Ep. 6 - The Equity Crowdfunding Report - Recorded 1-9-2020
In this episode of the Equity Crowdfunding Report Interviews, host Nick Phillips interviews, Vannesa Braxton, CEO of Black Momma Tea and Cafe. Vanessa reviews all the success the company saw over the past twelve months and then talks about her plans for 2020.
See Company Profile - Black Momma Tea & Cafe
Investment Page - WeFunder
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Interview Transcript:
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:00:00] With me today, we have Vanessa Braxton, CEO and president of Black Momma Tea & Cafe. Thanks for being on the show.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:00:08] Thank you for having me.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:00:10] All right. We're going to do a quick review here. Black Momma Tea and Cafe is the retail and franchise division of the Black Momma Business Empire. You just raised over one million dollars after closing your second Reg. CF on WeFunder.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:00:28] You are the Starbucks of the tea industry in the Northeast and your first corporate retail location is slated to open soon. So, Vanessa, you are pretty well known in the equity crowdfunding circles, but for those investors out there that may not know a lot about you, talk about how the Black Momma products came to be, how your vertically integrated supply chain is built out, and how this final piece of the puzzle, the retail division, is going to take the company to the next level.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:00:59] Well, I am Vanessa Braxton, CEO, president of Black Momma Tea and Cafe, as well as the Black Momma Brands, I started Black Momma Vodka in actuality about seven years ago. I am the manufacturer and I'm a distiller. You know, I have two manufacturing facilities and I make Black Momma vodka first. I make a chai tea vodka, Green team vodka. All my products are made from teas. So having my own facility and building up the brand, a lot of my customers were asking me to. Well, can we invest in Black Momma Vodka? Can we in but invest in anything that you're doing?
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:01:47] And at that particular time, I said absolutely not, because I already built this company for the legacy of my children. And I've already put the years and the sweat and tears and the money into it. So if someone something is doing so well, why do I need investors at that point for something that I've already built up? And, you know, so I said, you know what? When the opportunity came about, why don't I just start the Retail end, which is a new company, expansion of the brand. Black Momma Teas and Cafes, you know, and Black Momma Teas & Cafes is the retail and for the investors. And that's the company I definitely want to take to the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. And that's what we're raising, money or raised money for. So build a flagship store plus the franchise location and build out several different locations throughout the country and have you up to about 500 locations. And that's what this is about. It's an expansion of the brand. So it's a start up of the expansion of the brand that I've already built and have a name for.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:02:59] So, you know, through what doing your my research, you appear to be really focused on keeping as much of your supply chain and keeping this vertically integrated in the manufacturing process. You want to keep all that in the US as much as you possibly can. Why is that important?
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:03:19] Well, I have to.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:03:21] You know, it's very important to do that because we're creating jobs. You know, I have people who look like me. I have minority women, you know, other veterans. I have people who work for me, you know, small, you know, diverse people that work for me. So if we're manufacturing in this country, we're able to do so much more in this country.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:03:43] You know, if you think about it, we can make the economy even better when we have manufacturing here. You know, I want to grow tea, which is very important. We're not doing that.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:03:58] You know, we import from China right now, but now I'm looking at a way to use our facilities and use our land to grow tea and we can do that, then we can definitely give a lot of jobs use it for our brands. And then now we have raw materials, sources, others. We have to manufacture in this country. We have to have the the raw resources and the raw materials in this country in order to keep it stable and to have longevity, you know, and that's what's important to me.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:04:30] So that's why, you know, Black Momma Teas and Cafes we will be worldwide. What at least everybody know that the manufacturer will start in the U.S. right here, because that's what's important. So that way we can keep our people here in the US working.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:04:48] So your first corporate store is under construction in Long Island. Walk us through your vision of what a customer can expect to experience once the store is done, what is it going to be like to go into a Black Momma Tea & Cafe?
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:05:06] Well, Black Momma Tea & Cafe is a grab and go. And when you think about it, you know, we're bringing everything to one space.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:05:14] We have the merchandising, which is all the Black Mamma Teas, actual tea leaves, you know. We have also our Black Momma Agave. You know, this is like one of our you're seeing the first the new rendition of our package. And this is our agave that we manufacture the flavor to agave here. You'll also see Coffee, you know, from other brands. Actually, one brand that's local because I believe the local businesses. And then you'll see other products from local businesses. I'm using local businesses. I'm using minority women, owned businesses, veteran owned businesses. You know, small businesses with products that can come into the merchandising area of the store. Well, we're going to have, you know, CBD. We're not going to lead that. You know, we're not going to leave that sitting there. We want to be able to have the great experience.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:06:02] Also, we have a full bar. We have a full bar which will serve Black Momma Vodka, plus craft beer.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:06:11] We have Harlem Brewery. We have another woman owned brewery that we're using with a stout. We have nitro we have nitro coffee from another local vendor. We have combucha from Rachel, which is a local vendor. All of these are small businesses that may not have the chance to be with.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:06:30] A large business like US Food or Cisco given a chance to and if they can utilize a Black Momma Tea Cafe and be in our flagship store, then they have the chance to be in all of the stores throughout America that we plan to build. And now we'll be able to build our own distribution channel, because that's what I want. So that way we have a place for other smaller businesses to come in. So when you come in as a customer, you have a gamut of something that's upscale, different items where, you know, we have vegan items, you know, we're working with impossible.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:07:08] We're going to make impossible tacos. You know, we have Thai food, Thursdays. We're planning to do that. We plan to do sushi Fridays. We have healthy options, have salads. If you want fried food, you can go someplace. You can find that anywhere. But for us, we have an air frier concept where it's 70 percent less fat and healthy options. Of course, we're going to have drinks, but we have our drinks. We have a Teaquila. You know that some are proprietary products, you know, because people are going to want that. And then we have vodka. We have other coffee with bourbon, you know, specific brands and bourbon, completely different, handcrafted, small craft.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:07:49] Then we have the Boba. Boba tea is very, very big on the West Coast. But they're not here. They're not here. I love. And so with Boba tea, we'll have that. They're both teas. The milk teas. It's different. People want something that's different. You know, we don't want same old stuff. I know. I don't you know, my age of 50, I've seen enough of the same old stuff. I want something different. And that's what this next generation is looking at. In addition, we have a meeting space. What do people do all the time when you go to Starbucks? They sit down and have meetings. So when you go into the Black Momma Tea and Cafe, we have an actual meeting space that people can rent, you know, so people can rent it and use it for their meetings. Also, we have classes in between the times when it's not that busy. We have QuickBooks gonna do a small business class for small businesses. You would register for the class. You'd have to pay for the class. But it's not a lot. But it'll be something that we can offer the community.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:08:54] We have Microsoft, we have a partnership with Microsoft. So Microsoft is going to teach on some of their products and then we're going to have one a week in some game. And we're trying to still work that out with Microsoft's platform. So it is what Black Momma Tea and Cafe is doing. It's putting an infrastructure in a community.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:09:14] And we're being part of the community where people can come and say, OK, great.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:09:20] This is my downtown. This area is being gentrified or is being upgraded. But we will be built to be the support within the community that the community can come to. You know, we have big screen TV's So, you know, when you think about it, you go from home to work in the morning. Well, you come from work back home. You want to stop at a Black Momma Tea & Cafe and just chill.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:09:46] This is gonna be the third place to be. Not everyone wants to go someplace far away from home for a day. It's one of those out and be someplace different other than work in home. And that's what we're bringing in. We're bringing the customer experience. We're bringing the community experience, and we're bringing it together because that's what's important with home grown brands.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:10:08] Talk about the franchise part of the business strategy a little bit in all this is obviously critical for the brand to reach its full potential. How is this part of the business organized and what are the long term goals here?
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:10:23] Well, the long term the long term goals for the company, of course, is the franchise aspect of it.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:10:31] You know, when I started this, it evolved into something bigger.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:10:36] You know, having different having a flagship store. And believe it or not, I have what now? I have more than thirty three thousand customers.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:10:45] But those same thirty three thousand customers are the ones who are the investors into the Black Momma Teas and Cafes. And so it only makes sense with some of the investors. They're asking, can they have their own Black Momma Tea and cafe where they're located? I mean, Starbucks have twenty seven thousand stores in their corporate home. So why not share the wealth? So, you know, the franchise division is a separate division, separate company, but it's going to pay royalties back to the Black Momma Teas and Cafes. That's what it's going to do. You know, and that's the long term effect we have right now as of date, which is January 9th, over three hundred and three potential franchisee. That'll pay seventy five K a pop and it's a five percent royalty, you know, annual and 2 percent for marketing. We haven't even opened the first store yet.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:11:42] That is amazing. You know why we have that many people who put in an inquiry? Because these are our customers. These are investors. These are customers and investors who believe in the brand and believe in what I'm doing, regardless of the fact this is small cap working at this level to take it to the next level. This is what people did when it was the Amazon's back in the days. You know, even Starbucks back in the days were bringing everyone involved with doing together. We're better together. So that's how that's going to work in terms of that. Also, we have our Web site.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:12:22] Now we're going to have a new Website, a Website that I'd relinquish to Black Momma Teas and Cafes. So that'll work. You know, all together with the Black Momma Teas and Cafes and Black Momma Products, you know, certain specific products that we're pushing out that's owned by Black Momma Teas and Cafes, like our steeper. I don't have it here, but, you know, I had a steeper made for coffee and tea and that's owned by the company. And that's a good thing because then we can always have products that have longevity. I still own the manufacturing because I started it first. If there was no Black Momma Vodka and Black Momma brands, there'll be no Black Momma Tea period. So you know what? Why not you guys? Everybody share into the retail structure.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:13:12] Also, Black Momma Teas and Cafes will be a distributor as well. We want to be able to bring on the smaller brands and have the first right of refusal to distribute their brands to nationwide and bring you and make a percentage off of that. So it becomes more of a distribution network for us and the smaller brands which will bring longevity in the future. And I really want this company to grow much further, just like the Starbucks. Why not? Good for us, for everybody that's involved.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:13:50] So let's touch on Hemp and Cannabis for a moment. Where do hemp and cannabis fit into the long term strategy of Black Momma tea and Cafe?
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:13:59] Hemp?
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:14:03] Yeah, definitely hemp. We currently have. I have a CBD tea, a hemp tea which I have a patent pending for. So I actually created a biodegradable tea bag that holds whole tea leaves. So it has, you know, hemp. You know, I. I actually manufacture and that's my on the company. The manufacturing is I manufacture the tea.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:14:30] The tea bag. I own the machinery and I create the plates for that. You know, and what Black Momma Teas and Cafe is going to do at a cost plus is benefit from selling those exclusively, you know, because nobody else has that right now. You know, also in the store itself, it's CBD will have oils. You know, we have a truffles, CBD oil. We have a Tuscan herb CBD oil. We also have a Japanese roasted sesame oil. Everything is done at the highest quality. No chemicals. You know, that's what we're about. You know, the kosher certified with our other products, not the CBD, but everything we do, we do in terms of being no chemicals. Organic, kosher. We want everything as natural as possible. So in the states where hemp, you know, the farms you farms act, the farm bill where it's legal. We're going to have CBD. And then in the other states like California, we're going to deal with the cannabis space. You know, we're going to deal with that space. You know, as long as it's legal to move this company forward, we're going to change as the time change to bring value to the company and the shareholders, you know, and also the economy.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:16:03] So you've made it no secret that your goal is to be the first black female business owner to list on the New York Stock Exchange.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:16:12] Tell me what this would mean to you and your shareholders.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:16:19] It would be history, you know, to be the first African-American woman to list on the New York Stock Exchange. That's only the New York Stock Exchange thats not on Nasdaq. They already have someone else on Nasdaq who's done that with Radio One in a New York Stock Exchange. You haven't had an African-American woman to list. And then it's still even with this process, doing it through a Reg. A because we will be doing it Reg. A+. And then doing a direct listing. I'd still be the first African-American woman to do that. And that is the goal I want to give my investors liquidity.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:16:53] But I also wouldn't give growth, you know, small cap to growth. I'm not going to be a unicorn in have you and think what negative balance sheets we want to have profits. You want to grow this company so it's profitable. And then years down the line with long term growth given back to our investors, you know, she I'm an investor. I want to get back to myself just as well, you know. So it's it's all of us doing this. So, yes, listing and doing this with the Reg. A+ with the new S.E.C. laws is going to be a good thing and it's going to help everybody else. We'll set the blueprint, the blueprint to make this happen and then we can rinse and repeat and help others the same way. Change to market change the trajectory of now people who have the opportunity to invest, you know, at a lower threshold and take something to the public market.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:17:52] You know, obviously, 2019 was a really big year for you and your company. Tell us a little bit about 2020. What do you have planned for 2020?
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:18:05] Ok. You sitting down?
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:18:12] I'm sitting down.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:18:13] Ok. Good. 2020. You know, is a vision, you know. And to me, we have new products coming out, opening their first Black Momma Tea and Cafe is a big thing doing that. And then once we open that, we'll be signing on our franchisees in the locations that's already approved. Also, I'm working on a second and a third location right now because for me, we have to keep this moving. You know, that's what this last round was about. You know, people don't know that I'm a retired structural engineer and also an accredited investor. But for me, I have the background. I rebuilt South Street ferry after 9/11 right here in New York and full district's transit center. So when it comes to coming in and acquiring the property or acquiring the land, seize the moment when it when the opportunity presents itself. And so on. We can go in and do the site plan and deal with waste water management and do it in-house design. So that way we can move the permitting process and the construction process for each location and we're going to help our franchisees the same way. So to ease the pain of having to deal with that. So it's a turnkey design, whereas our franchisees will be able to hire your own contractor there after because we know what the standard specifications of the Black Momma Teas and Cafes should look like. And we're going to assist in terms of going after the land or the properties for our for each franchisee.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:19:55] So that's a big that's a big incentive. Also, too, in my FTD, believe it or not, I'm changing the game with that. I want each and every single franchise owner to own their real estate, own their real estate if possible.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:20:12] I know in certain locations like New York or California, where it's very expensive, it may not be able to do that. But in other parts of the country, you can own the real estate. Imagine if you own the real estate and build your own Black Momma Teas and Cafes Let's just say God forbid it don't work out. Then we can come in and rent it, release it, or you can change it and buy us out and change it into something else. But at least the franchisee will own the real estate to pass down for generations. Real estate is the key. And then we'll have our own corporate locations. You know, we're buying, you know, real estate as well. You know, on the cheap. And because we want to build that, build our corporate stores and then other people, might want to license it. We're trying to work with right now the airport so we can do a licensing deal and have.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:21:02] dog biscuits.Yeah, I don't know if you understand how that works, but let's just say, for example, you go to an airport, they license the location to use your name and they set everything up.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:21:15] So they pay you a licensing fee and then they will continue, you know, they will build it out. They will serve the customers when you walk into the Black Momma Tea and Cafe It's an airport, which is lovely. Then you're thinking it's mine. It's really a licensee license by the airport. That's money all the time. We're also looking at the military bases. You know, we're trying to work with the military bases right now. I'll take any location that they have that's offered because we know that putting the brand out really looks good in terms of that. And doing business with the government is a good thing. I came from government, so why not get into that? We're also looking to license into hotels, so we're looking to be all over exactly what you see with the other larger brands.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:22:05] It's grew over 20 years. We're going to do the same thing. We're going to do with with a twist. It's gonna be Black Momma. So 2020 is going to be more of a development year, more of developing more products. We have our agaves. We're coming out. Oh, this is exciting. We have Black Momma.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:22:27] You ready, Pet Tea.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:22:31] We actually need tea bags for pets, which, you know, one of the samples right here. I can't wait to do this.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:22:39] Oh, that's my little baby right there, my little french bulldog.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:22:43] But but we you know, I created a formula and this is stuff that's not anywhere. So you'll be able to go into a Black Momma tea is something for your pet. Black Momma Pet Tea. But we have other brands like we have Lick You Silly. That's a that's a pet brand, OK? As a pet brand. But we have Lick You Silly, which is a, Gluten free. Another vendor. Latino. She make these dog biscuits. They taste so good. OK. I just had a little bit. But, you know, my dog loves it. It's really, really good with sweet potato and it's gluten free. You know, grain free. My dog is grain free.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:23:22] So I can't you know, he can't have any, you know, anything to adverse, you know, to make him upset. But my Pet Teas, my Black Momma Pet Teas. Get it. Pet Teas.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:23:35] We have something that you reduces the urine and we have something that that calms the dog down, all herbal no caffeine because your pet can't have any caffeine.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:23:46] But we made that and we make it with care and we tested it.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:23:50] So it's completely different in the industry we have held up.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:23:54] We have CBD horse pellets that we're getting from another manufacturer on Long Island is own being horse country. That's what they call it, equestrian. And I don't know what's going on with your. Hello? Can you see me? Yeah. OK, great. Because the kind of gas squiggly right there. Long Island is a being hoarse environment.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:24:18] And a lot of times they're looking for something for the horses. Well, they're going to find it. The Black Momma Tea and Cafe, and that's on the merchandising side. So we have a lot of things that's coming out.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:24:30] You know, it's in 2020 and 2020 is going to move very quickly, just like twenty nineteen did. And our Reg. A+ we're going to be doing our Reg. A+ this year. So you guys don't have to stay tune.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:24:42] Wow. So much so exciting.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:24:48] So, so proud. Tell us and tell the investors out there if people want to join the movement or get updates on what's going on or join an investor wait list.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:25:01] Where do they go? What do they do just to stay up to speed on what's going on?
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:25:05] Well, to stay up to speed, you can go to https://wefunder.com/blackmomma.tea.cafe . And you can just follow because I send my updates through there right now. And also you can go to Facebook and follow just as well. And our Black Momma Tea and Cafe, you know that's what it is on Facebook. And the same thing on Instagram. Not too much on Twitter, but on Twitter.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:25:36] We're like we're we're BMT Cafe, you know, so you can follow us there. But most of all, to follow any updates, because I update regularly. It's either on Facebook or Wefunder right now.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:25:49] We will be going to another platform for our Reg. A+, which we've signed up with StartEngine. So we'll be there. I mean, I'm looking forward to doing that. Want to get it? Gigi, we're moving forward with the next couple of rounds with follow from there.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:26:10] Amazing. Vanessa, this is all very exciting. We're going to be closely following the success of your company. Your next few months, you and your team should be very proud.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:26:20] And I have a feeling this is just the beginning for you and all of your shareholders. Thank you for joining us.
CEO: Vanessa Braxton: [00:26:28] Thank you for having me. Enjoy your day.
Host: Nick Phillips: [00:26:32] We hope you enjoyed this interview. Be sure you are also watching our equity crowdfunding news program with Andrew Dix, as well as our weekly equity crowdfunding report, taking a deeper dive into how much capital these companies are raising on a weekly basis. All of that can be found in your National Investor Network dashboard. I'm your host, Nick Phillips, reminding you to always do your own due diligence. See you next time.