A Black Entrepreneur Seized Rare Opportunity And Raised Venture Capital, Started An Online News Outlet For Women

Sharmadean Reid is a London-based entrepreneur who discovered that a membership-based business model and the right target audience can offer a winning combination.

Reid started The Stack World, an online news publication that works to help female entrepreneurs level up their businesses in the area of beauty, business, culture, society, and wellness, according to Business Insider.

Also, Stack members enjoy the perks of exclusive access

to virtual, curated happenings. It is also an online destination that reports on topics that interest females while including business and finance-related content, Business Insider reported.

Despite her success, Reid is just one of ten UK-based Black women entrepreneurs in the last ten years who acquired venture capital.

 

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Reid told the publication that despite an uptick in small business investments, a small portion of capital is secured by the UK’s women of color. Despite this, the 37-year-old was able to collect nearly $5.5 million in Index Venture’s funding round for another business BeautyStack, which she embarked on in 2017. The booking platform allowed 2,000 beauty professionals to link up with 20,000 clients, but the pandemic interrupted Reid’s business model. Lockdowns caused many beauty businesses to shut down. In response, Reid started The Stack World, after she decided to pivot from a beauty focused-business.

“It was coming to terms with how that felt as a leader — to let go of something you were so obsessed with,” Reid said to Business Insider. “I had to evolve and do something different.”

Instead of throwing in the towel, Reid stretched to make another leap of faith through launching The Stack World. The discovery of her niche has led to The Stack World attracting more than 1,000 members who invest in paid memberships, since it was launched. Additionally, over the last three months, business section visitors soared to the 90% mark. Two-hundred hosted events 200 have been held as growth evolves.

 

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Although The Stack World emerged because of lockdowns during the pandemic, Reid’s flexibility to  reassesses previous business model proved to be fruitful.

“Coming up with the product is only half the work,” Reid told Business Insider. “The most important thing is to think about customer acquisition.”