Trinity Mouzon Wofford still remembers where she was when she got an email from the buyers at Urban Outfitters.
Mouzon Wofford had recently moved back to her hometown of Saratoga Springs after nine years downstate, along with her high school sweetheart and co-founder, Issey Kobori. She was on the train headed to New York City for an event, and she saw the inquiry on her phone.
The clothing company became the first large retailer to carry the superfood powders made by Mouzon Wofford’s startup, Golde.
“I couldn't believe that a retailer that large had noticed us and was excited about us, and so it just felt like this opening up of opportunity,” said Mouzon Wofford, CEO of Golde. “It felt like one of those early proof points that what we were doing was resonating and had the opportunity for scale."
Following Urban Outfitters came partnerships with beauty brands Goop and Sephora. And then, in 2021, the big one: Target.
She had met a Target marketing employee at a breakfast event for female executives. That person connected her with a buyer, whose team showed familiarity and interest in the product. Golde joined Target's accelerator program to prepare to launch at the chain.
"I had Target in my mind's eye for Golde as kind of our North Star,” Mouzon Wofford said.
Golde’s revenue in 2020 grew five times what it was in 2019, she said. And in 2021, revenue doubled again.
She said the company "broke seven figures profitably" in 2020.
They used to keep a small amount of inventory in their Brooklyn apartment. Now it's in a warehouse in Texas. And the company works with manufacturers around the U.S.
Mouzon Wofford and Kobori, now engaged, began mixing superfood concoctions in their apartment in 2017. The first product was a turmeric latte powder blend that can be added to water, milk or coffee. The company then released some matcha and skincare products — five products in 2021 — totaling about 12 products to date.
She was inspired to create a superfood brand after watching her mother work with a holistic-minded doctor while dealing with an autoimmune disease. Her mother had to stop treatment because of the expense, though, and that made Mouzon Wofford think about making wellness more accessible – especially in an environment where wellness trends are often unattainable for the average person.
"It just felt like there was this big space missing for most people who want to take better care of themselves but didn't really see a brand that was speaking to them," she said.
At first, Mouzon Wofford said she prioritized getting the product into small shops in New York City, places like specialty cafes and self-care shops.
"Within the first few months of launching, we saw that people who were frequenting those types of places felt like they were seeing us everywhere, and it gave this really wonderful illusion that we were much bigger than we really were," Mouzon Wofford said.
From there, the startup worked on growing sustainably into other cities and focused on building a presence online, not spending any money on marketing. The company now has more than 114,000 followers on Instagram.
"A lot of these buyers were just discovering us on social media. We came about in this really interesting time where retailers wanted to be a little bit fresher. They were looking down-market a bit at these smaller, earlier-stage businesses who were just on the cusp of something."
She attributes the growth in 2020 to a couple of things. First, people were looking to add more wellness into their routines during the pandemic, she said. And following the social unrest in 2020, there was a big movement to support Black-owned businesses.
"We saw a serious spike over the summer of 2020, where we were just getting so many shoutouts. We were just flooded in a way that we had never experienced before."
Those highlights included a list of Black-owned businesses published by Beyoncé and posts by Kourtney Kardashian and supermodel Karlie Kloss.
Golde now has nine people, all working remotely. The startup may open a physical headquarters, but Mouzon Wofford is not sure yet when or where that will be. The couple recently bought a house in Chatham in Columbia County.
The plan for the coming year is to keep up the growth, she said.
"We've had tremendous growth over the past couple of years. We've got this really engaged community that tends to be in New York or California, and we're really excited to expand that and bring our mission to everyone."
