DALLAS — Bishop T.D. Jakes is bringing his biggest bet on Black entrepreneurship back to Texas this week. The fourth annual Good Soil Forum, presented by Wells Fargo, takes over the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas from October 8–10, headlined by filmmaker and philanthropist Tyler Perry and anchored by a Seed Capital Pitch Competition that will award $500,000 in equity-free funding to winning founders.
The announcement from the Good Soil Movement, the organization Jakes founded to connect entrepreneurs with capital and relationships, marks the largest prize pool in the forum’s short history — double the $250,000 awarded at the inaugural event in 2023. Organizers say last year’s competition drew 1,829 applications, more than twice the previous year’s total, and registrants from as far as Japan and countries across Africa are expected at this year’s gathering.
What Is the Good Soil Forum?
The Good Soil Forum is the flagship event of the Good Soil Movement, which Jakes launched to address one of the most persistent barriers in American business: access to capital. The forum brings together founders, investors, corporate leaders, and potential customers for three days of keynote sessions, fireside chats, panels, and breakout workshops — all built around the idea that great businesses can grow anywhere if they get the right soil.
“At a moment when many entrepreneurs report seeing a path to ownership but cannot reach the capital or relationships that help unlock it, the Good Soil Movement is building a national platform,” organizers said in the forum announcement. Since the inaugural forum in 2023, the movement says it has awarded nearly $1 million in capital to small business owners.
The forum’s rise has been swift. What began as a Dallas gathering has become a national convening, with the movement signaling plans to expand the forum to more U.S. cities in the years ahead.
That growth mirrors the expanding footprint of Jakes’ own enterprise. Through T.D. Jakes Enterprises, the bishop has built interests spanning media, publishing, film, and live events — a business portfolio that gives him unusual credibility with the founders he is trying to help. He is not preaching entrepreneurship from a distance; he has lived the fundraising pitches, the partnerships, and the setbacks himself.
The $500,000 Pitch Competition
The centerpiece of the forum is the Seed Capital Pitch Competition, a live, Shark Tank-style showdown in which founders pitch their businesses before judges and an audience — with real money on the line. This year’s $500,000 in equity-free capital means winners keep full ownership of their companies, a distinction that sets the competition apart in a startup world where funding usually costs founders a slice of their business.
Last year’s competition offers a preview of what to expect. Dallas-based founders took home top honors: Kia-Shun Voltz, founder and CEO of Shampoo Time, won over judges with a children’s haircare line she started with a $200 investment in 2020 — a brand that has since spread across 16 countries and generated $2 million in lifetime revenue. “I lived the problem, developed the solutions, and proved their demand. Now, we are planting seeds into some good soil so that we can grow,” Voltz said during her winning pitch.
Third place and $75,000 went to SickFit, a compression sock brand founded by U.S. Army veteran Paden Sickles, who spent 11 years on her feet as an engineer officer. The brand has sold more than 200,000 pairs of socks and is worn by Olympians and WNBA players. Other finalists included FloEver Health, a hormonal healthcare brand; 4 Second Football, a training company; Metric Mate, an AI workout platform; and Sip Herbals, a coffee-substitute drink brand.
A Star-Studded Speaker Lineup
This year’s forum pairs business substance with serious star power. Tyler Perry — the filmmaker, studio owner, and longtime friend of Jakes — is the headline guest, continuing a relationship between the two men that has played out on some of gospel’s biggest stages. Perry famously donated $1 million to The Potter’s House during Jakes’ MegaFest years ago, then laid hands on the bishop in prayer in a moment that went viral across the Christian world.
Joining Perry on stage are financier and Operation HOPE founder John Hope Bryant, film producer Brian Hooks, actors Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker, marketing professor Dr. Marcus Collins, radio personality DeDe McGuire, and speaker Kier Gaines. The mix of business leaders, entertainers, and cultural figures reflects the forum’s thesis: entrepreneurship is as much about story, brand, and community as it is about spreadsheets.
Advance coverage of the forum has already begun in the faith press, with outlets profiling authors and founders headed to Dallas — a sign of how the event has become a fixture on the Black church and business calendar alike.
Why It Matters: The Capital Gap
The forum lands at a moment when the numbers behind Black entrepreneurship remain stark. Study after study has shown that Black founders receive a tiny fraction of venture capital funding in America, and that the friends-and-family round — the first money most businesses run on — is far harder to raise in communities with less generational wealth.
Jakes has spoken about this gap in explicitly moral terms, framing access to capital as a justice issue and entrepreneurship as a path to dignity. The Good Soil Movement’s pitch — mentorship, access to capital, and infrastructure, without taking equity — is designed as a direct answer to a system many founders experience as closed.
The Wells Fargo partnership gives the effort corporate weight, and the growth from $250,000 to $500,000 in prize money in three years suggests the model is finding believers. For the founders who take the stage in Irving this week, the stakes are simple: a few minutes at a microphone could change the trajectory of a company.
It is also worth noting what the forum is not. There are no multi-level marketing pitches, no pay-to-play speaking slots, no promises of overnight wealth — the traps that have burned faith audiences before. The currency here is a business plan, a working product, and a founder willing to be questioned. That seriousness is a large part of why the event has earned coverage well beyond the church press, from business magazines to national wires.
Fifty Years in Ministry
The forum arrives just weeks after a milestone moment for Jakes himself. On September 13, The Potter’s House of Dallas celebrated “The Sound of 50” — a special service marking five decades of Jakes’ ministry, tracing his path from a storefront preacher in West Virginia to one of the most recognized pastors in the world.
More than 5,300 congregants filled the sanctuary, with another 64,000 watching on YouTube. Video tributes poured in from Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Pastor John Hagee, and Joel and Victoria Osteen. Jakes’ son-in-law, Pastor Touré Roberts, told him from the pulpit: “You dared to be different. You dared to be talked about. You dared to be ostracized. You risked it all.”
The celebration also nodded to Jakes’ creative legacy — including his Grammy-winning gospel work. His album “A Wing and a Prayer” won the 2004 Grammy for Best Gospel Choir or Chorus Album, part of a career in which preaching, music, books, and film have shared the same platform.
A Season of Transition at The Potter’s House
The anniversary comes during a season of change for Jakes’ Dallas megachurch. The bishop has announced plans to step aside as lead pastor of The Potter’s House, with his daughter Sarah Jakes Roberts and her husband Touré Roberts set to take the helm of the congregation he founded in 1996.
The transition marks the end of an era for a church that grew from 1,500 people on its first Sunday to a global ministry with tens of thousands of members. For many in the pews, the Good Soil Forum’s focus on the next generation of builders carries a symbolic weight: Jakes is spending his fiftieth year in ministry investing in other people’s beginnings.
What to Watch This Week
The forum runs October 8–10 at the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas. Beyond the pitch competition, attendees can expect keynotes, panels, and networking sessions built around this year’s theme of faith-driven entrepreneurship. With Tyler Perry headlining and half a million dollars on the line, the event is poised to generate the kind of moments — a winning pitch, a surprise announcement, a viral clip — that travel far beyond Dallas.
For Jakes, now 68 and five decades into his calling, the forum represents something larger than a conference. It is the clearest expression of a ministry that has always paired the spiritual with the practical: souls and startups, faith and funding, the pulpit and the pitch stage.
The Gospel Report will continue to follow the Good Soil Forum as it unfolds this week in Dallas.
About the Author
