Northern Lights - Issue 42 - May 2026
Clients, Businesses, Community Dreams: Venture North Focuses on Growth
by AMY LANE
For nearly a quarter of a century, Matt Davis has been involved with products that save people’s lives.
New Business Chapter; 110 More Jobs for Kalkaska
But now, he’s embarked on his biggest venture in the body armor space – a new plant to manufacture protection for the law enforcement and military communities, ultimately creating some 110 jobs in the small northwest Michigan village of Kalkaska.
It’s a new chapter for WarBird Protection Group Inc., where Davis, founder and CEO, is among entrepreneurs whose small businesses have grown with help once and again from Venture North Funding & Development. WarBird’s expansion, which includes not only manufacturing but also ballistic testing and product development operations, speaks to Davis’ passion for the business.
“I’m very proud of the progress we’ve made and the brand we’ve created,” he said. “We have a really cool brand, and I’m excited to bring it to market.”
It was some 24 years ago that Davis joined a body armor business started by his father. Richard Davis launched Second Chance Body Armor downstate in the early 1970s and moved it to Central Lake in 1975, where it manufactured and sold body armor and grew to have global sales.
The younger Davis climbed in the company to become group vice president of sales and marketing and in 2005 he started a new business, Armor Express. He sold Armor Express to a private equity firm in 2015, resigned as an employee in 2020 and stepped down from the board of directors in 2022.
Davis then formed WarBird Protection Group, incorporating it in 2023 and initially targeting direct-to-consumer sales of body armor – the vests that provide protection from projectiles – as well as eye and ear protection products. Starting up, he received a $175,000 loan from Venture North that “was really critical to helping us establish our brand identity, our marketing materials and our website,” Davis said. “It really helped us create the persona of our business.”
When a non-compete agreement with his former company expired, Davis shifted his sales focus “to go all in on law enforcement and building a national sales network of distributors.”
According to their website, WarBird Protection Group is “…fueled by a passion to protect those who stand in harm's way.” Some examples of this – including body armor and protective eyewear – are shown above.
Poised for Growth
And now, WarBird is poised for major expansion. Manufacturing, outsourced in WarBird’s early days, has come in-house to an 18,000-square-foot building in Kalkaska purchased for WarBird’s new home. It’s a location that, after extensive renovation, is “a fully functional manufacturing facility outfitted with all of the important equipment for large-scale production, as well as an internal ballistic testing facility that allows us to develop cutting-edge body armor on site,” Davis said.
Body armor is two components: Protective panels that stop bullets and are made of layers of high strength, high performance material stitched together; and the garments called “carriers” into which they are inserted and worn by the user. The new Kalkaska site includes a product development center dedicated to designing both the carriers and the armor panels, and WarBird will manufacture both.
Partners for Growth
A $750,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp., or MEDC, which Davis said has “been a fantastic partner,” has helped with the expansion and went toward renovations.
Also stepping in: Venture North, with a $210,000 loan that Davis said, “was critical in helping us outfit our building with state-of-the-art cutting and sewing equipment.” Purchases included a fabric cutter from Germany, sewing machines and a laser cutter, as well as laboratory equipment. “There was a massive investment into the equipment, and Venture North played a critical role in helping us achieve that,” he said.
Davis said Venture North President Laura Galbraith and Venture North small business lender and coach Steve Brower have been “phenomenal to work with. They took the time to understand our business needs and worked with us to support our mission to create jobs and save lives.”
Venture North is a Community Development Financial Institution or CDFI, offering affordable loans and no-cost consulting in a ten-county region of northwest Michigan. Over the years, Davis said, Venture North’s assistance came at key times.
“Venture North really stepped up at critical moments when we needed a boost,” assessing the business and its potential for growth and “positive impact on the community,” he said.
Fulfilling Clients Needs
Galbraith said Venture North’s loan programs help clients at a “moment in time” and can be for many needs. “We may be providing loan capital to assist with a down payment, or to offset a gap in financing. There have been numerous projects over the years, where we helped financing construction cost overruns, unexpected costs (such as a new fire suppression system) or goodwill included in a business acquisition,” she said.
Venture North can offer low-cost, interest-only loans for 12-24 months, depending on project timeline – bridge loans that Galbraith said have helpful with the MEDC’s Main Street grant program and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s value-added grants.
Grand Traverse County, MEDC Support Through Block Grant Program
Galbraith said Venture North can also secure funding through the Community Development Block Grant loan program, a federal program administered by the MEDC and utilized locally by Grand Traverse County. The loan fund, which has more than $600,000 available to lend to Grand Traverse county-based businesses, “is meant for businesses that are scaling up, creating jobs and needing low-cost capital,” she said. Loans are at 3 percent interest with no closing fees, and the loan amount is dependent on the number of full-time-equivalent jobs the business is creating. WarBird’s 2023 loan through Venture North was funded by the CDBG program.
Davis, whose years in the industry have built knowledge, experience, relationships and connections, said WarBird has a “great base of suppliers” and has distributors across the country “that are really excited to grow with us.” Speaking with Northern Lights in April, Davis said some manufacturing had begun but the company was awaiting National Institute of Justice certification of its armor panels before moving into full production. The institute, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, sets a voluntary body armor standard that is the only nationally accepted standard for body armor worn by law enforcement and corrections officers.
Products Crafted to High Standards
It’s a crucial stamp of approval; “without having products certified to that standard, you can’t sell into the market,” Davis said. He expected certification soon.
WarBird’s ear and eye protection products are proprietary designs that are outsourced for manufacturing. While those will still be sold to consumers, WarBird’s main focus for its products will be state and local law enforcement entities in the United States and Canada, with future growth into federal law enforcement and the military.
Candidates for New Jobs
The company currently has 12 employees but will scale up as it moves into full manufacturing. It’s had no shortage of candidates; Davis said there’s been a steady flow of jobseekers showing up at the company ever since it put out its sign. WarBird is also working with Michigan Works! to identify potential employees.
“One of our primary goals is to fill our promise of creating jobs in Kalkaska,” Davis said, adding, “I’m excited about getting back to the business of saving lives and impacting the law enforcement community in extraordinarily powerful and positive ways.”
Growing clients often return for additional capital to Venture North, which has a streamlined process and flexible terms and conditions, Galbraith said. In some cases, a client may still be ramping up its business and considered a start-up with insufficient years of tax returns “to show proof in concept to a traditional lender,” she said. “Or the project they are looking to fund is unsecured or has limited collateral, so a CDFI such as Venture North is more suited to fund that type of project.”
In requests for additional capital, Venture North considers how the business has done, its business plan for the future or executive summary on its new project, and other information that a traditional lender would analyze.
The Dream of Integrated Community Care
As clients grow, Venture North’s assistance can help entrepreneurs realize dreams.
Take Jessica Horness, who for a little over three years has built a business providing counseling and psychotherapy, improving clients’ mental health and well-being.
But she’s visualized doing more -- creating an integrated community care center with a variety of practices that are healing. Now, that dream is becoming reality.
Opened in April is Traverse Well Being, a collective of practitioners that includes Horness and other therapists offering a range of specialties, with future possibilities for body-oriented wellness practices like massage therapy.
“I feel a sense of hopefulness, of real deep-rootedness in this community, and a sense of joy and love for what potential this has,” Horness said. “And I’m so excited for the opportunity to find people who share that and build something together.”
Help with a Safety Net
For Horness, owner of Jessica Horness Counseling and Psychotherapy, Venture North’s support first came as she was opening her Traverse City private practice in January 2023. A $5,250 Venture North micro loan gave Horness resources to be flexible with pricing, pay rent, cover other expenses and pay herself. It was a financial cushion that was “incredibly helpful,” she said.
“That gave me the safety net that I needed in order to make the step into private practice,” Horness said. Venture North also provided a $1,200 mini grant for accounting and web services.
From nearly the start, Horness’ client load has been full with a continual waiting list, reflecting the demand for mental health services. And that’s not all that’s kept her busy.
She has a growing side endeavor providing continuing education to yoga teachers, founding the Haven School of Yoga to help teachers strengthen their practices and integrate trauma-supportive principles into yoga classes. Haven offerings include personal development weekends with workshops for teachers to gain skills and competencies, held at varied locations.
Horness, who has been practicing yoga for 15 years, said an $8,000 Venture North loan in 2024 helped launch the venture, paying for guest teachers, space, advertising and other infrastructure and support.
Creating Traverse Well Being
“This is a growing project that we’re hoping to be teaching in various ways and various spaces for quite a while,” she said.
That, as she partners with longtime friend and colleague Brendan ODonnel, in creating Traverse Well Being. The two shared space for their separate practices in a building on East Front Street -- ODonnel, providing mental health counseling, relationship and other therapy through his Navigation Therapy practice and Horness, providing clinical mental health counseling, alcohol and substance abuse counseling, life transition support and counseling that includes support for individuals navigating culturally-specific concerns.
“For years…we have been cultivating and dreaming this idea of what it would look like to build a community center for health. A place that makes receiving mental health care and other forms of health care more accessible, while maintaining a really high standard of care,” Horness said. “We’ve got some amazing folks who really think about offering care in a community-centered, ethical values-driven way. And we’re going to be working together to build over time into maybe something bigger.”
A $14,000 Venture North loan has helped renovate space in a Traverse City location housing four offices and a waiting room for Traverse Well Being – a place for both clients and creativity, with possibilities including classes that might be offered in the community and mentorship for clinicians early in their careers.
It’s a work in progress and far beyond where Horness began as a business owner, seeing a finite number of individual clients in therapy. “What this process has actually ended up is far more creative, far more expansive, so many diverse opportunities…yoga teaching, opportunities for mentorship, the growth of this new business that’s greater than the sum of its parts,” she said.
And she’s grateful for Venture North’s role in her growth. “Working with Venture North, it’s partially about the loan, but what’s been so incredible working with them…is that they offer so much belief and encouragement, they are ready and available with whatever support they can offer, sometimes support I didn’t even know existed,” Horness said.
Taking Risks and Hurdling Barriers – with Partners
“I am always grateful for Venture North, not just for the capital, but for the way they show up and champion the businesses they support.”
Galbraith credits Horness and WarBird’s Davis for “taking the risk to start their businesses, as it is not easy, there are always hurdles you were not expecting.
“They each are very resilient and resourceful. They have a passion for their industry, have a fabulous product or service, and have assembled a strong devoted team,” she said.
“They work hard and it is no wonder their businesses are in growth mode.”
Amy Lane is a veteran Michigan business reporter whose background includes work with Crain Communications Inc., Crain’s Detroit Business and serving as Capitol correspondent for nearly 25 years. Now a freelance reporter and journalist, Lane’s work has appeared in many publications including Traverse City Business News.
