• October 6th, 2023

BrainTrust

Case study

How She Started: Being a founder is risky. How did you decide to go full time?

As I reflect on my entrepreneurial journey, I realized my biggest inspiration was my mom. While I always saw her as this corporate figure, she also sold Mary Kay. To give you some perspective my mom is 70. Back then, especially as a Black woman, you generally weren't just going off and starting your businesses. As I continued working in corporations I too shared that entrepreneurial spirit which eventually led me to leave that corporate intrapreneur position.

To be transparent in terms of risk, I was very fortunate with my departure. I spoke to the Chief of Staff at Ralph Lauren who told me “it seems like you have a great idea and you can always come back if it doesn't work.” That encouragement felt like it lowered the risk and I subsequently decided to go for it.

I always joke now that I'm unemployable because I've been an entrepreneur for so long. I truly feel the risk is worth it, no matter how hard it gets on certain days. I truly believe being an entrepreneur is such a great place for me.

HSS: What’s your entrepreneurial journey?

KBF: In 2010, I co-founded my first venture, Digital Brand Architects, alongside Karen Rabinovitz. At the time, Karen had her social media consulting brand, and I served as the director of digital media at Ralph Lauren.. I called Karen one day and told her I had this idea to manage bloggers and I have a logo. We put up a website that same day. Because I left my job shortly thereafter, we initially did consulting while we were managing talent to help us offset the cost. We kept our expenses super low and didn't have staff for a long time.

My next adventure as a founder was launching BrainTrust, our global marketing firm, in 2015. Then I launched BrainTrust founder Studio in October of 2021. In terms of initial funding, we leaned on Digital Brand Architects to underwrite the launch of the Studio. Government programs also helped us because we were able to take out small business loans in addition to participating in the PPP.

HSS: How were you able to raise over $2M?

KBF: I want to emphasize how important relationships are. That is the foundation for our fundraising efforts. We conveyed our unique value proposition effectively, particularly in a less saturated market at the time. We could thoroughly describe the growing market when we were seeking investment. We also prepared ourselves to be in a position where we were in the right place, had the right concept, came from the right backgrounds, and were part of the right networks.

HSS: How did you grow your ecosystem and how did you retain the people and within your ecosystem?

KBF: We're the largest platform dedicated to Black founders of Beauty and Wellness companies. We believe in our four pillars: community, mentorship, education, and capital. Within that, we have 3 tiers for our founders.

The Start tier caters to those who are pre-revenue, the Growth tier for businesses with revenue ranging from $10,000 to $1 million, and the Accelerate tier for those generating over $1 million. As a Black founder myself, it was essential for us to address the needs we knew Black founders often lacked.

We know that there is lack of access to resources, networking, and mentorship. Our goal was to create a space where entrepreneurs at various stages of their journey could find support. I've been through all facets of starting a company and getting to various revenue thresholds We foster an engaged community through features like our community chat, directory, Founders House pop-up activations, and hosting 3-4 virtual programs monthly. We emphasize the importance of founders actively participating and putting in the work.

I always tell founders, “you have to show up alongside of us and you have to put in the work. Nothing is going to be given to you.” I love to build things and I am here to be of service to founders, but I’ve also learned we can't want things for other people that they are not striving to achieve.

HSS: What is your growth strategy?

KBF: There are three pieces of it.

I've had my agency since 2015 and we're constantly transforming, adapting, and pivoting based on the market. For example, 80% of our revenue pre-COVID was event marketing alongside social media and influencers that. We pivoted and found success as a TikTok shop partner and a TikTok content partner.

For the BrainTrust Founder Studio We observed a surge in corporate partners eager to showcase their commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I). Many people were committed to big goals around D&I.

There's still work to do, and there are corporate partners who have committed to showing up, but still need to make good on those commitments. It’s a big opportunity for growth for our founders and for these partners to create a pipeline of new and diverse customers.

Then we have the venture fund. We’re welcoming limited partners into our venture fund and at the same time, we're deploying capital to founders. The unique part of our funding is that we can build relationships with the BrainTrust Founders Studio ecosystem, so when they come to us, we have a good idea of what the investment will be for. It's a fantastic circle of bringing invested dollars into the community that we serve.

HSS: What were your lessons learned and do you have any additional advice to female founded businesses?

KBF: I’ve got a few

1) Everyone is smart in their own right. Sometimes people try to create a narrow definition of smart, but there are so many different kinds of smart. Changing a tire is different from making a pasta salad is different from creating a marketing strategy. They all require smart people to do the job, so I’ve found that it’s imperative to recognize the smart people around me

2) Tap into community. Working in silos robs you of those diverse perspectives. The hardest thing is an entrepreneur is asking for help, but we’re meant to be in community.

3) We love our own ideas, but we need to set aside ego so we can grow our businesses. We need to be willing to put our vision out there, but also be willing to pivot. For example, had I been so stuck on what BrainTrust marketing agency was going to be, we wouldn't have made it out of COVID. We must be willing to keep ourselves educated and follow the market. That doesn't mean that every time something happens, you twist your business model, but we do have to be able to pivot.

4) Realize that everything isn’t a failure. Nobody is perfect. We may try something, and it may not work to a standard we anticipated, but was it a failure or was it a learning experience?

5) Be kind to yourself. We can sometimes push ourselves too far. I know that's easier said than done, but we need to take a break at some point so that we won’t burn out.

HSS: Thanks so much for taking the time!

Insights

How We Met: Virtual Introduction

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