Venice Startup Hosting Weekly Interview Series With Black Leaders

VENICE, CA — A Venice startup wants to get real about the lack of diversity and racial inequality in fashion, beauty and technology brands.

MagicLinks is hosting a weekly 30-minute conversation series each Friday at 11 a.m. on Instagram called "Tea Time." This week will feature an interview with Lauren Ashley Beck, a cast member from the CBS show "Survivor."

It's the Venice-based company's first-ever Instagram Live series and features a weekly interview with Black leaders. They're located on Vernon Avenue and work behind-the-scenes with influencers and brands to create relationships and provide sales data and brand campaigns.

People are invited to speak on topics they care about, including how beauty, influencer and technology industries can better improve diversity.

"Each week we give the floor to different Black leaders to directly share their point of view on a wide array of topics on how the beauty and influencer industries can proactively do better moving forward," the company said in a news release.

"At the end of each conversation, we have our guest choose a charity and MagicLinks makes a $500 donation on their behalf in gratitude for the time spent on this initiative," according to the company.

The first MagicLinks presents Tea Time conversation premiered on Juneteenth with popular Black beauty influencer Mena Adubea where she discussed equity for Black influencers in the brand world, how beauty brands can improve, her personal experiences being a Black woman in the beauty space and her concerns about partnering with brands coming out of the current Black Lives Matter movement.

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Ep 1 with @mena_adubea on building equity for Black influencers
A post shared by MagicLinks (@magiclinks) on Jun 19, 2020 at 11:40am PDT

Other episodes feature interviews with Tari Kandemiri, founder of Hama Beauty, who discussed launching a brand during the pandemic and how discrimination in her in-store shopping experiences inspired her to start her shade-matching recommendation website. Conversations with designer Perry White and lifestyle blogger Carmen Renee will also be featured in the series.

MagicLinks helps companies create influencer campaigns, shares products and gives data on what drives sales. They work with many brands, including FENDI, glossier, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Pat McGrath Labs, lululemon and Nasty Gal.

"We are moving into the space of doing original content," a spokesperson and part-time contractor with MagicLinks who declined to be named told Patch.

"We’re asking the hard-hitting questions about what’s going on in this industry, having some tough talks, they told Patch. "These influencers are telling us how it is. Talking about pay, inequality. It’s crazy how candid they’ve all been getting."

These conversations can be hard, but it's long overdue.

"We’re a small tech company based out of Venice but we’re trying to change the narrative in this industry of tech, beauty and influencers," they said.

The group had sent a newsletter out to brands and influencers working with the company saying it wasn't just business as usual.

"On how our collective way of being and relating needs to change," they told

They asked for feedback and got it.

Mena Abudea reached out to the company's CEO, they said.

"She gave him a positive response and said that brands need to put their money where their mouth is," they told Patch.

It's one step forward, and one way to connect with people, they said.

"We just started reaching out to our network and seeing who is interested," they said. "Tell us your full story."

Tune in live at 11 a.m. to watch the conversation on Instagram with MagicLinks.

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