How many Black women billionaires can you name besides Oprah and Rihanna? 👩🏾 💵 🤔

This week’s guest is dedicated to making businesses owned by women of color more visible, fundable, and scalable. Regina Gwynn, angel and limited partnership investor and co-founder of Black Women Talk Tech, believes that businesses can be innovated, launched, led, and built by women of color. Gwynn is looking for the next tech unicorn — that is — a company that grows to a $1 billion valuation.

Gwynn’s dreams about building an entrepreneurial empire were inspired by the popular ’80s cartoon Jem and the Holograms, about a record-company owner who’s secretly also the lead singer of a rock group. Gwynn successfully sold Avon products door-to-door as a teen, and that was where her interest in the beauty, fashion, and apparel industry grew.

Gwynn obtained her MBA from Northwestern University and used her job experience and business acumen on her first pivot Tressenoire, a beauty-tech startup for women of color who needed on-demand hair care and styling. The biggest lesson Gwynn has learned: understanding how timing and product-market fit influenced the success of her business.

Gwynn voices the difficulties Black women face when pitching to predominantly white male VC investors. These experiences serve as the catalyst for Black Women Talk Tech, a tech community designed specifically for Black women tech entrepreneurs. The goal: to create a space where Black women could be seen, heard, and engage with a community that can invest in their businesses.

Listen to Gywnn talk about the need to normalize the idea that an investable founder can come from anywhere, on this episode of SheVentures.

3:21 Gwynn talks about her childhood and the entrepreneurs in her family 5:53 What attracted her to the fashion, beauty, and apparel industry 9:51 Advice she would give young women pursuing a career in the fashion industry today 12:33 Gywnn talks about her pivot from fashion to her beauty-tech startup, Tressenoire 20:26 Listen to the difficulties Gwynn had, as a Black woman, pitching for venture capital 25:16 How Gywnn’s experience as a tech entrepreneur informed her next pivot: Black Women Talk Tech 27:56 Gywnn shares her opinion on the “pipeline issue” when it comes to venture/angel funding for women of color 33:24 What incentives does Black Women Talk Tech offer women to help grow their businesses 42:46 What are Gywnn’s biggest wins and unexpected challenges to date? 44:59 Gywnn explains why she included the word “billions” in Black Women Talk Tech’s mission statement 47:06 The goals and initiatives of Black Women Talk Tech 49:41 Where listeners can find out more about Black Women Talk Tech and its programs