Tech

MYAVANA Founder Candace Mitchell Advises Founders To Think Generationally And Retain Their Companies To Preserve Black Culture

blacknewsdaily3 hours ago

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Candace Mitchell wants Black founders to think generationally.

Mitchell is the founder of MYAVANA, a haircare company powered by artificial intelligence (AI). According to its website, the company’s offerings include MYAVANA HairAI™, which leverages AI to provide users with instant product recommendations, saving them time and money. It has also launched MYAVANA HairSI™, a hair strand analysis kit that provides a personalized haircare plan and access to expert haircare specialists.

MYAVANA’s innovations have allowed its footprint to scale to Ulta Beauty in 2023. Additionally, it has expanded to a brick-and-mortar retail store in Uganda, Africa, which also carries products from Black-owned businesses including Moisture Love, Texture Crush, Afro Unicorn, U Go Girl Hair, and LushUs Hair, as AFROTECH™ previously told you.

“From a business standpoint, it made more sense for us to start our franchise in the motherland and actually target each nation to open up global product distribution… Now we can distribute Black-owned haircare brands in Uganda and beyond,” Mitchell said on the “Black Tech Green Money” podcast hosted by AFROTECH™ Brand Manager Will Lucas. “So it fills multiple purposes because the main purpose for MYAVANA is to reclaim the wealth of the hair industry, which we know has gone to other cultures over the years. That’s part of how we can strategically do that and especially through technology.”

Beyond distribution and strategy, Mitchell also emphasizes the importance of long-term sustainability for Black-owned businesses, highlighting that maintaining ownership is key to an equation that centers a lasting infrastructure rooted in the culture.

“I think that our legacy businesses have had a hard time maintaining that longevity and that sustainability. So I do think that there is especially a place to retain businesses in our portfolios so that they are building the ecosystem of Black culture,” she mentioned. “Because the thing is, every time a company gets to a tipping point, it’s acquired, right? So what is left for the infrastructure of Black culture.”

She continued, “I think that there’s an opportunity to fill every position, every industry to now have our Coca-Colas, our Chick-fil-A’s. These American-based brands have now become staples and icons in their industries and markets. I still believe that we need to do the same, and I’m building MYAVANA that way to be a pillar in the beauty industry that can be passed on for generations, especially since we’re driven by technology and wanting to protect how technology is created in the future, too.”