5 Transgender Entrepreneurs of Color You Should Know
Every entrepreneur faces challenges on their way to building a successful business. LGBTQ and entrepreneurs of color face more challenges than most.
According to the National LGBT Chammber of Commerce, just 2 percent of all LGBT-owned businesses in the U.S. are operated by transgender entrepreneurs, and the majority of LGBT businesses owners (80 percent) are also Caucasian. LGBTQ entrepreneurs of all backgrounds face an uphill battle (LGBTQ-owned businesses were 13 percent more likely to report financial troubles in 2020 than non-LGBTQ businesses, according to the Center of LGBTQ Economic Advancement and Research), but some members of the community are more affected.
As double-minorities facing unique and intersectional challenges, transgender entrepreneurs of color have no choice but to blaze their own trail. And these entrepreneurs are rising to the challenge, scaling businesses and helping fuel the $1.7 trillion contributed by LGBT-owned businesses to the U.S. economy each year.
In honor of Transgender Awareness Week, which takes place between November 13 and November 19, here are five transgender entrepreneurs of color you should have on your radar:
1. Vyra Scher (she/her)
Vyra Scher founded Lechery, an affordable luxury legwear and accessories brand based in New York City, in 2021. Originally from Asia, she came to the United States from Qatar in 2019 seeking asylum. She started working on Lechery when she was 20 years old, and formally launched the brand two years later. Since 2021, Lechery has grown into a $15 million company that sells in major department stores such as Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Nordstrom.
2. Kylo Freeman (they/them)
Kylo Freeman is the Black, trans, nonbinary founder of For Them, a community-built holistic wellness brand that makes chest binders. The New York City-based company was founded in 2021, after Freeman pivoted away from a career in acting (they appeared in an episode of Netflix’s Inventing Anna as well as five episodes of New Amsterdam), and has sold over 50,000 binders since. In August, the brand announced it was acquiring Autostraddle, an online LGBTQ+ magazine. Freeman is also the founder of Boycott Entertainment, a New York-based production company centered on amplifying underrepresented talent, and a partner at Resolute Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm.
3. Braxton T. Fleming (he/him)
Braxton T. Flemming founded Stealth Bros & Co., a Mays Landing, New Jersey-based company that produces dopp kits and bags for storing medical essentials, in 2017. In September 2022, he became the first transgender Black man to receive funding — $200,000 for a 20 percent stake in the company — from Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban on Shark Tank. The brand is now in 4,000 CVS stores nationwide and has grown by more than 50 percent year over year for the last six years, currently grossing six figures in revenue.
4. Carmen Carrera (she/her)
Carmen Carrera is the Latinx founder of Los Angeles-based CC3 Entertainment, a digital marketing agency focused on creating opportunities for LGBTQ influencers. Before founding the agency in 2020, she performed on RuPaul’s Drag Race, which propelled her career in modeling and acting. The company currently represents more than 20 people, including Olympic gymnast Danell Leyva and beauty influencer Samantha Lux, and has landed collaborations with brands such as Maybelline, E.L.F., and Nylon.
5. AL Sandimirova (they/them)
AL Sandimirova, an Indigenous, queer, transgender, nonbinary refugee and activist, is the founder and CEO of New York-based Automic Gold, an affordable, sustainable, and gender-free jewelry brand. They’re of Chuvash descent, and emigrated from Tatarstan, an independent republic of Russia, in 2009. They graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10KSB Tory Burch Foundation program in 2017 and founded the company later that year. Entirely self-funded, Automic Gold started with $165,000 and is now a $4.8 million business.
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