“the most magical moment of the whole process was going to our local target and seeing golde on the shelves for the first time. the girl stocking the shelves heard me audibly yelp and just walked away.”
just walked away.” (Golde’s products are currently in 460 Targets across the country, including the Clifton Park location; keep your eye out for Saratoga placement in the future.) There’s no denying that the pandemic has helped put wellness front of mind for many folks, which was helpful to Golde. This year alone, they’ve launched four new products with a top-secret fifth one— a powder-based natural beauty booster, says Wofford—set to be unveiled just days after this story hits newsstands in early June. So far, the couple have chosen not to work with outside investors, and instead expand at a pace that’s organic to them.
on Zoom with would-be business owners. She’s clearly proud of having made it through the startup phase and doesn’t mind showing off her scars: She didn’t take a salary for the first three-and-a-half years Golde was in business. “I think that transparency is something that’s missing from the entrepreneurship space,” she says. “The sexiness around female entrepreneurs in the past 10 years was very glamorous and was really about seeing these women posed up on these magazines with their arms folded, looking like bosses. That’s great, but I’ve found that I wanted to go one step deeper, because when I was starting my business and that was all I had to see as a blueprint, there was no talk of what really happened t’s not lost on the couple to get from point A to B. And that was that their story is a relatively what I really wanted to talk about.” uncommon one today, Like countless other US brand especially given the color of their leaders, Wofford and Kobori have also skin. “There are always challenges been faced with the particularly difficult doing this as a woman, young person, task of addressing, head on, timely and person of color and a Black person,” sensitive subjects such as the murder says Wofford of her place in the of George Floyd last May and the rise world of entrepreneurship. “But there in hate crimes against Asian people. are also just challenges to doing it. I The pandemic itself, too, was a tough think that I’ve always known to just nut to crack. “We have approached these conversations the same way push through those things, whatever we have approached everything that challenge was and whyever it matcha, man Wofford and Kobori want in our business: with transparency, happened to be impacting me.” She their products—like their Matcha Turmeric authenticity and humility,” says Wofford. takes that a step further. “In the new Superfood Latte Blend—to be accessible to That has come in the form of personal climate that we’re seeing with this and affordable for everyone. notes to customers, as well as the movement to support Black-owned brands, there are more retailers reaching out [to us], more founders helping to raise thousands of dollars for the NAACP customers on our website and more press pieces. With that, Legal Defense Fund. “I think that is really what the modern I think it’s this balance of leaning into the opportunities but consumer is looking for from the brand that they support,” also being thoughtful about which ones feel meaningful and says Wofford. “They expect brands to act as if there were real intentional, and which ones aren’t looking to fill a quota.” people behind them, because there are.” Now that Golde has gone national, Wofford feels she For most businesses, getting a product or product line in has a responsibility to mentor prospective BIPOC/female a retailer like Nordstrom or Target would be a pot-of-gold-atentrepreneurs, who might be looking for their breakthrough the-end-of-the-rainbow goal. So what happens when you’ve moment, too. “I felt that growing up and being one of the few already realized that dream? “We’ve done a tremendous people of color graduating from my high school,” says Wofford. amount of work to redefine what wellness looks like for the “There was always this pressure to be representative, and next generation,” says Wofford. “Before we started, there were now there is this added layer of how I can pass that forward. no wellness brands talking about inclusivity or accessibility. And now we see that as a pillar across the industry, and I I’ve tried to do that as much as I can for entrepreneurs in think we can continue to push the category forward. I think general, really.” Case in point: Wofford has a free business we can have our products in every American household.” mentorship video series on her Instagram, searchable by the In other words, look out, world. hashtag #office_hrs, and also hosts private Mentor Mondays
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