Monique Rodriguez

speaker

1,123 appearances 2 recordings 2 series first heard May 2025 last heard 26 Mar

Monique Rodriguez’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 1.

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Aspire with Emma Grede · From a Basement to a Billion Dollar Brand: The Greatest Founder Story You Never Heard · 26 Mar 2026 podcast

And so we needed more than $2 million.

And for me, when they presented this deal, it was something in my spirit that didn't sit right.

But it was like, I'm fighting against my gut feeling of not wanting to do this deal.

But I'm also fighting that we need the funds.

Yeah, you're desperate.

And so they ended up backing out.

Thank God.

Because they said this investment is too risky.

We don't want to just pay for your debt.

We want to invest in growth and we're not.

And not just giving me the runway, but also the expertise because I don't even feel like they were going to add value for like the future of where we want us to go as a brand.

So after that deal went south and we did not try to force the deal back open, you know, we said we're just going to have to figure it out.

And we went on a quest to talk to different investors.

So what happened was Richard Lou Dennis, who was the previous founder of Sundial Brands, he sold Shea Moisture for like a billion dollars.

He started a fund called New Voices, and his fund was solely dedicated to investing in Black women.

And so I remember I met him in 2015 and we always just remained friends and very cordial.

And I remember having a conversation with him a few years prior to all of this investment fiasco when he sold.

And I said, wow, like I want to do what you've done, but I want to do it even better.

And he's like, I got you.

Whenever you're ready, just come and have our conversation.

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