After co-creating the beauty app Beautified, Hannah Bronfman recognized the importance of investing in startups, which are often the last to receive funding or the resources needed to scale. Today, she takes pride in her work as an angel investor, helping to advise and raise venture capital for budding businesses.
As a former DJ, content creator, and now trusted angel investor, Bronfman’s desire to help companies achieve their goals by putting investments behind them began when she joined Annie Evans and Peter Hananel as a co-founder of Beautified. This app allows users to book beauty services, including haircuts, manicures, facials, massages, and more, with various salons and spas offered on the platform.
Since the inception of Beautifed in 2013, Bronfman has also become an expert in marketing. She’s advised companies on building a strategic online presence well before the rise of today’s influencer-driven marketing landscape. In 2017, she became an investor.
“I started actually to write checks in 2017, and then, you know, as I kind of became a larger creator, I also was gifted equity in companies in exchange for, you know, doing kind of the marketing efforts that they were looking for,” Bronfman said while sharing the stage with Blavity Co-Founder and CEO Morgan DeBaun during AFROTECH™ Conference 2024, Nov. 13-16. “So, it was like a perfect storm of things.”
Today, she has invested in over 70 companies, including Monte’s Fine Foods, Golde, and Topicals. Bronfman’s guiding principle remains unchanged — she continues to prioritize minority-owned businesses, especially those led by Black women, in her financial support. She also emphasizes the importance of investors being well-informed about the brands they choose to back.
“I think anyone has to feel comfortable in the sector they are investing in,” Bronfman explained. “If you know nothing about Bitcoin, I wouldn’t suggest investing in that sector. Or if you know nothing about AI, I wouldn’t suggest investing unless you will get educated about that industry.”
Moreover, she used an example of how she leveraged the relationships she built as a DJ to be a resource for her many clients over the years, noting how one’s network can help expand one’s net worth.
“It’s also essential to sort having these conversations with your community because I think that more people around you than you think are also investors and not bringing, and some people don’t bring you opportunities, and so you have to find ’em,” she said. “And you must start having these conversations with people because that’s how you get intros and build your network. That’s how you get on cap tables.”
Bronfman added, “Every DJ gig was a door into a marketing department. So were there opportunities for me to tell a company, ‘Hey, I think your consumer would also love this product, Golde. Can we have them, you know, do the lattes at your next breakfast event?’ So I think those leaning into your angel investors is important because if you’re at a stage where you don’t have institutional backing on your cap table yet, you need those people to help you build your business.”
As she looks ahead to the future, Bronfman aims to start her own fund and continue generating millions of dollars for a host of businesses in the wellness, beauty, and healthcare industries. With the goal of providing checks of $1 million to $3 million, she says she would like to eventually see Black-owned conglomerates prepared to acquire these Black brands.
“We don’t have any holding [companies] for the culture,” she said. “Where is our Black LVMH?”
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