When Mathahle Stofile left her job as beauty editor at Marie Claire in 2015, she says she didn’t have an idea of what she was going to do. She just knew it was time to make a change. And she’d been getting a number of nudges from the universe to go it alone. Already raising a young son with her partner Siphiwe, she had just given birth to their second child - a girl - when she resigned. Alone with the baby at home, she started using the tools she best knew how - social media and the knowledge of what she and her peers felt they weren’t getting from other channels in terms of beauty. She has since been running The Matte Project (TMP) - an online beauty platform for black women.

We sat down to talk through her journey. She was incredibly open and honest. Mathahle and I have known each other for over 10 years (she took over from me when I left the position in 2011 to move to Barcelona) and shared great insights into the industry and what it’s been like to become an entrepreneur.

I’m not sure what I’m going to be selling yet but I’m trying to create a voice for black women to demystify beauty.

“I hopped on to Instagram and started sharing tips and tricks and the response was amazing. Then a friend said to me, ‘I see what you’re doing - you’re giving them the popcorn for free so they’ll buy the coke when they get thirsty.’ I said yes, I’m building an audience but I’m not sure what I’m going to be selling yet but I’m trying to create a voice for black women to demystify beauty.” She wanted to normalise beauty and take the shame and secrecy away so that it wasn’t an elitist thing especially when it comes to professional beauty and luxury products.

Then clients started partnering with her. “I suddenly saw myself doing sponsored influencer posts because it was such easy money and low hanging fruit.” But it soon affected her audience engagement negatively. “People were no longer commenting and asking questions. I was having the time of my life and travelling but my followers weren’t coming along for the ride.”

I knew the money would be slower in coming in but my thing has always been to serve the audience and the reader.

She’d quickly started falling into the trap of relying on sponsorships to create content. Now, she makes sure that she works even with brands that don’t have advertising, marketing or PR spend, who funnel their money back into product development and formulations and might not have pretty packaging but their products work. She also stopped doing sponsored posts on Instagram. “I knew the money would be slower in coming in but my thing has always been to serve the audience and the reader.”

I ask Mathahle if she’s ever said no to a brand because it might not align with hers. “I did have brands approach me with products I’d never tried and wanted me to post something. I said no in that sense, ‘please send me samples to try it first and if I like it then I’ll write up a review’. If I haven’t tested something I’ll make an announcement that its available but never endorse it or say that I’m using it or that it works.”

Authenticity and honesty are a key part of her success.

I keep second guessing myself and the vision is so big, it’s so scary - I keep stepping back from it.

It’s become even more important for her to seek the underdogs out. And because beauty is a massive industry, she’s honed in on skin in particular so she can really help her followers. She found that the hair market was saturated and that it’s never been a big thing for her, similarly with makeup. Her focus is on skin first.

Things have changed since she first started in 2015. Her business model has changed and she has even bigger plans for where she wants to take the brand. This big idea has scared her though. There was always supposed to be a phase two and three to what she’s trying to build but she admits she’s avoided it for a few reasons. “I work alone, I keep second guessing myself and the vision is so big, it’s so scary - I keep stepping back from it.”

She’s admitted to herself that she needs help as she’s not a businessperson per se. “I have all the concepts jotted down but I need someone to help me monetise it.” Mathahle’s going to be partnering up with someone for the next phase to identify funding and best business practice.”

There’s nothing wrong with identifying that you need help. Most businesses need more than one person to scale certain projects.

It has not been easy. It’s that thing of having it all but not at the same time. But now that I’m older it doesn’t stress me out as much, it’s not as scary.

Besides this realisation, Mathahle’s advice to other entrepreneurs is about financial planning. “I didn’t save to buffer myself for the first six months of starting. It was a purely emotional decision when I left, instead of a truly rational decision. I was very hormonal. A year into going it alone, I saw how I could have planned things better - while I was still in the role I left. I’m talking mainly about money. Even though looking back now, I can’t really imagine where I could have saved.”

She thanks her partner Siphiwe for keeping her sane and her children for reminding her about why she would never go back to employment. She feels a 9-to-5 would cheat her out of the time to get to know her kids, which has been amazing and has improved their family life.

When there’s any financial strain, Siphiwe who is also an entrepreneur and started a similar journey years before her, would see her panicked about money and remind her of all the positives. “He believed in the dream more than me and had formulated the idea in his mind before it did in mine and would tell me to keep at it and help where he could. He was a soldier who would take on more projects [to help carry mine].”

“It has not been easy. It’s that thing of having it all but not at the same time. Now that I’m older though, it doesn’t stress me out as much - it’s not as scary. And that’s the journey of the entrepreneur. I listen a lot to ‘How I Built This - with Guy Raz’. I love the NPR podcast and every single interview. Everyone has talked about those moments where they’ve thought, okay that’s it, this is not going to work so let me go back to work and the one thing they all have in common is that none of them did. ‘We’ll sleep on the kitchen floor to make this happen’, so there’s always that tipping point and it’s always the dark time before the light shines and you catch your big break.”

If someone had shown me a breakdown or picture of what was to come, I would never have taken the leap.

She’s been asked why she would become an entrepreneur with a then toddler and baby on the way. “I don’t have answer to that, except that’s when I felt I had to, the nerve to do it and the confidence in myself to do it. It felt urgent - fail quick - so you can make all the mistakes now and still have a cushion to fall back on which is our parents. I did lose my father during this time though and it shook me emotionally. I knew I was making a very privileged decision that I had that buffer and no responsibilities for extended family members.”

Would she do it again knowing what she knows now? “If someone had shown me a breakdown or picture of what was to come, I would never have taken the leap. Debt has always been my biggest fear and it has such a huge stigma around it. The shame is internal because it feels like a lone journey because no is talking about it. But things always get better.’

“Siphiwe and I do this morning meditation and it ends off with something like ‘I’m grateful for my past pain because it’s shown me growth and brought me here today and I’m grateful for my future pain because it means I’m getting closer to my dreams that I am manifesting right now.”

Those two brands make me feel like what I want to do is very possible.

I wasn’t surprised by Mathahle’s answer to this question because it makes a lot of sense to me personally and we couldn’t stop talking about our favourite episodes and series when she first brought up ‘How I Built This’. I asked her where she finds the greatest sense of motivation and she responded, podcasts.

She says, “Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations and goop for the information. Everything about the ethics of goop is what I’m trying to do with TMP - kindness and transparency - it’s all the things the beauty industry is lacking and listening to how Gwyneth built that company is so fascinating to me because she also saw her brand as a content space and it’s now a tech company. I wish Emily Weiss from Glossier had a podcast because she also inspires me so much especially in terms of where her mind was before she started the blog - Into the Gloss - that became this entire movement. Those two brands make me feel like what I want to do is very possible.”

“There’s also GirlBoss and they interview some really admirable women our age, ex editors, entrepreneurs and start up people. They have such gems there because they’re such relatable stories. I like listening to ex-magazine entrepreneurs because that’s been my journey.”

I pat myself on the back for all the work I have done but I forget these things because I have this dream that I haven’t touched yet. I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface.

I’m trying to build a company but I’m not so attracted to the idea of building some billion rand company that’s going to be huge - I’m not interested in that. I just want to build a very meaningful brand that is impactful in people’s lives and I want it to support our lives while I still own my time and I’m accountable to myself. And I’d like it to disrupt a few things in the industry as well.

She doesn’t feel she’s done that yet or that TMP is her biggest achievement to date because she doesn’t feel like she’s done what she set out to do. It left me a little surprised considering her loyal following and stories she’s shared like the following. “Last year at the Sanlam Handmade Contemporary Fair, as I walked in with Siphiwe, this woman came and gave me a hug and we chatted and the whole time I was thinking she doesn’t look familiar, how does she know me but it’s too late to ask towards the end. Just before I left, she said to me, ‘hold on, you are The Matte Project right?’ I finally asked her whether we’d ever met and she said no, she just followed my page. I loved that she was exactly the kind of woman I pictured as a reader. So those moments are really nice but I still feel a kind of shame or imposter syndrome which creeps in when you’re working alone. There’s no one to cheer you on or critique you.”

I tell her she needs to celebrate her successes.

“Sometimes I’ll go back through all my invoices and pat myself on the back for all the work I have done but I forget these things because I have this dream that I haven’t touched yet. I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface.”

This is what Mathahle’s day usually looks like:

5:45 alarm goes off

5:55 windows and blinds open for a 5-minute meditation

6:00 Siphiwe wakes up kids to bath while I write in my gratitude journal

6:15 time to make breakfast and prep lunches

7:00 a session of pilates while Siphiwe does school run

8:00 start working at home or coffee shop

10:00 my first meal of the day

15:00 my turn for school run so work day ends

16:00 podcast and dinner prep time

18:00 family sits together to eat

20:00 kids in bed leaves me with time to catch up with work, read a book or catch up on more podcasts

Fun working facts

Soundtrack or silence? Silence

Coffeeshop or co-working space? Co-working space for silence

Pyjamas or prepared? I shower and get fully dressed up

“I never thought that podcasts would be the thing that would most help me and my business”