ABOUT US

BrainTrust Founders Studio is committed to creating a global movement to redesign the future of entrepreneurship by empowering diverse founders to start, grow and accelerate profitable businesses through community, mentorship, education and capital.
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WHAT WE BELIEVE

LEAVE NO FOUNDER BEHIND.

Our “leave no founder behind” philosophy provides an ecosystem for winning for and by diverse founders through community, mentorship, education and, where appropriate, venture capital.

AMERICA HAS A UNIQUE, BLUE OCEAN OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE $1 TRILLION IN VALUE.

Leadership by diverse investors, entrepreneurs and consumers in the beauty and wellness sector is finally being met with demand by mainstream consumers, retailers and corporate acquirers that cannot source enough diverse-led and operated brands to meet demand.

OUTPERFORMING LEADERSHIP.

This marketplace was slowly emerging over the past decade, as diverse influencers out-performed in social media, literally changing CPG growth marketing economics, product adoption rates and offer downloads, while Black consumers proved to be 44% more likely to socially endorse favorite brands and over-indexed for financial app usage, from shopping to investing. 

DESIGNED FOR DIVERSE BEAUTY AND WELLNESS FOUNDERS

In October of 2021, Kendra Bracken-Ferguson founded BrainTrust Founders Studio with the goal of creating an ecosystem for winning by and for Black founders of beauty and wellness companies. Inviting Lisa Stone, to join her in 2022 as co-founder and Chief Investment, the co-founders and their team have grown the studio to the largest membership-based platform designed for diverse founders of beauty and wellness companies, with 200+ founders – 91% of whom are women – who have shipped more than 39,000 SKUs to market and collectively sold more than $142MM across 47,000 retail “doors” and DTC online.1

In April 2024, BrainTrust Founders Studio welcomed Melissa Hibbert as President to co-lead the studio into its next phase of growth focused on increasing reach, developing more accessible advising, retail and strategic partnerships, experiential programming for founders, and expanding on its core mission. 

Join BrainTrust Founders Studio as a founder or partner to support the commercial and cultural leadership of our community.

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Melissa Hibbert, President; Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, Founder and CEO; Lisa Stone, co-founder and CIO, BrainTrust Founders Studio 

OUR TEAM

Kendra Bracken-Ferguson

Founder and CEO
General Partner, BrainTrust Fund

Lisa Stone

Co-founder, Chief Investment Officer
General Partner, BrainTrust Fund

Melissa Hibbert

President

Gigi Vega

Director of Brand and Creative Services

Ryan Pierce

Founder Relations and Programming Manager

Olivia Jones

Executive Assistant
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