will provide training for 18 minority-owned businesses in the next two years

  • Ortega Custom Cabinets was a cohort of the program in 2023 and has now expanded from residential to commercial 

  • Tampa Chamber of Commerce Minority Business Accelerator

Ortega Custom Cabinets is a recent graduate or cohort of the program and thanks to the training and network opportunities with MBA, CEO Damaris Ortega says she and her husband have expanded from the residential sector to commercial.

“The grants basically help small business owners like us to learn and educate ourselves more into our business, what is required to grow a business when it comes to not only the partnerships but also when it comes to the marketing,” Ortega said.

The Ortegas launched Ortega Custom Cabinets in 2010.

At the time, Damaris was a banker and her husband was a master carpenter.  

Neither had any experience running a business until they joined the Tampa Chamber’s MBA.

The MBA provides two years of targeted workshops, mentoring and group activities designed to boost capacity, create jobs and build wealth.

View more information on the Tampa Chamber's Minority Business Accelerator.