I Sold My Company for Nine Figures. Here Are 3 Hard Lessons That Got Me There | Entrepreneur

I was the founder of Briogeo, one of the largest Black-owned hair brands in the U.S. — but at the start, I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew was that I had a product I believed in, a deep desire to create something meaningful, and the willingness to figure the rest out along the way.

It worked out: In 2022, I sold the brand for a nine-figure sum. As I look back on that experience, I realized that the most valuable knowledge doesn’t come from textbooks or investors—it comes from what you learn in the trenches. It’s why I now teach what I learned in my new Makers Mindset Accelerator.

Here are three lessons I share in the Accelerator. They’re things I learned the hard way—and that you should start doing today.

1. Hire for Values, Not Just Experience

One of the best hires I’ve ever made had no experience in beauty, had never worked in supply chain (she became Briogeo’s first operations manager), and was still learning English. But what she did have was hunger. She was motivated, collaborative, and paid attention to every detail.

I invested a lot in training her—and she invested in herself, soaking up every bit of knowledge and becoming one of our top performers. She worked beautifully across teams and built strong relationships externally, too.

That experience showed me that skills can be taught. What can’t be taught is integrity, drive, and alignment with your company’s core values. When you hire for those things first, you build a team that grows with you—and sticks with you through the hard parts.

2. Don’t Let Product Outpace Brand

For a while, we were killing it on the product side—but our brand was telling a fractured story. Our Instagram looked one way, our website another. Our emails didn’t match our visual merchandising. Everyone executing creative was interpreting the brand through their own lens because we hadn’t taken the time to really define it.

It wasn’t until I stepped back that I saw how much opportunity we were leaving on the table. Our product was resonating, but our brand wasn’t meeting it with the same level of clarity or consistency. We brought in a branding agency, built a comprehensive style guide, and finally got everything—from tone of voice to typography—on the same page.

Once we made that shift, the entire customer experience leveled up. The brand started feeling like it had a soul—not just a SKU.

3. Stop Trying to Do Everything Yourself

In the early days, I wore every hat because I couldn’t afford not to. But even after the business began generating real revenue, I didn’t stop. I held on to every role—operations, marketing, finance—partly because I was used to it, and partly because I believed I could do it all faster myself.

That mindset came at a cost. I burned out. I missed critical growth windows because I didn’t have the bandwidth to focus on the bigger picture. I waited too long to bring on the right leaders when we needed them most.

What changed things for me was investing in an executive coach. He helped me see that holding on too tightly wasn’t strength—it was a liability. He challenged me to let go, to trust, and to start building a culture where talented, values-aligned people could take the lead. That’s when real scale became possible.

I didn’t learn these lessons from a playbook. I learned them by getting things wrong, then slowly figuring out how to get them right. That process — trial, error, and evolution — is what shaped me as a founder. And the more I share these stories with other entrepreneurs, the more I realize they’re not alone in the learning curve. None of us are.