Olamide grew Topicals by making bold, community-rooted brand bets — most notably a $100K influencer trip to Ghana that generated $1M in 3 days at launch — while distributing through Sephora and using venture capital to hire for her weaknesses in creative direction and strategy. Her stated north star is using the brand as a platform to tell Black community stories, positioning Topicals as a cultural brand first and a skincare brand second.

“I think you should hire for your weaknesses and I know I needed someone who had studied finance undergrad and someone who understood the visual arts and creative direction, so I hired for those two weaknesses.”

“My goal is to use the brand as a platform to tell our community stories. So, that might be behind the camera, in front of the camera, and in boardrooms.”

“I want to reinvest in my community because when you invest in black women, you get someone like me.”

“The rules are fake, be creative, and you can do anything with the right team, the right accountant, and a whole lot of stacks.”

Olamide grew Topicals by leaning into a differentiated positioning around skin conditions at a time when beauty brands avoided showing imperfect skin, pitching over 100 investors before closing a $2M check from a top-tier consumer investor. Her GTM approach was rooted in radical product transparency (no masking ingredients even when it created a smell issue), distinctive packaging, and a two-year grind of persistence through rejection. She credits her hands-on training building Shea Girl under Richelieu Dennis as the operational foundation that made Topicals possible.

“if this is such a big opportunity how did you figure it out and the bigger incumbents didn't figure it out”

“we're not going to put a scent on it cuz that might irritate your skin we're not going to do anything to alter things cuz we really want you to get the efficacy”

“I learned everything about building a brand from my time at shea moisture... I learned about Finance I learned about operations I always say it was almost like a mini MBA”

“now faded being smelly is actually a selling point on people saying that like it works so you know it works so good cuz it smells like this”

Olamide built Topicals around a personal pain point — chronic skin conditions underserved by existing products — and differentiated through bold, joyful branding that deliberately broke from the clinical ointment-aisle aesthetic. Her GTM was community-first: find the people who feel left out of beauty, make them feel seen, and turn them into a tribe that carries the brand.

“A really big thing I wanted to focus on was branding. I really wanted the branding to be really different from what we were finding in the ointment aisles. People loved that it was bright, they loved that we chose logos that were fun.”

“We really wanted to make our brand something that people really wanted to know about.”

“Science is so cool and I think that's the big thing that we want to do with Topicals is make science feel cool and accessible.”

“You have to find people who believe in what you're building, people who want to become your tribe and want to support you to get to the next level.”

Olamide grew Topicals by identifying an uncrowded, underserved category (hyperpigmentation on skin of color), then earning community trust through hyper-targeted, culturally resonant education rather than mass marketing — partnering with aestheticians on skincare Twitter and creating content that met her customer inside live cultural moments. She layered streetwear and film-inspired storytelling over clinically effective products to signal belonging, making Topicals feel like a subculture rather than a skincare brand.

“I think it's doing things that don't scale. I know that's such a cliché saying, but in the beginning, you really do need to earn everyone's trust. So, there's a couple ways you can do that. One is through community building, so that's surprise and delight for your customers. So, what are you doing that feels different and exciting and makes someone to feel like it's an inclusive exclusive opportunity, right? Like I'm someone that typically wouldn't have been invited into the in-group, but I'm now invited into the in-group because I am associated with this brand.”

“When we launched back in 2020, we were working with aestheticians. This is when skin care Twitter was like a big thing. We were working with aestheticians on skin care Twitter to do threads about what these different skin conditions looked like on skin of color. How do you treat them? I remember when the riots were going on, when people were being sprayed by like pepper spray or the different types of tear gas, people were having irritation on their face. We did a thread that is probably our most viewed thread of the skin care that you use when you've been pepper sprayed.”

“You don't have to be everything to everyone, but you have to be everything to one. So, you need to understand the archetype of that customer. What does she eat? Where does she go out? What music is she listening to? What are her political beliefs? Is she someone who is a gatekeeper? Is she someone who will tell people about what she's wearing, using?”

“You can build your products into their life path versus having them come into your path. And I think the path of least resistance as a marketer is exactly where you want to be because there's so many things that people can be buying. So, if they're finding your product on the path of their life — people actually have to have an emotional tie to you as a brand.”