DeAngelo Watson | Episode 011 | Locked In

An In Good Company Feature  |  By JermConnects

DeAngelo Watson on Focus, Failure, and Finding Your Lane

DeAngelo Watson doesn't sugarcoat it. When asked how he's feeling at the start of our conversation, he doesn't offer a polished answer. He gives you two words.

"Locked in. I'm all the way locked in right now."

It's January 2026, and DeAngelo is sitting in his home office in Charlotte, running a business funding company with a team of 10 people and over $20 million deployed to small business owners across the country. But 10 years ago, he was one year into corporate America with a computer science degree from North Carolina A&T, dreaming of climbing the ladder to a Fortune 500 corner office.

That dream died. Something better took its place.

The Side Hustle That Became the Main Focus

Deangelo spent nearly a decade in corporate while building FFB Enterprises on the side. He tried everything. E-commerce. Trucking. Renting out his Audi on Turo. Each venture taught him something, but none of them stuck.

"I tried a bunch of different things, realized I can't do everything. I locked in. When you focus on one thing, you can see the fruits of your labor."

Then he got fired.

For most people, that moment would be the low point of the story. For DeAngelo, it was the inflection point. His back against the wall, he had no choice but to bet on himself. The side hustle became the main focus. And the main focus started growing.

The Myth About Business Funding

DeAngelo operates in an industry full of noise. Credit repair gurus. Funding bros promising overnight riches. He watches it all with a calm detachment.

"A lot of people think I just do credit repair. That's a common misconception."

The difference matters. Credit repair is about cleaning up your report, removing late payments and medical bills. Business funding is about obtaining capital to scale or start operations. DeAngelo does both, but his focus is on the latter.

And while others in his space claim the game is dying because big banks have tightened lending, DeAngelo sees opportunity.

"There's over 4,000 banks, over 4,000 credit unions. So there's not a lack of resources out there. You just have to be able to connect with them."

That's his edge. Relationships. The dirty work of cold calling bankers, building a database, creating a network that his competitors don't have the patience to build.

The Lesson That Cost Him

DeAngelo is a numbers guy. Computer science degree, remember. So when he found a four-unit property in Chicago with promising cash flow projections, he ran the numbers and pulled the trigger.

He didn't know the South Side. He didn't have boots on the ground. He trusted the spreadsheet.

"I inherited tenants that were not paying rent. They were going through a subsidy program. Once that time frame was over, they didn't pay. I had to evict them. They were squatting. They vandalized the property."

A year and a half later, he's still working through the rehab process to sell. But Watson doesn't call it a regret. He calls it education.

"I don't want to say I regret it, because now I'm better. I know I'm going to do a little bit more due diligence."

Real estate isn't dead for him. It's just on pause. And when he comes back, it'll be closer to home, with a team he trusts.

The Inner Work

Near the end of our conversation, DeAngelo gets reflective. He'd been thinking the day before about what was really holding his company back. Not the surface-level answers. The real stuff.

"My company was stuck at a revenue level for two, three years while I was working corporate. The reason why is because I had a fear of responsibility and accountability. I didn't want to deal with having people that had to answer to me."

It wasn't until his job disappeared that he was forced to confront it. To become the leader his company needed. And once he did, something shifted.

"Once you start becoming who you feel like you should have been, you kind of feel like you're unstoppable. As long as you have God with you, keep your faith, man, anything is possible."

The Question

I ask everyone the same closing question: If you could ask the world one question and get an honest answer, what would it be?

DeAngelo pauses. Then he laughs a little, like he knows it sounds simple.

"Why can't everybody just do good? The world would be a better place if everybody just did good."

It's not a naive question. Coming from a man who's been through squatters and setbacks and the slow grind of building something real, it lands differently. It's not idealism. It's exhaustion with the alternative.

DeAngelo Watson is locked in. And if you're trying to fund your business the right way, with real strategy and real relationships, he's probably the person you want in your corner.

Find him on Instagram @ello_theplug or at ffbenterprises.com.