Indie beauty conversation with BrainTrust Founders Studio

30 Nov 2021 --- With more new Black-founded businesses launching in the past year than in the last quarter of a century, BrainTrust Founders began operating last month with an aim to support these fledgling beauty businesses. We talked to Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, the originator of BrainTrust Founders about the beauty and wellness industry entrant that is striving to uplift and support Black-founded brands in beauty and personal care (BPC).

What was your inspiration behind launching BrainTrust Founders Studio? 

I aimed to start BrainTrust Founders Studio as a scalable way to create parity and equity by providing additional business, financial, marketing and technological brainpower through a global ecosystem and community of founders. 

I know that Black-founded beauty and wellness brands will change the paradigm within the billion-dollar global beauty and wellness industry. As a Black female founder myself, I understand the myriad of unique challenges facing Black founders today. My expertise lies in the beauty and wellness business, from brand ideation to development to consumer adoption, and it gave me the perspective to recognize this urgent need within the industry.

When did you launch and why was this the right time to introduce BrainTrust Founders Studio?

Click to EnlargeKendra Bracken-Ferguson aims to ensure the huge number of new Black-owned businesses survive and flourish. Source: BrainTrust Founders Studio.BrainTrust Founders Studio officially launched on 20 October 2021, but I feel like I’ve been preparing for this my entire career. But, why now? More new Black-founded businesses were started over the past year than in the past 25 years. 

The renewed activism in support of greater diversity and equity across all aspects of society in 2020 following watershed moments for Black entrepreneurs led many brands and retailers to diversify their teams and shelves. New organizations and initiatives such as Pull Up For Change and the 15 Percent Pledge have also helped to create an unprecedented opportunity for Black founders. 

Through my work co-founding Beauty United - a non-profit focused on diversifying the beauty and wellness industry - and through hosting my weekly podcast, Business of the Beat, I focused on the stories and experiences of people of color leading the beauty space. My daily conversations with founders were the catalyst; it was the time to act. To maximize these new opportunities, Black founders need access to critical support for scaling capabilities. And thus, Founders Studio was born.

What was missing from the beauty platform space that you sought to fill with BrainTrust Founders Studio?

There is drastic inequity in the beauty space. Only 4% of Black-owned businesses in the US survive past the start-up stage even though 20% of Black Americans start businesses. More than nine out of ten Black founders lack investment/working capital, while 77% lack mentoring and business management support. Three-quarters lack pathways to distribution channels and more than half lack access to suppliers and marketing services support. 

Black founders are still denied resources even when they have promising ideas, well-planned models and great credit. We have created a platform that combines community, education, mentorship and capital for Black beauty and wellness founders at all stages of their journey, to build a path to wealth that spans generations. 

What are consumers demanding from their favorite beauty and personal care products and brands via digital platforms? 

We need more products that respond to the needs of diverse customers in the communities in which we live. Consumers need more diverse options and there is a specific need for more black beauty and wellness brands. In turn, corporations need direction to figure out how they can leverage their resources to support. 

Through the Founders Studio, we are going beyond founder services and filling a void for the entire beauty and wellness industry. We are changing the landscape and creating a more diversified beauty sector. 

How does BrainTrust Founders Studio answer these consumer demands?

We have three tiers of membership: start, grow and accelerate. Through our start tier, we are incubating new brands, leveraging data and artificial intelligence beauty software to help us match culturally-responsive brands with a new suite of products to consumers.

Through our grow and accelerate tiers, we are providing resources and the pathway to ensure the sustainability of these businesses so that we can fill the retail shelves and marketplace with more diverse products.  

What did the process to create BrainTrust Founders Studio involve from conceptualization through to commercialization? 

I envisioned an opportunity where there are no barriers to entry and where Black founders are supported at all stages of their businesses. I love to build things, connect people and be of service; this tech-enabled platform allows me to do all of those things, just at scale. 

Getting to commercialization was a journey lined by my team’s support and belief in my vision. Each founder’s insights about their needs, the corporate partners who immediately said “yes!” and the agency partners who have helped to provide operational support and education. 

What are the greatest opportunities you foresee for BrainTrust Founders Studio and the wider BPC industry?

BrainTrust Founders Studio will forever alter the industry through its support of Black beauty and wellness leaders with the vital resources and collaborations they need to propel their brands to the next level and beyond. Founders Studio will create a network of lasting success and a new level of product diversity that will reinvigorate the wider beauty and personal care industry.

The market indicators are powerful: Black buying power by 2022 will be at $1.5 trillion. Black women as a group spend $7.5 billion annually on beauty products, resulting in 80% more on cosmetics and twice as much on skin care products than the general market. Founders Studio will unlock millions of dollars in untapped revenue by serving multicultural consumers who currently can’t find products that match their unique needs.

What will the support of corporate partners enable BrainTrust Founders Studio to do?

We have an array of corporate partners, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Salesforce, Afterpay, Clearco, and SHE Media, that will provide a myriad of services to the founders involved. Services range from education, seminars, and 1:1 coaching; financial support, free office space, hiring support; and inventory and marketing funding.

What impact would you like to have on the BPC industry, and what are your short-term and long-term hopes and goals for achieving this impact?

BrainTrust Founders Studio platform will serve as a much-needed commercial conduit between Black founders and the wider beauty and wellness industry to help address the ever-changing business landscape. My short-term goal is to continue the work on developing the technology behind our platform using artificial intelligence, machine learning and business automation tools to properly match resources with founders’ needs. 

Assisting founders with understanding data, insights and trends connected to their brands and the industry will help them innovate more seamlessly and rapidly. My core long-term goals are to invest in founders as they progress through our platform and to create physical studio locations where founders will have access to all of the business tools, operational services, wellness breaks and office spaces; all the comprehensive support they need to run and grow their business.  

By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe, BPC Insights Senior Journalist