Kendra Bracken-Ferguson has built a conglomerate that includes Braintrust Agency, BrainTrust Founders Studio (BTFS), and BrainTrust Fund. Expanding her personal brand pillars of community, mentorship, education, and capital, she has created an ecosystem for winning to drive impact and resonance, specifically by creating programming and content to effectively highlight and uplift diverse founders and their contributions across the beauty and wellness industry.

In addition to the external impact, for the past decade, Bracken-Ferguson has built a diverse company that represents the full spectrum of culture, building a team of innovators, builders, and intrapreneurs paving the way for the next generation of entrepreneurs. Her small but mighty team of seven has a diverse makeup of LGBTQI, three nationalities, three generations, and geographical representation across the coasts further proving that diverse teams perform better.

While investing and supporting diverse founders is the right thing to do, it is also the smart business thing to do. Bracken-Ferguson has been committed not only to creating the spaces for inclusion but also leveraging verifiable, tangible data points to reinforce positive impact. It is her mission to show and not just tell of the impact diverse founders are making.

BeautyMatter sat down with 2024 NEXT Changemaker of the Year Finalist Kendra Bracken-Ferguson.

What was the challenge or problem you identified that necessitated a change?

In October 2021, I launched BrainTrust Founders Studio to create an ecosystem of resources for Black founders in beauty and wellness. At the time, my vision was to develop an equitable future and opportunities in the beauty industry for founders who had been left behind, overlooked, and not considered for advancements whether capital, retail, or the basics of mentorship and education. I knew firsthand what I was experiencing as a founder and found supporting data that it wasn’t just me going through this struggle; it was the majority of my peers.

According to READY to BEAUTY Economic Data Study on the Business of Multicultural Beauty in America, 92% [of Black founders] lack access to investment, working capital, and financial playbooks for to business growth; 77% lack access to consistent mentoring and business management; 58% lack access to suppliers and vendors with favorable terms for growing brands; and 55% lack marketing support. Alongside this aspect, we continued to see that Black founders received less than 0.48% of venture capital than their counterparts. In 2022, I invited my longtime friend and colleague, Lisa Stone to join me as co-founder and Chief Investment Officer, and together we launched BrainTrust Fund I, a $15 million venture fund to invest $250,000 to $2.5 million in businesses sourced from BrainTrust Founders Studio.

In our BrainTrust Founders Studio Economic Advancement Report published in March 2024, we found that despite McKinsey’s compelling proof that “VC-funded Black beauty ventures have a superior track record of success compared with their non-Black counterparts,” venture funding to Black entrepreneurs is scarcer than ever. Of the $114.9 million in venture capital and angel investment raised by 25 BTFS founders, the grand majority is concentrated in just 11 companies. Most of these founders closed that funding once they had bootstrapped to demonstrate repeatable revenue, intellectual property, and/or product-market fit. Most of that venture capital was raised from diverse investing teams that include individual investors who identify as Black, brown, and/or as women. 

Creating change is a complex process, usually filled with hurdles. What drives your commitment to keep going?

The impact we are making by providing community, mentorship, education, and capital to inclusive founders is my driving force. As a 3x founder myself, I can say firsthand it is not easy and can be challenging, to say the least. We must stay true to our core mission, our core reason, and believe without a shadow of a doubt that our work will and can change the lives of those around us and that our work matters.

When I think about the over 200 founders in our BTFS and our partners, I am confident we are making a difference for founders with our monthly programming, our members only resource app, our 1:1 management and consulting services to provide strategic coaching and business solutions, and our community activations. I have been able to broaden my focus and expand my relationships, my network, and the myriad of opportunities through my new role to continue to build upon the legacy of work we have completed from what started as an idea to architect a brain trust to tackle the most complex entrepreneurial problems to support the accelerated growth of our members. These 209 founders—91% Black women—in our BTFS collectively achieved nearly $142.6 million in sales, up 42.5% from the prior year, selling 39,000+ product SKUs across more than 47,000 retail doors and online.

Creating change requires rallying consensus and motivating others to support the cause. How did you achieve this?

When I started BTFS, I reached out to about 20 founders who I knew were experiencing growing pains similar to what I was experiencing with my own business, trying to overcome the challenges of COVID, reconciling Black Lives Matter, while also trying to keep their businesses afloat and growing. I shared my idea of building the studio to this small group of founders, and they all said yes to joining me on my mission to create change and an ecosystem of resources toward winning. We had support from several corporations early on, and their commitment helped us offer in-kind services to founders as we grew our core offering. We are a grassroots organization created for the community to provide cultural and commercial leadership to create real impact.

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? 

My willingness to take risks for what I believe in and be intentional and diligent in my pursuit of reaching my goals. I am proud of my spirit, heart for God, and unwavering commitment to be of service and support those in my community. I truly believe in divine timing, and in various seasons throughout my career, I have been able to lend my talents, skills, and expertise in ways that have driven impact and change for good. I am a 3x founder and have been proud of every company I have created or designed to solve a true need in the market. In this next phase of my career, as CEO of Carmell Corporation (Nasdaq: CTCX), I am proud to be among the elite group of public company diverse CEOs changing the face of business leadership to move our industry forward.

BeautyMatter has a platform to amplify your work. How can our community support?

Thank you for all that you do to amplify our work and be the voice of our industry. Continue to advocate for small and emerging brands. Continue to provide equal representation across the entire spectrum of beauty.

What advice would you give to others looking to make a difference?

My new book, The Beauty of Success: Start, Grow, and Accelerate Your Brand provides a wealth of advice, stories, and worksheets to help both entrepreneurs and intraprenuers hone in on their core values and pillars of success ultimately providing the pathway to make a difference in whatever path they chose. Chapter 3: "Know When to Pivot to Survive and Thrive" reminds us that some of our greatest successes come when we know when to change course or find an alternative route on our journey. We have to reconcile within ourselves when it's time to move on or to pivot to truly make the difference we want to make in the world. We have to be open to change and discern when that change will enable us to fulfill our dreams and passion in a way that is greater than we can ever imagine. Every great leader has two things in common: we are consistent and we change. It is through our ability to pivot that we can unlock a world of opportunities to propel us forward. I also live by the mantra, Carpe Diem—Seize the Day. Life happens now. We are here now. Be in the moment now. Go for it. You can always pivot, go back, or take another direction.

What excites you about the future of the industry?

Advancements around technology in skincare and healthcare and bio-aesthetics. As the CEO of Carmell Corporation, I am seeing firsthand the role of biology in our overall skin health. Carmell Corp is a bioaesthetics company utilizing our proprietary ingredient Carmell Secretome, the first-of-its-kind regenerative skincare that leverages the power of human biology combined with microemulsion technology to ensure ingredients penetrate deep beneath the skin for optimal results. Carmell spent seven years and over $60 million developing the Carmell Secretome, containing 1000+ proteins and peptides derived from human platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Free from the Foul 14 and formulated with biolipids, biohydration, vitamins, minerals, and botanicals.

Through BrainTrust Fund I, we invested in two AI tech companies, Myavana and Parfait, both considered AI beauty tech, and their ability to fuse the two is powerful. So I am excited for how we merge the worlds of biology, technology, and AI to deliver the future of innovation in beauty.