Power Player: Marc C. Conner

just walked away.” (Golde’s products on Zoom with would-be business are currently in 460 Targets across owners. She’s clearly proud of having the country, including the Clifton made it through the startup phase and Park location; keep your eye out for doesn’t mind showing off her scars: Saratoga placement in the future.) She didn’t take a salary for the first

There’s no denying that the three-and-a-half years Golde was in pandemic has helped put wellness business. “I think that transparency front of mind for many folks, which is something that’s missing from was helpful to Golde. This year the entrepreneurship space,” she alone, they’ve launched four new says. “The sexiness around female products with a top-secret fifth one— entrepreneurs in the past 10 years a powder-based natural beauty was very glamorous and was really booster, says Wofford—set to be about seeing these women posed up unveiled just days after this story hits on these magazines with their arms newsstands in early June. So far, the folded, looking like bosses. That’s couple have chosen not to work with great, but I’ve found that I wanted to outside investors, and instead expand go one step deeper, because when I at a pace that’s organic to them. was starting my business and that was

iall 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 push through those things, whatever these conversations the same way that challenge was and whyever it we have approached everything happened to be impacting me.” She matcha, man Wofford and Kobori want in our business: with transparency, takes that a step further. “In the new climate that we’re seeing with this movement to support Black-owned their products—like their Matcha Turmeric Superfood Latte Blend—to be accessible to and affordable for everyone. authenticity and humility,” says Wofford. That has come in the form of personal notes to customers, as well as the 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. I’ve tried to do that as much as I can for entrepreneurs in And now we see that as a pillar across the industry, and I general, really.” Case in point: Wofford has a free business think we can continue to push the category forward. I think mentorship video series on her Instagram, searchable by the we can have our products in every American household.” hashtag #office_hrs, and also hosts private Mentor Mondays In other words, look out, world.

ISSEY KOBORI “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.”