The beauty community was left reeling when Ami Colé, a brand celebrated for filling a crucial void in the Black beauty market, announced its closure in September 2025. Founder Diarrha N’Diaye’s poignant question, “My beauty brand offered Black women shades they couldn’t find elsewhere. Why wasn’t that enough?” resonated deeply. Now, N’Diaye is embarking on a new chapter as the Executive Vice President of Beauty & Fragrance at Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS Beauty, a move that sheds light on the systemic challenges Black founders face in securing venture capital and scaling their businesses.
The Therapeutic Mindset: Overcoming Funding Barriers
N’Diaye’s journey to raising $1 million for Ami Colé began with an unexpected source: therapy. Growing up in a Senegalese family where discussing finances was taboo, she had to overcome psychological hurdles before even approaching investors. Her breakthrough came from reframing capital not as charity, but as essential ‘energy’ needed to bring a business to life. This mental shift was crucial, as she notes that investors can sense insecurity and may take advantage of founders asking for too little.
Despite being one of only 30 Black women to raise over $1 million during the pandemic, N’Diaye found that statistical weight didn’t guarantee leniency. Venture capital often relies on pattern recognition, favoring familiar business models like “the Uber of XYZ.” For genuinely innovative brands like Ami Colé, this meant constantly re-educating investors. Even with experience at Glossier, investors defaulted to comparisons, overlooking Ami Colé’s unique intentions and trajectory.
The Pattern Recognition Trap and Funding Gaps
N’Diaye deliberately steered Ami Colé away from the “unicorn” metrics that might not align with the brand’s core values. However, without access to the crucial friends-and-family funding rounds common for many founders, the stakes felt incredibly high – a leap from “zero to a million.” She built her network through former colleagues, business panels, and the popular Clubhouse app, co-founding The Black Beauty Club with Tomi Talabi to share insights with other founders like Olamide Olowe (Topicals) and Abena Boamah-Acheampong (Hanahana Beauty).
After facing approximately 150 rejections, funding finally came through. Yet, securing capital was just the beginning of a steep learning curve. N’Diaye realized that even landing in 250 Sephora stores could become a trap without a deep understanding of retail operations. She now advises aspiring founders to inquire about the minimum viable retail presence for both online and in-store channels, emphasizing that retailers appreciate such intentionality.
The Data Gap and Scaling Challenges
N’Diaye encountered significant hurdles when Ami Colé’s performance varied across different markets. She discovered a critical data gap: while major corporations invest heavily in understanding consumer markets like Latinx, similar rigorous research for Black consumers, especially in beauty, is severely lacking. “I think there are only about two to three Nielsen studies on Black consumerism, specifically to beauty,” she noted, highlighting the difficulty in accessing even basic market information.
The fundamental question of where Black and brown women shop remains complex and constantly shifting. N’Diaye felt like she was “building a rocket ship with papier-mâché right next door to NASA” when comparing Ami Colé’s resources to those of LVMH-backed brands like Fenty. While Fenty offers incredible products and marketing power, N’Diaye’s brand focused on deep community connection – a differentiator that proved difficult to scale without substantial infrastructure.
A New Model for Inclusive Beauty Leadership at SKIMS
N’Diaye’s new role at SKIMS represents the partnership and infrastructure she identified as essential. Kim Kardashian specifically sought N’Diaye for her community-building expertise, aiming to make SKIMS Beauty a truly representative brand. N’Diaye’s vision is to extend the “for everybody” ethos of SKIMS into the beauty realm, leveraging the company’s resources for capital, infrastructure, and scaled inclusivity.
This move comes at a critical time for Black beauty brands that emerged during the 2020 racial reckoning. Many, like Ceylon and The Established, have shuttered, while others like Hyper Skin are crowdfunding for survival. The tragic passing of Uoma Beauty founder Sharon Chuter at 38, amidst a legal battle alleging investor misconduct, underscores the precariousness of these ventures. N’Diaye observes these patterns with a keen eye, stating, “We know that there’s a lot of dismantling that we’re still trying to do… So you can’t help but to think.”
Her transparency reveals a crucial industry truth: great products and devoted communities aren’t always enough when the system itself remains unchanged. N’Diaye’s position at SKIMS may pave the way for a new model, where partnership with established entities provides the support structure that independent venture capital alone couldn’t deliver for Black founders striving for scalable inclusivity.
What are your thoughts on Diarrha N’Diaye’s insights and her new role at SKIMS? Share your perspective in the comments below!
