28 Days of Black Excellence — Black Female Founders Edition

As Get Sh!t Done continues our Black History Month Celebration, we are celebrating 28 days of Black Excellence where we’re highlighting 28 Black entrepreneurs to watch and rising stars. Today, we are featuring 16 Female Founders. We will do a separate edition for male founders to round out 28 days. When I say “We”, I mean myself and fellow ecosystem builder and #BlackBoyMagic, Chase Emanuel.

Here’s how we composed this list and what you’ll learn…

• These are all Black Female Founders.
• We focused on the traction they have produced to date.
• We focused on several industries, not just tech.
• We were intentional about this list by not only highlighting founders who have raised VC because it is not an indicator of success, it is simply one vehicle for growth.
• The founders we featured below are all building scalable businesses with the potential to scale beyond $1M+ or have already done so.
• We actively looked for founders outside of NYC and Silicon Valley.

Some ground rules: If you’ve been following along Get Sh!t Done, y’all know we “walk it like we talk it” through traction. If you’re new to how we roll, here are some ways you can become an ally and advocate fr these queens…

• Follow her
• Check out her company
• Spread the word
• Reach out to her and figure out how you can support her
• Purchase her product
• Utilize her service
• Make an intro if you love what she’s doing.

Without further ado, meet the Black female founders to watch….

1. Name: Crystal Etienne
2. Company: Ruby Love
3. Location: New York, New York
4. Funding: Bootstrapped
5. Focus: Fashion
6. Traction: She earned $100k in her first year of business without any investment dollars and bootstrapped RubyLove to 140K customers and $10M in revenue.

1. Name: Cyndie Spiegel
2. Company: Dear Grown Ass Women
3. Location: Brooklyn, New York
4. Funding: Bootstrapped
5. Focus: Community
6. Traction: Cyndie created space for GenX women to connect and celebrate being 35+ and went through the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small businesses program

1. Name: Dawn Dickson
2. Company: PopCom
3. Location: Columbus, Ohio
4. Funding: $1,070,000 STO (Secure Token Offering)
5. Focus: Retail/Tech
6. Traction: She was the first Black Woman to raise over $1M from more than 2,117 investors and an oversubscribed waitlist with massive commitments

1. Name: Electra Davis
2. Company: Mysteek Naturals
3. Location: Fort Mitchell, Alabama
4. Funding: Bootstrapped
5. Focus: Beauty
6. Traction: Since launching the company has grossed $100K in revenue and is expected to triple growth. Electra is the First to Sell Chemical-Free Hair Color Products on Amazon.

1. Name: Chanel Melton
2. Company: Rose Gold
3. Location: Los Angeles, California
4. Funding: $150,000 (Quake Capital) *According to Crunchbase
5. Focus: Beauty
6. Traction: The company generated $250,000 in its first year. In 2018, their Monthly Recurring Revenue grew 28.9% MOM, AOV was $330 and had over 3,700 users on their waitlist.

1. Name: Cherae Robinson
2. Company: Tastemakers Africa
3. Location: Brooklyn, NY
4. Funding: Raised 1.8M to date led by FlyBridge Ventures & Precursor Ventures
5. Focus: Travel
6. Traction: Tastemakers is using investment to grow experiences offered from 200 to 10,000. They generate revenue by taking a 20% commission on each transaction. “If we can capture 1% of that [700 million] market in the next five years that’s, $2.2 billion generated on our platform,” she said, noting an average booking cost of $308. She believes Tastemakers could hit those figures by 2025 — and by applying their 20% commission — reach income of $434 million.

1. Name: Kristi L. Jackson
2. Company: October Fourth Holdings
3. Location: Houston, Texas
4. Funding: Bootstrapped
5. Focus: Transportation
6. Traction: Kristi is the co-owner of one of very few Black-owned trucking companies with her partner, Kevin Muhammad.

1. Name: Naj Austin
2. Company: Ethel’s Club
3. Location: Brooklyn, New York
4. Funding: CrowdFunding $25,000 & Undisclosed Amount from Investors
5. Focus: Coworking/Community
6. Traction: Ethels Club is the first private membership club and workspace created with people of color in mind. Launched in Jan. 2019 with a waitlist of over 4,000 people.

1. Name: Yelitsa Jean Charles
2. Company: Healthy Roots Dolls
3. Location: Detroit
4. Funding: $500,000 (Backstage Capital, Quicken Loans)
5. Focus: Toys
6. Traction: Her toy company that creates dolls and storybooks that teach natural hair care. Prior to raising capital from investors, she ran and funded a Kickstarter campaign that exceeded the initial goal to ultimately raise $50,000.

1. Name: Danielle Leslie
2. Company: Course from Scratch
3. Location: New York, New York
4. Funding: Bootstrapped
5. Focus: Online Courses
6. Traction: Danielle grew Her Business To $250K/Mo And Hit $830K In January.

1. Name: Jasmine Shells
2. Company: Five to Nine
3. Location: Chicago
4. Funding: $1M (Quake Capital)
5. Focus: B2B/Future of Work
6. Traction: Five to Nine created software helping businesses manage after-work events to boost employee engagement. They just raised $1 million in seed funding and Jasmine was featured in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list.

1. Name: Janelle Briggs
2. Company: Stackhouse
3. Location: Tuscon, Arizona
4. Funding: Bootstrapped
5. Focus: Housing
6. Traction: Janelle and her cofounder invested $125,000 in a former parking lot to create housing out of shipping containers. The 320-square-foot homes cost about $45,000.

1. Name: Muhga Eltigani
2. Company: NaturAll Club
3. Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
4. Funding: $1.2M (Y Combinator & New Voices Fund, Venture for America)
5. Focus: Beauty
6. Traction: Muhga learned to make her own hair products at home from avocado, mangos, and Shea butter from the women in Ghana and Sudan. She documented the experience and shared recipes on her Youtube channel with 40,000 subscribers but ultimately started making and selling the products due to demand.

1. Name: Adero Davis
2. Company: FairFare
3. Location: New York, New York
4. Funding: Bootstrapped/Friends & Fam
5. Focus: Transportation
6. Traction: Are you tired of having to flip between ridesharing apps to find the best price? FairFare is disrupting Uber’s market share and giving you the ability to check prices and book rides seamlessly. She recently won a pitch competition with New Voices Fund.

1. Name: Christelle and Michelle Nganhou
2. Company: Grass Fields
3. Location: UK
4. Funding: Bootstrapped
5. Focus: Fashion
6. Traction: Twin sisters Christelle and Michelle’s African clothing company did £5million in sales in 2018 following its launch on a £50 budget.

1. Name: Sarah Ribner
2. Company: PiperWai
3. Location: Brooklyn, NY
4. Funding: Bootstrapped
5. Focus: Health & Wellness
6. Traction: Piperwai is a natural deodorant that is vegan and cruelty-free with their products sold at Target, Amazon, GNC, etc. Sarah launched crowdfunding campaign and an appearance on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2015 where they turned down an offer from Barbara Corcoran.

Did we miss anyone? If so, tell us about a badass black female entrepreneur we should know here. Also, if we got any of the information above incorrect, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team to make the correction at tribe@shegetsshitdone.com #FactsMatter