Founder Profile
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Supermaker
Jaime Schmidt
She sold her personal care business. Now she invests in ventures of underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Jaime Schmidt.
Data as of Publication on Sep 16, 2019
All Things Consumer
Chris Cantino
http://supermaker.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/supermaker/
@supermakerus
https://www.facebook.com/supermakerofficial
After selling her personal care business, Schmidt's Naturals, to Unilever in 2017, Jaime Schmidt was besieged by aspiring founders seeking advice. She could only do so many coffee dates. So she and Chris Cantino, her husband and business partner, decided to spend some of their Unilever money helping undersupported entrepreneurs—women and people of color--along the trajectory to success. Their first venture, the investment fund Color, launched last year and has backed, among others, the nut butter company Wild Friends and Bubble, an online marketplace for healthy foods. Then, in June, came Supermaker, a media platform that publishes articles about emerging brands with diverse founders as well as workplace trends and advice for both entrepreneurs and employees. "A big part of our success at Schmidt's was the storytelling we did for the brand," she says. Color and Supermaker are also partnering on a program of quarterly grants to help female and nonbinary founders. "It wasn't as sophisticated when I started in 2010," says Schmidt. "Now people are really serious about turning their passions into profits." --Leigh Buchanan
Christina Stembel
With a lot of pluck, she has boot-strapped her way into the male-dominated flower-delivery industry.
Christina Stembel.
https://farmgirlflowers.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/farmgirl-flowers/
@farmgirlflowers
https://www.facebook.com/FarmgirlFlowers
Christina Stembel didn't start Farmgirl Flowers because she loved flowers. She was out to challenge an outdated, male-dominated industry. With just $49,000 of her own money, she knew she had only one shot at success. "I wanted to go big, I wanted it to get to hundreds of millions, a billion dollars," she says. "So it needed to be a big industry. It also needed to be untapped." Flower arrangements and delivery checked those boxes. Since its founding in 2010, her online floral delivery service has grown roughly 50 percent annually, bringing in $23 million in revenue last year. Sales should reach $33 million in 2019. Now, her San Francisco-based company, which has 145 employees, is focused on national expansion. "If we wanted to be a very small regional company, we could still get it to probably $100 million," she says. "But we're playing the long game." --Brit Morse
She's leading the mission to end skin cancer with her line of sunscreens.
Holly Thaggard.
https://supergoop.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/supergoop-/
@Supergoop
https://www.facebook.com/supergoop/
After a close friend was diagnosed with melanoma, Holly Thaggard--teacher, harpist, mom--found her true calling as a sunscreen evangelist and entrepreneur. In 2009, she founded Supergoop!, which makes mineral sunscreens (in all skin tones) and other products free of harmful chemicals. But Supergoop!'s true value lies in its ultimate goal: "I've been so laser-focused on making sure everything we do ladders up to our mission, which is to stop the epidemic of skin cancer," says Thaggard. "I don't think I've taken the time to think about much else." And yet, she's built the brand into a shining success, with $40 million in revenue last year, retail partnerships with FAO Schwarz, Nordstrom, and Sephora, and a recently-opened New York office in addition to its San Antonio headquarters. To further that mission, Supergoop! donated 1,000 pumps of Supergoop! to schools across America last year and works on skin cancer issues with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. --Tim Crino
Trinity Mouzon Wofford
Her line of organic masks and superfood powders is poised for national distribution.
Issey Kobori
http://golde.co
https://www.linkedin.com/company/hellogolde/about/
@hellogolde
https://www.facebook.com/hellogolde
If the Instagram-fueled wellness boom made of "Moon Juice" dusts and diet teas feels like outer space, Trinity Mouzon Wofford is trying to bring things back down to earth. In 2016, the Millennial-minded founder began formulating superfood-boosted powders with powerful anti-inflammatory turmeric that could be mixed with any liquid. A year later, New York City stores began selling her Original Golde Tonic for $29. Soon, Goop, Urban Outfitters, and Sephora.com were calling. Today, Golde's five powders and facemasks are sold by about 100 stores nationwide, and the company is poised for broader distribution. It's a strong start for the tiny, bootstrapped operation, which consists of Wofford, her boyfriend, Issey Kobori, and just one part-time employee working out of the couple's Brooklyn, New York, home. --Christine Lagorio-Chafkin
Dia&Co
Nadia Boujarwah
She created a fashion brand—and a platform—to support a new generation of plus-size consumers and designers.
Lydia Gilbert
http://dia.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/dia&co/
@diaandco
https://www.facebook.com/diaandco?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Like many plus-size women, Nadia Boujarwah often felt ignored by the fashion industry. So, she co-founded clothing and accessory subscription service Dia&Co for women in sizes 14 to 32. Its four million users represent 90 percent of U.S ZIP codes. To date, the five-year-old start up has received $95 million in venture funding, with almost half of that coming from a single round last November. Boujarwah uses her company's success as a platform to advocate for size inclusivity that's "not just lip service." In 2019, Dia&Co partnered with the Council of Fashion Designers of America to review grant proposals for their design schools that she would help fund. Her goal: "Ensuring that the next generation of designers are taught the importance of and the skills for inclusive design from the very, very beginning." --Anna Meyer