Adenah Bayoh, an IHOP franchisee and passionate entrepreneur, co-founded fast casual Cornbread Farm to Soul to put a spotlight on soul food favorites.

Along with the restaurant’s signature cornbread, its menu features chef-partner Elzadie Smith’s scratch-made fried chicken, catfish, yams, baked mac and cheese, collard greens and peach cobbler.

Three locations are currently open in the New York-New Jersey area, and now, the partners are on a mission to expand Cornbread through franchising. But as a Black woman and first-generation immigrant, Bayoh is finding it challenging to attract investors and get financing.