Finding the Right Funding

Kim Lewis is the CEO and co-founder of CurlMix, a clean beauty brand for curly hair. Kim and Tim, her husband and co-founder, operate a manufacturing facility in Chicago, where they employ a full-time staff of 30+ minorities and women. They appeared on the 10th season of Shark Tank where they turned down a deal from Robert Herjavec who offered $400K for 20% of their company. Following their episode, CurlMix became one of less than 40 Black, women-owned companies to raise over $1M in venture capital funding; specifically, raising a seed round of $1.4 million, led by former LinkedIn CEO, Jeff Weiner.

• The first investor check she ever received
• How she turned a Shark Tank appearance into more investor meetings
• Her advice on finding the funding for your business