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Episode 1: Funlayo Alabi - Entrepreneurship is crying into your kombuchaOur inaugural episode showcases Funlayo Alabi, CEO and Founder of Shea Radiance, a natural beauty brand dedicated to transforming hair, skin, thinking and lives into something beautiful.Entrepreneurship:Funlayo spent a decade working in healthcare as a business analyst and software developer while she created the Shea Radiance brand in her free time. She spent nearly a decade working on all-natural product formulations from her own kitchen.Her business was born out of the need to find a natural solution for her young sons eczema-prone skin. That need sent her on a quest to her homeland of West Africa, where she rediscovered the healing properties of shea butter. Harkening back to her memories of being chased around the house by her grandmother with a tub of shea butter and camphor and smelling like an old suitcase, Funlayo describes that rediscovery as finding the holy grail Not only did she find the missing ingredient for her skin and hair care products; she found a way to link her own journey of motherhood, heritage and economic freedom to that of women shea producers in Africa.According to Funlayo, entrepreneurship is a marathon and not a sprint and there are NO shortcuts. Despite not having many examples of role models in the hair and beauty space to emulate, business like the Body Shop spurred her to weave her own authentic story about shea into her branding to promote it as one of many super products indigeous to the Africa continent.Business Opportunities and Challenges:When asked about her challenges with funding she emphasized doing what you love, but that passion is about 20% of what you need to be successful Branding, marketing and funding are critical for success and she estimated that over $250,000 is the ideal buffer to support the upstream and downstream costs in the supply chain for a beauty brand. She discussed the high and lows of getting into big box stores and the need to understand your margins and discussed the challenges of an independent brand working in a space dominated by commercial brands readily able to pay for space placement and other associated costs. She acknowledges the lessons learned on making sure you have good digital presence and her growing partnership with Whole Foods Market. She says that doing demos and meeting her customers has taught her more about her brand and advises that finding local stores who believe in you is key to your organic growth. Funlayo reflects on how important it is to find reasons for being in business that are bigger than yourself, her why continues to be the women shea producers in her supply chain and her customers who love her products. Funlayo talks about the need to still convince investors on the viability of her business and calls the under investment of female-led entreprises and specifically those run by women of color as depriving the market of amazing products and services Partnership:Funlayo talks about her partnership, mentorship and sisterhood with Francesca Opoku from Beauty Secrets as the epitome of collaborate to compete. As entrepreneurs the two partners dream, network and leverage collective strengths' to scale and grow which allows Funlayo to concentrate on other efforts like the new Dara Beauty Labs, a formulation and product development hub which brings other amazing beauty products to the marketplace.How to connect with Funlayo: https://shearadiance.com--- This episode is sponsored by Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app