Photo: Passion Ward
Photo: Studio Maxwell
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NextGen
Sister Act
LaToya Stirrup and her siblings reinvented combs, brushes and picks to work better with curly, textured hair. Five years after launch, their hair tool startup is on a growth trajectory.
The Entrepreneurs:
LATOYA STIRRUP, 42
LATASHA STIRRUP, 34
LATRICE STIRRUP, 31
Co-founders of Kazmaleje, Miami
For the Stirrup sisters, entrepreneurship lives in their DNA. LaToya, LaTasha and LaTrice were shown the way by generations before them. Their great-grandfather, E.W. Franklin Stirrup, was a real estate development pioneer in Miami’s Coconut Grove around the turn of the 20th century and Miami- Dade’s first Black millionaire.
“A lot of the ambition and the knowing that it’s possible comes from his story,” says LaToya. “There is no reason why we can’t show up and be our best selves and bring our ideas to life.”
The family that spans generations still owns Stirrup Properties, the business he built. “We were born into this idea of collective economics, building community and then also building with family,” LaToya says. With parents who were a civil engineer and a head of payroll for Burger King until retirement, the sisters also saw what professional work looked like. “Going to college was a given.”
After working at big advertising firms after graduation, LaToya launched her own project management business in 2013. A few years later, she had an idea for starting a hair product company, Kazmaleje (pronounced cosmology), with her sisters. After LaToya stopped chemically straightening her curly hair, she found that using combs to detangle caused pain and hair loss, and she learned many people experienced the same problem. Using her fingers to detangle her natural hair worked but was very time consuming. “We thought, what if we change the teeth on the comb to mimic the shape of our fingers?”
After personally testing their 3-D-printed prototype against other wide-tooth combs and discovering far less hair left behind in the Kazmaleje comb, she incorporated the company with her sisters in 2016. “Our vision and mission was, and still is, to change the way women, men and kids around the world care for their hair,” LaToya says.
It’s been a family business through and through. When they launched sales in 2019, doing their own fulfillment, “LaTrice was living at home then, and our parents would help her fulfill orders. They were building boxes, and their garage was like the warehouse storage facility.” LaToya says the testimonials of their first customers pushed them forward. Some said using the comb cut the detangling time from an hour to 15 minutes. A parent shared that their children were no longer crying through the process, and instead were falling asleep on their lap.
LaTrice oversees fulfillment (no longer done at home) and customer service. LaTasha, a self-taught graphic designer, is also a licensed cosmetologist, bringing that knowledge and training into their innovations. LaToya, with her experience in project management and taking a concept from idea to launch, manages the business. “We are well acquainted with each other’s strengths and weaknesses, which made it straightforward for us to assume roles where we could excel and make a significant impact,” says LaTrice. While they disagree at times, their “strong bond” and open communication style ensures they can navigate through conflict, she says.
Kazmaleje was selected as one of 75 brands out of 300 that applied globally to launch on HSN in 2020. The experience was “very American Idol and a lot of fun,” says LaToya. Then came the pandemic, which delayed product shipments from China. The company’s planned studio launch turned into a show via Skype done from their parents’ living room. “We had a great time. It was a lot of fun, and we quickly became a customer pick on HSN.”
The following year, Kazmaleje launched in Urban Outfitters and then began selling in Target in 2022. As part of starring on The Next Black Millionaires series on Roku, Kazmaleje’s founding story and products were featured on the endcaps, the coveted retail positions at the end of an aisle, in 650 Target stores for two months in 2023. Sales tripled during that period.
This year, more than 600 Walmart stores will begin carrying Kazmaleje products, one of the startup’s biggest milestones to date. The team, now eight people, also plans to bring new bundles and exclusive items to HSN this summer. They are working on a 300-store test with another retailer and an inpatient hair care program with a major university hospital system.
Raising a venture capital seed round is next. “We’re looking forward to bringing on strategic partners that not only provide value via funding but can also add value on our journey,” LaToya says. Kazmaleje has received a $100,000 grant from The Next Black Millionaires Fund, $100,000 and an accelerator spot from the national Black Ambition Prize competition and $50,000 from Miami Heat legend Udonis Haslem's foundation.
Over 140,000 products and bundles have been sold to date, and revenue is growing about 40% annually. Kazmaleje’s global reach now includes retailers in Canada, Panama, the UK and the UAE. The product line is expanding, and the intellectual property is trademarked and patent pending, LaToya says.
“What success looks like is building that family legacy in our own way to create generational wealth that then allows for a whole new way to create, evolve and grow for our kids and our next generations after us.”
