CurlMix founders and highschool sweethearts, Tim and Kim Lewis, turned down a $400,000 Shark Tank supply in 2019.
Last month, the couple launched an fairness crowdfunding marketing campaign for their haircare model and raised over $1 million inside 4 hours. In lower than seven weeks, CurlMix has raised over $4.2 million.
Over 7,000 traders have contributed to the Wefunder marketing campaign because it was launched on April sixth. According to the Wefunder marketing campaign, the couple all the time knew they needed to construct a life and enterprise. Now, they’ve an opportunity to create wealth of their neighborhood due to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS) Act.
“When I met Tim, neither of our households had a lot cash however we didn’t care, we figured we may construct collectively,” Kim posted on Instagram. “We needed to be the change and nonetheless do. Investing permits us to construct wealth for ourselves and our neighborhood.”
From High School Sweethearts to Shark Tank
Kim and Tim Lewis had been raised on the south facet of Chicago. They attended Morgan Park High School and have been collectively since they had been 16.
“When I met Tim in second-period health club class, I didn’t assume we’d construct a multi-million greenback firm that employs our neighborhood and serves girls of shade,” Kim shared on LinkedIn.
After graduating school in 2013, Kim Lewis landed a job making almost six figures. But her imaginative and prescient couldn’t be confined to a cubicle. She stop her job with no financial savings or job lined up, relying solely on her creativity to find out the following steps. That’s when she determined to signal CurlMix co-founder Tim Lewis up for the favored sport present Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He appeared on the twelfth season of the present and walked away with $100,000. This cash helped the couple fund their first enterprise.
In 2015, CurlMix was born. The model began as a do-it-yourself subscription field and transitioned right into a hair care line for curly hair. After incomes their first $1 million in gross sales in 2018, the couple appeared on ABC’s present Shark Tank. Investor Robert Herjavec provided the couple $400,000 in alternate for 20% of the corporate however the numbers didn’t match their expectations.
“Having the dialog about what we had been keen to just accept the night time earlier than pitching was like deciding whether or not or to not have youngsters. We knew that CurlMix can be large at some point and we handled every % like one million {dollars}. It was a tough dialog. It concerned numbers, feelings, and loads of analysis,” says Lewis.
Couple Turns to Equity CrowdFunding After Rejecting Shark Tank Offer
Listener Brands, the dad or mum firm of CurlMix and 4C ONLY, is giving customers an opportunity to unlock generational wealth via their fairness crowdfunding marketing campaign. Although there is no such thing as a assured return on funding, this chance permits customers to get in early and profit from the corporate’s potential progress.
Typically, traders must be thought-about accredited with a view to make sure investments. But the principles round investing in small corporations modified in 2012. Obama signed the JOBS Act, making it simpler for corporations to boost capital from their neighborhood.
“Many of us spend years supporting corporations with our hard-earned {dollars}, however we see nothing for it when the model ultimately sells, transferring the wealth outdoors of our neighborhood,” says Listener Brands CEO and Co-Founder, Kim Lewis in a press release. “Our purpose is to create alternatives for our neighborhood to extend their wealth. Our imaginative and prescient is to vary the narrative of what possession appears to be like like. We purpose to change into the primary Black-owned publicly-traded magnificence conglomerate.”
