Darrell Spencer, a 29-year-old black business owner from Chicago, secured a $500,000 investment on Shark Tank this week for his men's grooming brand, Crowned Skin. The brand has already generated more than $30 million in lifetime revenue, built around a product line that includes body butters and oil colognes made from natural ingredients including shea…
In 2009, Cameka Smith was 29 years old, held a master's degree, and had just been laid off from Chicago Public Schools. The obvious next step for most people would have been to dust off a résumé and move on. Smith chose a different path entirely.
She gave herself one year to figure it out.…

