2&3
Strategic Capital Overview  ·  2025

The gap isn't talent.
It's infrastructure.

A capital conversation for CDFIs, impact investors, and SBA intermediaries aligned with Black economic development and veteran entrepreneurship in the American Southeast.

Certification SDVOSB
Headquarters Columbus, GA
Ask Type Strategic Capital
Equity Offered None
01  The Problem

Black-owned businesses
close at disproportionate rates.

The talent exists. The ambition exists. What doesn't exist — not reliably, not accessibly — is the infrastructure that converts corporate expertise into a scalable business.

Access to the right networks, the right frameworks, and the right capital relationships is the delta between a great idea and a generational business.

That gap is not a coincidence. It is a structural deficiency. And it is the exact gap Second & Third Order was built to close.

"The playbook exists. The geography is right. The talent is there. What's missing is the firm that bridges the executive and the operator — and charges accordingly."

41% of Black-owned businesses close within the first year of operation
$0 premium structured transition consulting firms in the Columbus, GA market
20yr founder track record in Army operational leadership and infrastructure development
02  The Company

Built for a market
no one else is serving.

Second & Third Order Consulting is a management consulting firm specializing in workforce activation and economic development. We work at the intersection of three pipelines: education-to-workforce, workforce-to-business creation, and business-to-local economic growth.

Core Practice
Workforce Activation

Structured consulting engagements that activate dormant talent pipelines — from institutional workforce programs to individual career-to-ownership transitions.

Core Practice
Economic Development

Consulting at the community and organizational level, connecting workforce output to local business formation and sustainable economic infrastructure.

Strategic Differentiator
Corporate-to-Entrepreneur Pipeline

Primary market: senior professionals and executives seeking a structured, high-touch transition into business ownership. No premium competitor exists in this geography.

Strategic Differentiator
Federal Contract Alignment

SDVOSB certification opens procurement channels across DoL, VA, HUD, DoT, and SBA. The certification is not ornamental — it is an active competitive moat.

Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)
Headquartered: Columbus, Georgia
HubZone-Adjacent Geography
Fort Moore Corridor Market Access
03  The Founder
Queston
Vanzant
Founder & Principal Consultant
20-year U.S. Army veteran
PMP-Certified
3 years active framework development under direct mentorship
SDVOSB-certified operator
Documented, deployable consulting framework suite

Operational discipline is not a soft skill here — it is the product. Twenty years of Army service built a founder who manages complexity at scale, under constraint, with precision. That is exactly the capability his clients are paying for.

The frameworks are not theoretical. They are documented, field-tested, and built through three years of infrastructure development under active mentorship. The market has been mapped. The relationships are in motion. The geography — Fort Moore, the HubZone footprint, the veteran talent pool — is a strategic moat, not a coincidence.

The founder is not learning the market. He is the market.

Zero premium competition in this geography. The infrastructure to serve them exists. The firm is open.
04  The Model

Two tiers.
No ambiguity on value.

Tier One
General Engagement
$7,500–$50K
Per engagement

Project-scoped consulting engagements for workforce activation, organizational economic development, and structured business transition planning. Deliverable-anchored. Timeline-defined.

Tier Two
Luxurious Retainer
$40K
Per month, ongoing

High-touch, continuous consulting partnership for senior professionals executing a structured transition into business ownership. Access, accountability, and infrastructure — sustained over time.

Federal Pipeline
SDVOSB-aligned federal contract development across five agency verticals
DoL VA HUD DoT SBA SDVOSB Certification Active Fort Moore Corridor Southeast Georgia HubZone
05  The Ask

This is not
an equity round.

"We are identifying strategic capital partners aligned with Black economic development, veteran entrepreneurship, or workforce consulting in the Southeast."

CDFIs with a mission aligned to Black economic mobility or veteran entrepreneurship
Impact investors with portfolio interest in the Southeast U.S. workforce and economic development sectors
SBA intermediaries and strategic lenders with SDVOSB or small business development mandates
Partners who understand that the right capital conversation begins with relationship — not a term sheet
Request a 30-Minute Call