Forbes Magazine made the list of the 100 black-owned businesses to support. Let’s focus on the Top 10. Let’s meet them!
It’s not yet the black history month, but I think that we don’t need this special month to celebrate “black heroes”. To celebrate those successful black entrepreneurs. They are in the field of cosmetics, clothing, book, cars, and financial products.
Copyright: Forbes Magazine-Tracy Maitland, Founder of Advent Capital Management
Founded by Maitland in 1995, the $9 billion investment firm is an expert in defensive investment strategies involving convertible bonds, designed to protect against downside while capturing most of the stock market’s gains. For more please see Forbes magazine feature.)
Brown Capital Management is One of the top-performing investment firms in the world, Brown Capital’s flagship Small Company Fund has generated an average annual return of 12%-plus since 1992, about double the Russell 2000 Growth Index. While that fund is closed to investors, Brown Capital has successfully expanded into international small-cap stocks and mid-cap stocks, which are funds anyone can buy. For more, see the Forbes magazine feature.
Cashmere Nicole is a single mother and a breast cancer survivor. She founded Beauty Bakerie in 2011 as a new lipstick brand that was vegan, non-toxic and cruelty-free. Beyonce featured the nascent brand on her website, and Nicole (she goes by Cashmere Nicole for business) began marketing her long-lasting lipsticks on Instagram, where it now has 1.2 million followers.
Three years into a stint on the commodities desk at Goldman Sacks, Twine’s mother died in a car accident. The tragedy pushed her to reconsider her career path. Inspired by her mother, a chemist who had developed a natural face cream, and her grandmother, who taught her how to make products with natural ingredients, she spent weekends and night researching the beauty industry.
After putting herself through college at California State University Sacramento, Dellinger got an internship, and eventually a job, at Intel. While at the tech giant, she spent nights and weekends on her idea for a natural hair care line. She launched Curls in 2002, bootstrapping the business. For more click here
Abbey Wemimo, Samir Goel: The helpers of the marginalized communities
When the youth takes power! Forbes Under 30 social entrepreneurs, Nigerian-born entrepreneur Wemino and his business partner Goel cofounded Esusu in 2019. The mobile platform helps individuals mostly from marginalized communities save money, access capital a build credit. Renters typically don’t get credit for making their monthly payments on time, so, Esusu’s platform has helped change that. Read more about their story
Founded in 2013 by Imira, 39, Mayvenn is a venture-backed digital salon where customers buy human hair extensions and wigs and book appointments with stylists. Mayvenn employs 63 people (81% of whom are people of color) and it directs business to 3,000 black stylists across the country. Since salons have been forced to shut down during the pandemic, Imira has raised $1.3 million in relief cash that he’s giving to his network of stylists. Read more.
The half sisters, Robin and Andréa who were coincidentally raised in wine regions, in California and New Zealand respectively, met for the first time in 1999. Six years later, they launched their wine business. Last year, McBride Sisters Collection sold nearly 100,000 cases, putting it in the top 3% of the nation’s wineries. Today, 90% of their staff are women and more than half are people of color. Up next: canned spritzers, slated for this summer. Read more about their story
Dr. Gentles, who had worked at Texas Children’s Hospital, teamed up with Bryant, a friend from church who had worked as a consultant on technology implementation and training, to start an urgent-care center just for kids. Today, NightLight Pediatric has eight pediatric urgent-care locations, with 130 employees (80% of whom are people of color) and revenue of $11 million last year. An alum of our 2017 Small Giants list, the company remains entirely owned by its three founders. Read more
Konte founded Red Bay six years ago, and expanded it to include five Bay Area cafes and robust corporate sales. Since March, the pandemic has taken a toll. Though Red Bay’s coffee roastery is running, its cafes had to shut down and it lost lucrative contracts to supply the offices of Facebook, Twitter and Airbnb. Fortunately, its wholesale and retail businesses spiked between March and May. Awareness that Red Bay is a black-owned business tripled online sales in the first three days of June, says Konte, 53. “People want to support us in these times,” he says. Read more.
