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On today’s episode, we welcome Olowo-n’djo “Olo” Tchala, Founder and CEO of Alaffia — a clean beauty brand rooted in West African traditions and built around fair trade, ethical sourcing, and creating economic opportunity.
Alaffia is what happens when purpose isn’t added to a brand — it is the reason the brand exists. In 2004, he co-founded Alaffia with a mission to create sustainable economic opportunities for women in West Africa through women-led cooperatives, while building effective, accessible beauty products using ingredients including unrefined shea butter and African black soap. In this episode, Olo shares how he turned that mission into a scalable consumer brand, what more than 20 years of building Alaffia has taught him about purpose and profitability, and why real ethical sourcing goes far beyond what appears on a package.
He also opens up about bringing in outside investors, losing control of the company he founded, ultimately regaining ownership, and the lessons every founder should understand about capital, governance, mission, and control.
Such an important founder story. Listen now.
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This podcast is amazing! Insightful, uplifting, inspiring, thought provoking…I can’t get enough! As a recent college graduate trying to chart my own path…I find golden nuggets of wisdom in every podcast. I’ve been following Kara for years and love getting to know her in this facet. Such a valuable listen!
Kara has a great balance of getting to the details and finding the deeper threads of the concepts while keeping things fluid and fun. A must listen for anyone looking to learn.
I am so inspired by Kara and not a bit surprised by the line up of “movers and shakers” she has chosen to interview. When I saw Dr. Robert Lustig on the list I was absolutely delighted! Keep up the fight against sugar, Kara, and keep inspiring others on a daily basis! Thank you for what you do.
I love Kara’s questions and her naturally flowing conversations with her guests. I’ve learned so much about developing your own business with little to no experience from the episodes with Alli Webb, Randi Zuckerberg and Ellen Bennett. Kara can relate too based off of her interview in Rebecca Jarvis’ no limits podcast which makes it even more relatable for me. Great job!!!
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