Pharrell Williams is helping Black and Latinx entrepreneurs with his latest initiative. The two-part program — a collaboration between Chanel and his Black Ambition nonprofit organization — will specifically work toward providing emerging businessmen with “access to knowledge, insights and opportunities from industry-leading experts,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
In part one of the initiative, which is titled “Women Who Lead,” Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief, Samira Nasr, moderated a panel that saw Tracee Ellis Ross, Medley co-founder Edith Cooper, Good American CEO Emma Grede and Natalie Massenet, who is the co-founder and partner of Imaginary Ventures, discuss resilience and determination, the importance of clarity of vision and more.
The second part of the program is a series of mentorship workshops. Members will have access to Chanel’s network of experts, who will teach them about the process of launching and sustaining a brand among other things.
“Chanel’s support of Black Ambition is a cornerstone of Black Ambition’s mission and is vital to the success of the next generation of Black and Latinx entrepreneurs,” said Williams. He also noted the brand’s “commitment to investing in human potential and advancing greater representation in culture and society.”
”You may have a great business idea, but that doesn’t mean you know how to run a business,” he added in a statement to Vanity Fair.
“Even when you have a great business plan, you might not find the right operators. [The mentorship program] teaches you all of those things. Success really does have a lot of authors. Usually when you say, ‘Success has a lot of authors,’ it’s a dig at people who didn’t do something but are taking the credit. In this particular sense, when it comes to running a business, success does have a lot of authors — there are a lot of signatures needed to cosign to get a brand new idea off the ground.”
Williams’ mentorship program is only one of the ways he intends to give back to members of his community. The producer is also preparing for the fall launch of Yellowhab, a private school for low-income families in his home state of Virginia.