From Philadelphia trades to drones and commodity data: inside Bagley Enterprises' new ventures

Disclosure: True News is a Bagley Enterprises platform, and this story is about our parent company and its owner. It was reviewed under the same standards as every story we publish. Facts about the company come from its own published materials and are attributed as such. Updated October 2026 to include the company's newer projects.

Bagley Enterprises, a family-led operating company in the Philadelphia area, is expanding from the skilled trades into drones, commodity data, online marketplaces, community information and family history research.

The company describes its mission as building "durable businesses" that "create opportunity through work." Its chief executive, Len Bagley, came up through the skilled trades. According to the company, Bagley studied Information Technology and Software Engineering and holds OSHA-certified trade experience. The company's chief technology officer, Dr. Shamara P. Collins, holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida, with a specialization in renewable energy and thin-film solar systems, according to the company.

Roots in the trades

The company's longest-running businesses are hands-on. Maintenance 215 provides contract facilities maintenance, janitorial services and light construction for commercial and institutional properties across Philadelphia and surrounding counties. BF Supplies, also known as Bagley Family Supplies 215, sells cleaning supplies, including the company's own Lemon Blast and Orange Blast products.

Drones and aerospace

Bagley Aerospace focuses on uncrewed aerial systems, commonly called drones. According to the company, its work covers drone operations for inspection and data collection, training toward pilot certification, and workforce programs meant to lower the barriers to aerospace careers.

Its research arm, Far Away From Here Innovations, describes itself as a Black-owned, family-run innovation studio that develops and tests new technologies with partners under non-disclosure agreements. The company says its portfolio includes a drone recovery system. It has not published technical details, and says some projects are paused until funding and testing milestones are in place.

Commodity information for everyone

Sentinel is a commodity information service aimed at people and small businesses priced out of professional trading terminals. It tracks prices for 24 commodities, from gold and crude oil to corn and coffee. Monthly prices come from the World Bank, and daily energy prices come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration: West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude, Henry Hub natural gas, and New York Harbor gasoline, diesel and heating oil, along with propane and jet fuel, checked every six hours. Sentinel sets those prices beside official weather and economic indicators. Its price forecasts are generated by a statistical model and are labeled as informational only, not investment advice. The company says Sentinel will launch after True News, in the second phase of its rollout.

A marketplace in development

Black Box is an online marketplace built around Black American products and makers and open to all sellers. It is still in development. According to the company, BF Supplies is set to become its first vendor.

News

True News, the publication you are reading, launched on October 1, 2026. It has no political affiliation. It lists 8,438 elected officials serving across all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico, every candidate registered with the Federal Election Commission for the U.S. House and Senate in 2026, and the money each campaign reports. It also carries headlines from official government sources and public newsrooms, local weather and emergency alerts, a missing persons section, a Business Corner for local jobs and housing, and community stories that an editor reviews before publication. It is recruiting student journalists, starting at historically Black colleges and universities, and can be installed free as an app on phones and computers.

Missing persons

Community Report, at communityreport.bagleyenterprises.net, shares verified information about missing Black Americans, adults and children. The company says Black Americans go missing at higher rates than their share of the population and receive far less media attention. Every report is verified and approved by a moderator before it appears, and the site highlights cases that have had little or no news coverage. It is an information and visibility resource, not a tip line: the site directs information to the investigating agency, and its rules bar naming anyone who has not been charged or calling on readers to search for or confront anyone.

Trades training

The Maintenance Academy, which grew out of the company's Black Boots Initiative, is an online trades training program covering construction basics and safety, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, property maintenance, floor care and green jobs. According to the company, lessons are written to be reviewed by licensed tradespeople, hands-on skills are signed off in the field by working instructors, and each lesson shows the code and licensing rules for the state where the learner works. The company is applying to Pennsylvania's State Board of Private Licensed Schools and says the Academy will open enrollment, and publish its prices, once the state approves it.

Family history and DNA

The company is also developing two research tools for family historians. The Genealogy Highway is a records database for building and documenting family trees from census, land and vital records. A second tool, the DNA Ancestry Map, compares a person's raw DNA file against published ancient DNA collections using methods common in academic population genetics. Both are in development and are not yet open to the public.

What comes next

The company says it deliberately paces new projects, pausing when "conditions are not right to advance a project responsibly." Bagley Enterprises can be reached at info@bagleyenterprises.net.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/1