Monica Williams has gone from surreptitiously selling samples of her products at Lenox Square to winning $1 million for her business, all in the span of five years.
“It’s unbelievable,” Williams, co-founder and CEO of tween period care company RedDrop, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. RedDrop sells period care kits for school-aged girls with specially sized menstrual pads created for girls’ bodies.
She won the seven-figure grand prize at the fourth annual Black Ambition Demo Day in mid-November, a competition organized by musician and entrepreneur Pharrell Williams (no relation to Monica Williams).
The musician founded the nonprofit, Black Ambition, in 2020 based on the premise that ambition is limitless, but access is not. Black Ambition invests in Black and Hispanic founders, as well as those from historically Black colleges and universities. It also provides mental health support for entrepreneurs and connects them to potential corporate sponsors and investors.
Black founders get just a fraction of the investment dollars in the U.S.
Last year, Black-founded startups received less than 0.5% of the $140 billion in venture capital invested into American startups, according to data firm Crunchbase. In 2022, female founders of color received just 0.39% of all venture capital investments, according to Atlanta venture firm Fearless Fund.
Historically, Black female entrepreneurs receive a fraction of what other founders get. Between 2009 and 2017, only 0.0006% of venture capital funding went to businesses started by Black women, according to nonprofit advocacy group Digitalundivided.
Last year, multiple Georgia founders won investments from the competition. A few of those founders were flown to Paris this year during the Olympics by Black Ambition to network and meet with potential investors.
This year, only eight out of 50 finalists were selected to pitch in front of judges, including Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole, for the $1 million grand prize. But the money is not a gift; it is an equity investment. The funds are given to the startup in the form of a simple agreement for future equity, which gives money now in exchange for a piece of the company in the future.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Monica Williams first applied to the prize in 2022 and “got a solid no.” But this year, she decided to apply to every pitch competition she came across because she and her co-founder, Dana Roberts, had not been able to raise money from traditional investors.
“I can’t tell you how many things I applied to this year because that was the only way that I saw that we were going to be able to get outside funding,” Williams said.
Williams and Roberts are also working on educational materials “that (make) the experience of puberty less weird,” Williams said.
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
Manufacturing and shipping the products has a lot of up-front costs, but Williams had been working since 2019 to figure out what type of product and marketing would resonate with consumers. She sold the first versions of the products by walking up to people at Lenox Square, which allowed her to get critical feedback from potential customers.
“I would go to Lenox and sneakily talk to people and be like, ‘Hey, this is what I have. Would you spend $20 on this? Or would you spend $30 on this?’ Because the process of seeing if someone will trade their money is very different than asking people what they want,” Williams said.
She was teary when thinking about the moment when RedDrop won the $1 million prize, not just because of what it will mean for the company, but for what it will mean for the girls they aim to serve.
“It’s like, girls are worth it,” Williams said. “It’s a validation of us and our ability to run this company, but … the purpose is really to provide a better experience for girls.”
She plans to use the funding to continue to grow the company and for a potential retail opportunity with heath and beauty retailer Ulta.
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
But beyond the grand prize, dozens of other founders won smaller amounts, including two other Atlanta entrepreneurs.
Tahir Murray of licensed HBCU clothing brand LegacyHistoryPride won $25,000 for his business. The 25-year-old entrepreneur started the brand in 2019 while an undergraduate student at Howard University and said the moment he learned he had won an investment, he felt relieved “to finally receive a yes.”
“I feel like for me, as just, like, a young entrepreneur, I’ve been overlooked for some time, and just receiving a lot of nos up until this point has just sharpened my focus,” Murray said, “But to finally receive a yes from Black Ambition, from an organization … that was started and founded by somebody who I have studied for so long, Pharrell Williams, I just felt like timing is everything.”
Murray said he plans to use the funding to grow his team and expand his brand into more HBCUs.
Cloe Guidry-Reed, cofounder and CEO of vendor management and supplier diversity platform Hire Ground, pitched on Demo Day and won $75,000 for her company. For her, this is the first investment she’s been able to get for her business after two-and-a-half years of trying. But she only applied after some encouragement.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
“I’m not really a pitch competition type of person,” Guidry-Reed said, but someone she respects sent information about the prize and told her it was a good opportunity to get her story out there.
“And I just was like, ‘You know what? Why not?’” Guidry-Reed recalled.
Since being one of the top winners, she has received emails from potential clients and venture capitalists. She plans to use the funding for marketing and attracting more suppliers to the platform.
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