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Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. For many founders in the beauty and lifestyle space, the measure of success isn’t just in sales but also in the value of an exit. Recently, Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand, Rhode, was acquired by e.l.f . for $1 billion. Founded in 2022, the beauty brand has reached its valuation quickly thanks to Bieber’s name recognition and viral social media campaigns. But while Bieber has been praised for selling her company, the majority of Black founders are accused of being sellouts by Black customers when they do. Over the past several years, Black-owned brands like The Honey Pot Company, Mielle Organics , and Briogeo Hair Care have been acquired by large conglomerates. For every acquisition, a large portion of their Black customers have complained or claimed that they would no longer buy from the brand because they view the acquisition as a form of selling out. Black founders are held to a different standard...
Industry leaders Nancy Twine and James D. White share invaluable insights to help you accelerate your career. Both were featured as speakers at AFROTECH™’s Board Readiness Summit, which was held virtually from 10 a.m. ET to noon ET on March 25, 2025. The event offered keen insights on securing a board seat. Twine’s panel was moderated by Avary Bradford, founder and consultant at The Hive Consulting Co. White’s panel was moderated by Salah Goss, Mastercard’s head of social impact for North America at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. Twine’s Panel Insights Twine and White reflected on their paths to securing their first board positions. Twine, who currently serves on the boards of Room to Grow and Cosmetic Executive Women, spoke first, detailing her transition to Vera Bradley, where she served from June 2021 to June 2023, according to LinkedIn. This opportunity came nearly eight years after she founded Briogeo Hair Care—a clean, natural hair care brand designed for all hair...
If you are creating impact as a founder and leader or are a corporate catalyst interested in joining a board, look no further than AFROTECH’s Board Readiness Summit. From 10 a.m. ET to noon ET on March 25, 2025, this virtual event will deliver exclusive insights and strategies to empower you with the tools and confidence to secure a board seat. Landing a post whether for a nonprofit, which is often a good starting point, or for-profit, will require experience and skills such as strategic planning and development, leadership, collaboration and more, Forbes notes. Learn From Nancy Twine To position you for success, discussions will be led by industry leaders, starting with former Goldman Sachs VP Nancy Twine, who launched Briogeo Hair Care in 2013 and turned it into a $100 million business within nearly a decade, according to Forbes. She also made history as the youngest Black woman to launch products at Sephora. The brand went on to land placement at Ulta Beauty. What’s more, Twine...
Camille Rose — one of the largest Black-owned hair-care brands in the U.S. today — is not new to mass retail partnerships, as it has existing relationships with retailers like Target, Sally Beauty, CVS, and more. After being in business for over 10 years, Camille Rose has announced today that it has scored its most distinguished partnership deal to date with Ulta Beauty, launching in both physical U.S. stores and online, according to Glossy. Retail Brew reports that after becoming the most-requested brand from Ulta shoppers, the retailer reached out to form the new partnership. “Ulta will heighten our awareness and provide a different consumer, one who may be more ingrained in the beauty experience,” founder Janell Stephens told the outlet. The news of this new partnership arrives after Ulta announced a grand diversity plan to do a bigger push behind Black-owned beauty brands and double the amount of brands stocked at its store locations. Similar to the retailer’s action plan, we’ve...
Next to Juneteenth, Blackout Day is the second biggest unofficial holiday for Black Americans to wield their economic power and support Black-owned businesses. This year, social media activism has taken on a new meaning and any and every user has taken to their platforms to speak out on behalf of racial injustice in America and spread educational messages to further the agenda of multiple movements striving to campaign for equity in America. Today, July 7 — formally recognized as #BlackoutDay2020 — is a day dedicated to fostering economic solidarity in response to the continued global uprising against racial injustice. The largest initiative to come out of this unified economic movement is the outpouring support of Black businesses with an added emphasis on circulating the Black dollar. Organized by Calvin Martyr — founder of the Blackout Coalition — #BlackoutDay2020 encourages consumers to exclusively support Black-owned businesses, and avoid spending any money outside the Black...
As a result of the overt racial injustice in the U.S., a major push to #BuyBlack has gained fresh energy. The news cycle is on overdrive with Black businesses you should support. While there have been several lists of Black-owned businesses to pop up across Instagram and Twitter, there are some forgotten companies that have a Black founder at the helm unknowingly. Some owners are just super low-key while some brands boast such diverse and inclusive marketing that it’s easy to miss whose in charge. Here are eight well-known beauty, fashion, and food businesses that you didn’t know were Black-owned. Briogeo Hair Care Often seen while scrolling through the Sephora app or YouTube hair tutorials, Briogeo is a clean-ingredient collection founded by Nancy Twine. The daughter of a chemist, Twine learned to make beauty products from scratch at a young age. Later, the University of Virginia alumna used that knowledge combined with her finance degree to launch a customizable line for several...