It’s my pleasure to introduce you to a Beauty You Should Know: Cherae Robinson, Founder and CEO of the Tastemakers Africa.
If you have ever aspired to travel to Africa, Tastemakers is an app you seriously want to consider! It offers a highly curated itinerary of the very best in all-local experiences across the continent.
We sat down with founder Cherae Robinson to find out more about the app, her motivations for starting it, and her tips for other aspiring entrepreneurs.
Robinson was an avid traveler-for-work (in other words, her job at the World Bank Agriculture Research Center CIMMYT kept her in airplanes quite a bit throughout South Asia, Africa, and Europe). She connected with a photographer in South Africa on a work trip and through that connection met an entire network of creatives on the continent contributing to the culture. These talented folks gave Cherae “a new lens on the African experience.” She called them “influencers and tastemakers in their own right” and felt quite strongly that she “couldn’t have had these sorts of experiences had it not been for the [creative community in fashion, food, and music].” She imagined this is exactly how others would want to travel in Africa; with that mission in mind, Tastemakers Africa was born.
Sounds like a simple story, and in many ways it was! But you may be intrigued to know that Tastemakers Africa launched in late 2014 as little more than an idea. Soon after her personal travels, Cherae drafted a business plan and put together a visual prototype of her app. She shared, “I didn’t know anything about building a business, but I knew how to ask for help.” She attended President Obama’s Africa Summit in Washington, D.C. in August 2014 and “talked to anyone [she] could about Tastemakers. [She] had a picture of what the app could look like and would literally walk up to people and show them [her] idea [to get their thoughts].” Through that process, Cherae found her first advisor and gained valuable feedback on her business model. It wasn’t until Cherae applied for the SheLeadsAfrica Pitch competition one month later and won top prize that Tastemakers Africa took off at hyper speed.
With $10,000 of critical funding, Cherae could finally hire a developer and build the app she had been envisioning. The two founders of SheLeadsAfrica, Yasmin Belo-Osagie and Afua Osei, became instant mentors for Cherae; with its visibility, Tastemakers Africa found its first formal investor. In a six-month period, she could hardly believe “her app was coming off paper into real life.”
Cherae and I were quick to talk about how Tastemakers Africa is different than the alternatives on the market. She shared, “Our whole ethos is about these amazing people and this lifestyle the world doesn’t know exists – this Afropolitan world. The way we built our brand was on people, lifestyle, and culture…this is very different from other travel startups that are just focused on the transaction. Of course, there is a transaction to be made at Tastemakers as well, but we’re offering a way to tap into these African narratives, becoming a part of this new culture wave through a travel experience.” She continued, “Everything I saw on the Internet [prior to Tastemakers’ launch] was ‘Go on a safari.” I couldn’t help but agree — there is certainly more to do in Africa than safari! Now some of you may be surprised to know that Cherae is not an African immigrant or even born in the continent. Growing up in Long Island, New York, Cherae embodied a curious mindset and “always dreamed of seeing the world despite some of the chaos she experienced” during her childhood. She attended Morgan State University on an academic scholarship and was quickly immersed in an internationally inclusive group of people that shaped her afro-centric view.
Her major in Biology and International Development led her to roles with CARE, the Center for Disease Control and CIMMYT in Mexico City. She credits “women [in her life] for stepping in to help her in some way or another…there was always one helping hand that didn’t allow her to fall through the cracks.” In listening to Cherae, I could hear how she felt truly #blessed and incredibly thankful that her venture had achieved much success at such an early stage.
Her advice for entrepreneurs: “1) It is the most clichéd one, but so true – just start! There is always going to be more to learn and more to do…not doing anything will never get you anywhere; 2) Get comfortable with being uncomfortable…entrepreneurship brings super high-highs and super low-lows. The idea of knowing what is in front of you is fleeting and 3) It is your business and nobody knows your business more than you. As you grow and involve more people in your business, you will get swamped with advice on what you should and should not do…some will be awesome [and] some will be bad. Just remind yourself of your Why.”
Loving her advice! If you’re still on the fence about traveling to Africa, take a look at the brand’s Instagram account for major visual encouragement! My final question to Cherae, what would she do with $20 on a Saturday in Brooklyn? Her answer: “a night at Casablanca, hoping that DJ MOMA is there and getting a drink (tequila)!” If you want to learn more about Tastemakers Africa, download their app here and follow @tstmkrsafrica and Cherae on Instagram!
What do you think of this Breaking Into Lifestyle interview?
Source: @tstmkrsafrica
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