🍁 Namaste, Brown Girl.
September’s here—and while everyone else is cozying up with pumpkin spice, brown girls are brewing something bolder.
Welcome back to Brown Girls, Money Moves—your monthly roundup of the stories, wins, and gupshup fueling the brown girl founder and investor ecosystem. Here’s a sneak peak 👇🏽
✨ Brown girl beauty shelves, book tours, chai cafés, and cap tables.
🎒 Brown girl founders building for the next generation of dreamers and tiny humans in our lives.
🎙️ A brand new BGA podcast, Brown Girls, Bold Moves, dropping Sept 16th.
💸 Angel investing sessions, Desi Dinners, and a San Diego stage takeover you don’t want to miss.
Grab your chai (iced or spiced) and let’s dive in. 🧋🔥
spicy money moves
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🍂 Fall might be creeping in, but brown girl wins? They don’t take seasons off. From beauty shelves to book tours, from chai cafés to cap tables—our community kept the heat on this month. Here’s what went down:
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🏆 BGA portfolio company and brown girl beauty brand Aavrani was nominated for a Beacon Award for their Scalp Detox Jelly Cleanser.
☕️ Calling all Atlanta desi girlies—it’s chai o’clock. The Chai Box is opening its first café in the city and we’re already in line.
📚 Big shoutout to author Israa Nasir for taking the hustle culture convo mainstream on Good Day New York, speaking about her book Toxic Productivity and challenging the myth that our worth is defined by achievement.
💸 Did you catch Spice Capital on Business Insider’s list of VCs backing the creator economy? Founder Maya Bakhai is seriously spicing up the cap table.
💡 Big love to Bidblox for their BetaKit feature, where they shared their founder journey—from pilots to pivots to perseverance. Brown girl founders, we salute you.
We love celebrating brown girl wins ✨ Got a recent win, milestone, or shoutout you want us to know about? 📩 Submit your win by filling out this form and let the BGA community hype you up. 🤎
the brown girl founder’s club
Raising tiny humans is hard. Finding brown girl-founded brands that make it easier? We got you. 🧸
This week, we’re celebrating the South Asian women building for the next generation—from cultural toys to compostable diapers, bedtime tech to buttery-soft clothes.
These founders aren’t just creating kids products. They’re creating representation and connection—for kids and parents alike. Check out the full list here.
meet the BGA collective
“I'm really excited to help others achieve their dreams of being entrepreneurs and founders. The idea of empowering women is a true passion for me. One woman's success is all of our success.”
Meet Sarita Vishakanta 👋🏽
Sarita is a powerhouse financial and strategic business leader who’s been in the real estate investment space for over 20 years.
Her superpower? Cultivating relationships between private equity firms, wealth companies and large financial institutions.
A little more about Sarita 🙋🏾♀️
🌎 Based in New York City and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
💰 Currently serving as the VP of Corporate Relations at Inland Securities.
💬 She’s passionate about empowering women and helping them achieve their dreams of being entrepreneurs and founders.
🤎 Her biggest gift is being a mother of two wonderful children.
We’re proud to have Sarita as part of the Brown Girl Angels collective.
Want to join Sarita and other South Asian women supporting the next generation of brown girl founders through angel investing? We’ve saved you a seat at the table.
brown girls, bold moves podcast
Bold conversations start here. 🎙️
South Asian women are raising, funding, scaling, and rewriting the rules of entrepreneurship—and now, their stories have a mic.
🎧 Introducing Brown Girls, Bold Moves—the new podcast for founders, investors, and entrepreneurs rewriting the playbook of business and investing. Forget hustle-culture hype. These are real conversations with South Asian women who are building, one bold move at a time.
Each episode spotlights some of the brightest brown girls in the startup ecosystem, alongside the investors who funded them. 🚀
🔥 Episode 1 is live now. Grab your chai, press play, and join the conversation.
🎙️ While you’re here. Check out these other brown girl business podcasts you should be listening to.
bhar’s picks
[Sponsored Content]
📕 Here’s what’s currently on our bookshelves: The ‘I’ in Indian by Bhavna B. Roszel
Why I’m loving it:
Think second-generation identity, cultural stigmas, love on your own terms (not the ones your aunties keep hinting at over chai). It’s sharp, heartfelt, and feels like catching up with your cousins after a family wedding.
Bhavna’s debut novel feels like it was written for us—beautifully capturing the messy, funny, and often frustrating reality of carving out your own path as a second-generation Indian American woman.
If you’re looking for a read that’ll make you laugh out loud, nod in solidarity, and maybe text your mom after, grab it here. [Use Discount Code “angels”]
If you live in New York - check out our friends at:
GUPSHUP
Because no brown girl gathering ends without a little gupshup. Here’s what’s coming up and what you don’t want to miss:
💸 Thinking about angel investing but don’t know where to start? We got you. We’re kicking off fall with a free 30 min virtual intro to angel investing session that’s typically only offered to BGA members. But we just couldn’t gate keep this one.
🗓️ Free 30 min angel investing session: Friday, September 26th. Register now
🗓️ Save the date: October 17th at noon for a half-day angel investing course. Learn more here.
🙋🏾♀️🍴All Desi women know: the best conversations happen over food. That’s why this fall, we're setting the table with Brown Girls, Desi Dinners — curated gatherings inviting South Asian women in their professional era to connect with like-minded women over career journeys, professional advice and founder and investor stories.
New York desi women, we’re coming for you this fall.
💌 Want in? Make sure you’re on the waitlist so you don’t miss out.
📣 Calling all San Diego BGA besties. Our founder Bhargavi Varma and BGA Collective member Shruti Shah are hitting the stage at Women’s Venture Summit this month!
🎤 Panel: From Startup to Fund: Solving an Unmet Need
Tired of waiting for traditional capital to show up, these investors took matters into their own hands—building and working in funds designed to serve the communities they came from. This session explores how identifying overlooked needs and boldly stepping into the role of investor can create real change where it’s needed most.
If you believe capital should serve all founders, this is a conversation you can’t miss.
call to action
📣 SPREAD THE LOVE
📩Got a brown girl founder or product you love? Submit their info
🙋🏾♀️We love celebrating brown girl founders who are building bold, brilliant, and inspiring companies. Got something in the works or looking to raise soon? We’d love to hear from you.
🫱🏽🫲🏾If you’re looking to get your brand, product or service in front of a community of South Asian women who love to uplift, invest, and support each other—this is your sign. Reach out to learn more about our sponsored content opportunities
If you missed our poll last time, let us know now what you’re interested in!