00:00You're not just building a customer base, you're building a community, and that's how you build
00:03a brand that lasts. A place where people see themselves.
00:10This is Founder to Founder, where we sit down with the people in the arena with us,
00:15founders fighting the good fight of entrepreneurship. The late nights, the
00:18burnout, the breakthroughs, and the joy of building something our communities can see themselves in.
00:28Hello, my name is Brittany Rowe. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Awkward Games.
00:33When I started my company, we wanted to really encourage black and brown communities to play our game,
00:37find vulnerability and intimacy, and have conversations that were all things awkward.
00:41You know, we like to talk about sex, dating, all of it.
00:46My name is Savannah Campbell, and I'm the founder and owner of Karibay & Co.
00:50I was working as a chef, feeling a little bit of burnout. I started making simple syrups at home
00:54to flavor my coffee. It was inspired by my own Jamaican-American heritage.
01:00What is one thing that you had to let go of in order to continue growing?
01:05Oh, that's easy. Perfection. That is like the name of the game in my entire life,
01:12and it doesn't work in business. It just will hold you back.
01:17I feel you on a lot of those points. So, yeah, perfectionism is hard to battle with,
01:21but comparison is the thief of joy. Absolutely.
01:24Yeah. That's something I had to learn, too, with the big brands, big budgets.
01:28It's like, we're bootstrapped a lot of the times.
01:31We don't have the same resources, so we have to carve out our own path.
01:35So, it's super important.
01:36Yeah, absolutely. So, what about for you?
01:39Yeah. So, mine kind of ties right into what you said.
01:41I would say it's the fear of being perceived, especially because a lot of the marketing
01:46that I do for my brand is on social media. It's founder-facing, so I document my journey
01:51and I share the ups and downs. And, of course, with that feedback, it's not all positive reinforcement
01:57and it's not always put in the kindest way.
02:00What about your personal story fuels your brand today?
02:04I would say my biggest inspiration were the flavors of my background. So, I do have a culinary
02:11background. In the restaurant industry, you know, you work a lot of long hours. So, I was drinking
02:15a lot of coffee and a way for me to kind of reignite the passion that I was lacking, you
02:21know, kind of
02:22feeling a little bit of burnout. This was about like 2021, 2022 or so. I started making my own
02:29simple syrups at home to flavor my coffee. And that's kind of how the brand jumped off.
02:35That's beautiful. I can totally relate. I think, you know, in terms of burnout, I definitely was
02:40feeling a lot of burnout as well, especially during 2020, which is kind of the beginning of when I
02:45started my company. Yes.
02:46It was deep in quarantine in the pandemic. I was connecting with my brother and my now sister-in-law
02:51who were quarantined in Brooklyn. And we had conversations about so many things, just getting deep into
02:58topics like our childhoods and, you know, our relationships and our cultural backgrounds,
03:04me and my brother being African-American and my sister-in-law being a Malaysian immigrant.
03:08And we saw that there were so many similarities between our cultures in terms of not feeling open
03:14or available to speak about things that happened in our home growing up. We would always say what
03:21happens in the house stays in the house. I don't know if you've ever heard that.
03:24I've heard that one before. Yeah. So we definitely just, it was taboo, right? To talk openly about
03:29these sorts of things. That was something we wanted to really encourage, you know, Black and
03:34brown communities to really be open and find vulnerability and intimacy and have conversations
03:39that were both really fun, but also really deep. It's a really amazing way to really connect
03:44and just share space and get closer.
03:47For sure. That's such important work. And it seems like our story is kind of the origin point
03:51is very similar, even though we're in very different industries. And I think that's wonderful.
03:56Yeah. And it's all rooted in community, which is so important. So what does community mean to you
04:00since we've been talking so much about community, especially thinking about your customers and your
04:04supporters?
04:05Yes. So community is, it's people who show up for you, who want to grow with you, who follow
04:15your journey and want to be a part of your journey as well, and want to help you grow.
04:20So it's not just about purchasing a product because we can purchase a product from anywhere. I want to
04:25follow the founder. I want to connect with the founder. And I want to kind of build that relationship.
04:30I think that's a beautiful way as well to connect. So it's not just about a cup of coffee or
04:34a cocktail.
04:35It's bigger than that. Brittany, before you were telling me that you kind of got your start with
04:39Awkward Games during the pandemic, when there was this huge push with Black Lives Matter to support
04:44Black-owned businesses. So kind of in the following years, what does supporting Black-owned look like
04:52today? What does that mean for you?
04:54Mm hmm. I've seen Black businesses closing, you know, left and right. And it's just wild to see,
05:00like, some of your favorite brands shutting down or having to shift or pivot in ways that,
05:04you know, they wouldn't want to. Especially now, we have to ride for each other so hard.
05:10We have to go in, you know, obviously purchasing from each other as much as possible.
05:15And then, of course, just amplifying each other's voices. Simple things like telling your friends about
05:21this amazing company or shouting us out on social, leaving great reviews. How can you raise your
05:29voice to shout out Black people who are doing amazing things, Black brands that are doing amazing things?
05:34These opportunities at these retailers and on these platforms is often, you know, a small percentage.
05:40So when we are able to see us on those platforms and in those spaces, we really have to show
05:45up for each other.
05:46I've been hearing all over social media for so long, there needs to be a place where we can all
05:51just
05:52go and shop where we already know it's Black-owned. So what does We Love Us mean to you? Because
05:58we're
05:58both on the We Love Us platform, which is super exciting. It means community, connection, exposure.
06:06It's a platform for us to go out and support each other. How can we shift those dollars back into
06:12our
06:13own communities? I love the part shifting back into our community. Like we all buy toilet paper.
06:18Yes. Go find the Black-owned toilet paper. Find it. Go find it. It's probably on We Love Us.
06:23It's definitely on We Love Us. Hello. It was made easy for you. And now we just have to show
06:27up
06:27and support and show that we love us. Exactly. Love on us. Yes.
06:33So what does Black joy look like for you? And what does play look like? So we often think about
06:40that
06:40when it comes to children, but even in adulthood, what does play look like?
06:45I live for this question as a game girl, a game maker throughout this whole year. I've had like a
06:51wild, exciting, cool year. I got married in Rwanda and I got to bring my family. Thank you. My family
06:56all came to Africa for the first time. I was on Shark Tank this year. You know, I was able
07:02to go on
07:03the view. Like I've had so many cool, cool things that have been like exciting and amazing. And I
07:09always go back and I think about my ancestors. And of course the quote, we all know like your,
07:13your ancestors wildest dream. They never had chance to play, to be fun and frivolous and
07:21to go and meet friends and do things that they just wanted to do. And so that is so important
07:28to me to
07:28just dive deep into being playful, having fun, being joyful. And so I just always want to make
07:35sure that, especially for Black people, we take so much time to a rest, rest is an act of resistance,
07:42to find joy in the mundane, the little things like what a nice sunset today, joyful, any little thing to
07:51play, to go hang out with my girlfriends and have wine and play our games and just enjoy each other.
07:58For the sake of enjoyment.
08:05My name is Savannah Campbell. I'm the owner and founder of Caribe & Co. You can find us on TikTok
08:10and Instagram at caribeandco, also at caribeandco.com. And also we're on the We Love Us shop, of course.
08:17What's up? My name is Brittany Rowe. I am the co-founder of Awkward Games. Thanks so much for
08:21listening in. You can find us at Awkward Games on TikTok, Instagram, and everywhere else on social media.
08:27And of course, awkwardgames.com. And on the We Love Us shop. Go shop!
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