While more attention is being paid today to Black beauty consumers, brands, and founders, profound challenges remain regarding equity. Spate, a machine intelligence platform for identifying real consumer needs, and BrainTrust Founders Studio, the most significant platform dedicated to Black founders of beauty and wellness brands, are partnering to accelerate big data solutions. Removing barriers to access can create a greater opportunity for everyone in the industry.

"As a Black founder myself, I'm exceedingly familiar with the needs that come with being a minority business owner," Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, BrainTrust Founders Studio founder and CEO, says. "This impactful partnership is yet another step BrainTrust Founders Studio is taking towards leveling the playing field for our robust and diverse community of innovative brand founders."

Today, Black consumers control $1 trillion+ in annual spending and dominate beauty and wellness consumption and social media trends. Reaching these consumers can be a struggle for Black entrepreneurs, as 92% lack access to investment and working capital, and more than half lack budgets for marketing support.

BrainTrust Founders Studio and Spate are partnering to close the gap for founders of beauty and wellness companies making trend-driven data solutions accessible. The partnership includes free access to the Spate dashboard, which covers more than 20 billion search signals in beauty and wellness, supplemented by training sessions on best practices and use cases for product development and marketing innovation.

"With Black consumers outperforming the average American in social media usage and in endorsements of favorite brands, BrainTrust Founders Studio embraces the power of machine learning to listen to and engage with customers," says Bracken-Ferguson. "As we celebrate one year of providing an ecosystem toward winning by Black founders in beauty and wellness, we're excited to join forces with Spate, whose platform can accelerate the speed with which our founders tap their own data to grow their customer base. This partnership is yet another step toward providing inclusive economic pathways and equitable opportunities for founders."

Providing tools and support for Black founders drives greater equity across the entire beauty industry for shoppers, entrepreneurs, big beauty brands, retailers, and investors.