The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2023
Empower Global lost 18 marketplace brands after Diddy's abuse lawsuits
Within weeks of Cassie's suit, 18 of the Black-owned brands on Combs' marketplace pulled their products.
Empower Global · 2023-12-11
What happened
Empower Global, the e-commerce marketplace Combs founded in 2021 to support Black-owned businesses, lost at least 18 of its seller brands within weeks of the abuse lawsuits against him. The exodus followed Cassie's November lawsuit and three more claims filed under New York's Adult Survivors Act.
USA Today named House of Takura, Nuudii System, Tsuri, Fulaba, Rebecca Allen and Baby Donna among the exits. House of Takura's founder said her brand found the allegations 'abhorrent and intolerable'.
The platform's pitch was that buying from it supported Black founders through Combs' reach, and the sellers' exit showed how fast that association could flip from asset to cost.
Why it happened
- Sellers joined for Combs' name and left for it: the platform had no value to a small brand once that name attracted boycott pressure instead of customers.
- The allegations were severe and multiplying, and each seller faced its own customers asking why it stayed, so leaving was also self-protection.
- The exits came fast and public, which made staying look like endorsement and turned a trickle of departures into a reported wave.
The lesson
A marketplace built on one founder's name inherits his risk: the sellers left the platform, not the deals on it, because the name was the product. What the celebrity brings in, he can take out.
Sources
- 18 Companies Flee Sean Combs' Latest Business as Allegations Mount — Rolling Stone, 10 December 2023
- Brands Desert Sean 'Diddy' Combs' Empower Global In The Wake Of Abuse Allegations — Yahoo Entertainment, 11 December 2023
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