You Grew It Alone. Now Can You Lead?

Nnenna Stella, founder of the fashion accessories brand the Wrap Life, talks staffing up with Lisa Price, founder of beauty brand Carol’s Daughter.

- By Teneshia Carr

THE MENTOR

Lisa Price

A beauty industry icon, Price founded Carol’s Daughter nearly three decades ago, making the company’s hair, skin, and body products in her Brooklyn apartment. Despite selling the business to L’Oréal in 2014, the mother of three still works full time for the brand she started, while mentoring a group of women entrepreneurs, most of whom are Black.

THE MENTEE

Nnenna Stella

Stella founded the hair accessories brand the Wrap Life in 2014 after working as a waitress for 15 years in New York City and Los Angeles. She’s grown the brand almost entirely by herself, hiring mostly independent contractors to help her scale. Stella is finally ready to build a team around her, but has some reservations about the best way to be a leader.

Sometimes, all you need to come up with a brilliant business idea is a little peace of mind. In 2013, after 30 days of meditation and journaling, Nnenna Stella identified a gap in the fashion accessories market: stylish head wraps. The Brooklyn-based waitress had been scouring the internet for a fashionable wrap after a “transformative” experience wrapping up her hair, but couldn’t find anything that appealed to her.

“I wanted to express something new, beyond lipstick and earrings, so I put on a head wrap, and I loved the feeling,” Stella says. “I didn’t know a piece of fabric had the power to do that.”