The Architect of the Exchange ✨
Before there was a platform, there was a vision.
A vision rooted in culture, community, visibility, and the belief that Black businesses deserved more than survival mode.
Shantelle Patton didn’t build That Brown Bag to simply create another business website. She built it to challenge invisibility.
What began in Buffalo as a printed guide highlighting Black owned businesses evolved into something much bigger: a growing ecosystem designed to connect businesses to opportunity, community, capital, and culture in ways that feel intentional and impactful.
As the founder of That Brown Bag and The Brown Bag Exchange, Shantelle has spent years creating spaces where entrepreneurship and cultural connection can exist side by side. Her work lives at the intersection of business advocacy, storytelling, economic empowerment, and community engagement.
But behind the strategy is also an artist.
A poet.
A builder of experiences.
A woman deeply invested in making sure Black businesses aren’t only seen during moments or movements but positioned for long term visibility and growth.
Through vendor experiences, entrepreneur education, supplier diversity initiatives, cultural programming, and ecosystem building, her work continues to center one core idea:
Visibility without opportunity isn’t enough.
That Brown Bag exists to help businesses move from overlooked to positioned. From isolated to connected. From surviving to building something sustainable.
Because culture deserves infrastructure too. ✊🏾
Shantelle isn't new to this work. She’s been building Black business visibility, community trust, and culture centered economic infrastructure since 2018, before “buy Black” became a seasonal marketing slogan and before supplier diversity became a corporate buzzword.
She’s the founder of That Brown Bag and The Brown Bag Exchange, President of the Urban Chamber of Commerce, Director of Programming and Community Engagement at Intersect Buffalo, a Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business scholar, a UB Cultivator entrepreneur, a Buffalo Niagara Partnership Economic Champion, and an Athena Award nominee.
But the real value proposition is not only in the titles. It’s in the relationships.
Shantelle has spent years building trust with entrepreneurs, community leaders, corporate partners, funders, vendors, artists, institutions, and everyday people who believe Black business deserves more than visibility. They deserve access, infrastructure, and opportunity.
Her work lives at the intersection of culture, commerce, storytelling, capital access, vendor curation, financial literacy, and community engagement. She doesn’t just create programs. She builds ecosystems. She doesn’t just promote businesses. She positions them. She doesn’t just open rooms. She knows who needs to be in them, who needs to be connected, and how to make the relationship matter after the introduction.
That Brown Bag was born from that work.
A printed guide became a platform. A platform became a network. A network became an exchange. And now, The Brown Bag Exchange is growing into a stronger ecosystem designed to help Black owned businesses be discovered, supported, funded, booked, contracted, and remembered.
Because Shantelle’s gift isn’t just finding the businesses.
It’s knowing how to connect the right people, build the right bridges, and turn community trust into economic movement.