Building a brand from scratch isn’t glamorous. It’s relentless, exhausting, and often invisible work. Yet for Olamide Olowe, the founder and CEO of Topicals, every challenge became an opportunity to learn, grow, and build a brand that truly connects with its audience. Her journey not only redefined what it means to create with purpose but also made her the youngest Black woman ever to raise $10 million in venture funding.
In her recent conversation, she spoke candidly about the realities of entrepreneurship, sharing honest lessons for anyone daring to build something meaningful.
1. Build Community Before You Build a Brand
Community is the heartbeat of Topicals’ success.
“You have to earn everyone’s trust,” she explained. “Community building and inclusivity are everything. You have to know your community to hit the right chord.”
From early campaigns to interactive quizzes, every initiative was designed to listen to and serve her audience. The lesson is clear: a product alone isn’t enough. You have to understand the people you’re creating for.
2. Know Your Audience Like You Know Your Vision
Topicals’ early success came from deep empathy and insight into its audience. She recalled launching a quiz called Skin, Sun, and Stars, which combined astrology and skincare advice. With a $300 budget, it attracted 10,000 participants in a month.
“People didn’t want to aspire to be someone else. They wanted to aspire to be the most confident version of themselves.”
Her lesson:
“When you know your customer, you can build for them. So many people waste time on marketing or products that don’t resonate because they didn’t ask their audience.”
3. Turn Storytelling into Strategy
Storytelling is another pillar of her approach. She insisted on campaigns that felt cinematic and memorable, even for simple products.
“Do the things everyone thinks you’re crazy for doing, but that elicit happiness and excitement for you and the person buying the product.”
Storytelling, when intertwined with your product, transforms a purchase into an experience.
4. Create Products that Feel Personal
Effectiveness matters. She described her top-selling products – the High Roller Ingrown Tonic, the eye masks, and the Faded Serum – not as products, but as solutions that genuinely improve lives.
“Intertwine your product with the experience people are having. If your product works and your community feels connected, it’s a win every time.”
5. Balance Business with Creativity
Building Topicals required more than creativity. It required a strategic, business-minded approach.
“You must be Type A ambitious. You have to have a creative business mind. Don’t chase money. Focus on building something incredible, and the money will follow.”
Balancing art and commerce, she emphasized that creativity alone isn’t enough; it must be paired with a deep understanding of business mechanics.
6. Scaling and Sustainability
Rapid growth can be deceiving. Olamide explained that even successful brands can collapse if their spending outpaces their growth.
“Even if you’re doing well, if you’re spending more money to do well, you have to constantly watch that cash balance.”
She also cautioned that
“If you build too fast, you can also go down fast. Businesses that grow too quickly often die too quickly.”
In her view, scalability isn’t about speed but about structure, making sure growth is sustainable, not explosive.
Her approach to scaling Topicals is rooted in control, pacing, and smart reinvestment. It’s about building a business that lasts, not one that burns bright and fades quickly.
7. The Reality Behind Valuations and Funding
When it comes to raising capital, numbers on paper can be deceiving.
“My first round, I went with the lowest valuation of all the offers we got because it had such friendly terms… it didn’t have things that were going to rinse me.”
Many founders focus on high valuations without realizing the trade-offs. Sometimes investors get multiple returns before the founder sees any profit, and control over the board can be limited.
She emphasized the importance of mentorship and learning from others’ experiences.
“So many people want a high valuation, but what people don’t know what that means is that if you have not made enough revenue to make sense of that valuation by the next time you need capital, you’ll be doing a down round… which means you’re losing more equity.”
Her advice?
“A lot of people who are raising this money, are you actually running a real business? If you’re just funding using the funding to cover issues, then fundamentally you’re not running a business. It’s an expensive hobby.”
8. Lead with Empathy and Empowerment
Being a CEO isn’t just about vision. It’s about helping your team thrive.
“Being a CEO is about helping people be the best version of themselves through the work they do with you. Learn how to speak to people, get the best out of them, and help them feel calm even when it’s rocky.”
Leadership, she says, is a delicate balance of driving performance while fostering trust and inclusivity.
10. Start Small, Perfect Fast, Grow Wisely
For founders seeking to launch a brand, she advises starting with one product and perfecting it before expanding.
“Start with less. That one product should feel like you took the customer’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and wrapped it into a solution.”
Pair that with compelling storytelling, and you have the blueprint for a brand that resonates.
10. Generosity and Self-Compassion
Her philosophy extends beyond business strategy. Generosity and self-kindness are critical.
“Be generous to other founders, your team, your customers, and yourself. Give yourself tenderness because the world won’t.”
Sustaining ambition without compassion risks burnout, and she stresses that taking care of yourself is part of the journey to building something lasting.
11. Do Too Much – And Be Proud of It
Finally, she reflected on the criticism she received early on for trying to do too much. Her response?
“By being too much, I’ve created this life. I love that I’ve done too much because why would I want to live my life being less than who I am or what I was called to be? More of this. More of this.”
Her message to aspiring entrepreneurs is simple and powerful: try hard, do more, be generous, and be unapologetically yourself.
“Death to nonchalants. Find what you’re good at and do as much of it as possible in lots of different ways. Trying hard is everything, it makes everything happen.”
Key Takeaways for Aspiring Founders
- Build a community first and earn trust through inclusivity and authenticity.
- Use storytelling to create emotional connection with your audience.
- Intertwine your product with the experiences people are having.
- Combine creativity with strategic business thinking.
- Start small, perfect one product, and expand thoughtfully.
- Lead your team with empathy, clarity, and accountability.
- Practice generosity and self-compassion.
- Understand your customer deeply, it’s the foundation of everything.
- Don’t chase money; chase meaning and mastery.
- Embrace ambition unapologetically, doing too much can be to your advantage.
Source: Interview with Olamide Olowe – “How Olamide Olowe Became the Youngest Black Woman to Raise $10 Million” (YouTube)
If you missed our previous feature on Olamide Olowe’s inspiring journey, you can read it here.
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