That and other essential advice from Mielle Organics founders (and power couple) Monique Rodriguez and Melvin Rodriguez on the company’s 10th anniversary
P&G Beauty bought Mielle Organics last year in a landmark deal for Black-owned businesses. The sale was the largest-ever acquisition for a Black female beauty founder. And while the price wasn’t disclosed, a previous investment is a good indication of the ballpark: in 2021, Mielle founder Monique Rodriguez became the first Black woman to raise a non-controlling, nine-figure investment in a deal with Berkshire Partners.
It’s been 10 years since Monique and her husband, Melvin Rodriguez, launched Mielle—a side hustle that grew out of a terrible personal tragedy. After losing a baby to a high-risk pregnancy, Monique realized her work as a nurse was unfulfilling and started making hair care products out of her kitchen and posting the videos to social media.
There was a market for the products. But the banks didn’t see it. Which isn’t all that surprising. According to a study from McKinsey, Black beauty brands raise on average $13 million in venture capital compared to $20 million for non-Black brands (despite the fact that the median revenue for a Black beauty brand is also significantly higher).
The P&G deal was historic. Yet some ardent Mielle fans took to Twitter when the news broke, airing concerns that the giant would change the brand’s formulas. (Shea Moisture’s Richelieu Dennis faced similar pushback when he sold his company to Unilever in 2017 for $1.6 billion dollars.) For the record, Monique and Melvin continue to run the company, and P&G can’t change Mielle’s formulas without them. In Monique’s words, they didn’t sell out, they “sold up.”
Mielle is now available in something like 87 countries. On the eve of the company’s 10th anniversary, the cofounders talk about the big sale, that backlash, and why you should never, ever bring a laptop into the bedroom.
MICKEY RAPKIN: You started making these products in your kitchen 10 years ago. Take us back to that moment and when it went from a hobby to an actual business?
MONIQUE RODRIGUEZ: I thought the right thing to do was to follow my mom’s direction and become a nurse. I went through the loss of my son in 2013. And that’s when I really decided to do some self-reflection. The idea wasn’t initially to create this haircare brand. Because I was literally posting the recipes online for people to remake them themselves. It got to the point where women were like, “OK, we don’t have time. We want to purchase from you.”
ERIC RYAN: First of all, I’m so sorry about the tragedy that you went through. That’s every parent’s worst nightmare. I was curious, going through nursing school and being a nurse, how you applied that to entrepreneurship.
MONIQUE: It really taught me how to communicate. As a nurse, before you go into a patient’s room and stick them with a large IV needle, that patient has to develop a trust for the nurse. I took that same approach to connecting with people via social media. If people trust you, they will buy your product.
Early Roadblocks
RAPKIN: You had this blockbuster, authentic product out of the gate. But banks were not interested in loaning you money. Take us through those early rejections.
MELVIN RODRIGUEZ: We embraced the process. We bootstrapped it. We leveraged our assets, our savings, our 401Ks—because we understood that the banks wanted to see more. They wanted to see that the business model had the opportunity for scale.
RAPKIN: (smiling) It’s easier to casually say that now—“Yeah, we put up our 401Ks”—because you’ve had this wild success. But it must have been scary.
MELVIN: We trusted each other—and our faith kept us grounded. No weapon formed against us was going to prosper. We went forward when there was a negative EBITDA balance. We knew we were going to figure it out.
RYAN: The hardest thing in entrepreneurship is overcoming mental barriers. It’s really beautiful how your faith guides you through.
RAPKIN: There was a learning curve early on. You had the sales. But there was a moment you realized, We’re spending so much on marketing that we’re not making any money.
MELVIN: That was a humbling moment for us that gave us a greater appreciation for being an entrepreneur. Our friend Richelieu Dennis—and many others that have been where we were—they would laugh at us. It was, “We’ve been there, we understand it. We see you’re onto something extraordinary. How can we help you learn from our mistakes?"
RAPKIN: Tell us about one change you made.
MELVIN: It was—number one—cost of goods. It was taking our margins from 40 percent, 50 percent, to 75 percent, 80 percent. Looking at our scale and saying, “Wait a second. We can’t continue paying what we were paying when we were just starting out.” We were able to negotiate with our manufacturers to present us with better pricing.
“Selling Up”
RAPKIN: In interviews about the P&G sale, people always ask about the concern from your customers—that you were going to change the formulas. But I haven’t seen you talk about how you celebrated the sale.
MONIQUE: I mean, we did take a nice vacation. But quite frankly it was right back to work. Because we feel there’s a huge responsibility that comes with historic deals like what we did with P&G. We know that in the African-American community it’s looked upon as a bad thing to sell your business. But we wanted to change that narrative. This is what happens when you create something. When you scale it and sell it, you’re able to create more opportunities for the community that’s gotten you where you are. The reason Richelieu Dennis was able to invest in Mielle was because he was able to scale and sell his company to Unilever. More entrepreneurs can be created if more Black-founded brands can build their companies, sell them, and create investment funds.
RAPKIN: Part of your deal was creating a fund, Mielle Cares. I think you gave $10 million and P&G gave $10 million.
MONIQUE: Correct. Our nonprofit was created from this partnership with P&G. Our whole thing was like, “OK, you want to be a part of Mielle, you want to acquire us? What can you do to give back?” They were more than happy to say, “OK, we’re going to donate $10 million.”
RYAN: It’s so powerful the way you not only walk the walk—being able to leverage P&G and their global reach for your cause. I’ve always tried to do the same thing. When S.C. Johnson acquired Method, it was really about, How do we amplify sustainability? The emotions of selling a company—it’s never felt like a celebration to me. I always looked at it as, “This is really about the next chapter in a long book.”
MELVIN: Absolutely. We understood that our kids in our communities can’t be what they don’t see.
RYAN: I love that line. If you can’t see it, you can’t be it. That’s so beautiful.
Keeping The Magic Alive
RAPKIN: You’ve described the deal with P&G as a “marriage.” You’re a year or so in. How’s the marriage going?
MELVIN: The marriage has been going exceptionally well. P&G fell in love with the story, with us as leaders, and they felt they could trust us to continue to lead post-acquisition. They were willing to embark in what we call a Do No Harm-Keep The Magic Clause in terms of what we’ve created. So that we avoid the issues of formula changes and all those different things many consumers are afraid of.
MONIQUE: If your goal is to just remain mediocre and not go anywhere, then of course you can stay exactly where you’re at. But my goal was to be able to leverage resources, access to Black scientists, to increase our distribution, our brand awareness.
RAPKIN: As an entrepreneur, it can be hard to shut it off at night. When you’re married to your business partner and go home, are you ever like, “Can we just watch TV tonight?”
MONIQUE: We were advised, actually, by our pastor that your bedroom is sacred. If you want to talk about work in the bedroom—or if your husband wants to pull out the laptop, because he’s very notorious for pulling out his laptop anywhere.
RYAN: (laughing) There’s nothing sexy about a laptop in the bedroom.
MONIQUE: Then we have to say, “You want to talk about work? Then we’re going to have to get up and go to the office.” And we’re not going to want to get up out of the bed to go to the office. We have to make sure that we are not neglecting the fact that we are still husband and wife. It can’t just always be about work.