On today’s episode, we welcome Olowo-n’djo “Olo” Tchala, Founder and CEO of Alaffia — a clean beauty brand rooted in West African traditions and built around fair trade, ethical sourcing, and creating economic opportunity.
Alaffia is what happens when purpose isn’t added to a brand — it is the reason the brand exists. In 2004, he co-founded Alaffia with a mission to create sustainable economic opportunities for women in West Africa through women-led cooperatives, while building effective, accessible beauty products using ingredients including unrefined shea butter and African black soap. In this episode, Olo shares how he turned that mission into a scalable consumer brand, what more than 20 years of building Alaffia has taught him about purpose and profitability, and why real ethical sourcing goes far beyond what appears on a package.
He also opens up about bringing in outside investors, losing control of the company he founded, ultimately regaining ownership, and the lessons every founder should understand about capital, governance, mission, and control.
Such an important founder story. Listen now.

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To learn more about Olo and Alaffia:
https://www.alaffia.com/
https://www.instagram.com/alaffia/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/alaffia/
https://www.instagram.com/olowondjo/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olowo-n-djo-tchala-114248199/

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Check out our website to view this episode’s show notes: https://karagoldin.com/podcast/898