An extreme funding gap exists for Black female entrepreneurs who, in 2021, received merely 0.34% of the total venture capital spent in the U.S. in the first half of the year, according to Crunchbase. And while more concerted efforts to diversify capital allocation have come out of these jarring figures, the community of adequately funded Black female founders remains incredibly small.

On this episode, we speak with one of the select few Black female founders who got her funding. In 2021, Monique Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Mielle Organics, broke the glass ceiling for Black female founders, inking a nine-figure, non-controlling investment deal with Berkshire Partners. She shares how she turned her passion for women’s health and a nursing background into a global beauty business, and discusses how her atypical path into entrepreneurship became her biggest asset. Then, host Carla Harris sits down with Monique to discuss the obstacles and opportunities that lie ahead for her as a leader at this pivotal juncture of scaling Mielle. And Carla draws upon leadership insights from her latest book, Lead to Win.

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