August 2026: $30K+ in grant opportunities, a DIY website audit, and the dauntless Kim Roxie
Whew, it’s certainly toasty out there! We hope you are keeping hydrated, rocking those sun hats, and slathering on the (reef-safe!) SPF while soaking up these final summer weeks. Here's what's top of mind to share for August:
💰 August grant opportunities: We popped five good ones down below, but don't forget to check the LWL Small Business Grants Database for more!
📚 A 3 minute, DIY website audit: A straightforward, and simple guide for auditing your brand's web presence, based on learnings from more than 20+ small business websites.
🎧 The Art of the Brand: This episode goes deep into lessons we can learn from larger brand mishaps, and where to be careful when bringing AI into your marketing mix.
🗓️ Upcoming Ladies Who Launch events! Austin, TX on September 10th, Dublin, Ireland on October 12th, and London, England on October 13th! Keep your eyes peeled on your inbox for more! 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🏴
🩵 Meet Kim: Kim Roxie is an absolute force to be reckoned with, changing the beauty industry one product at a time. Learn more about how she built LAMIK Beauty from the ground up.
In your corner,
The Ladies Who Launch team
💰 GRANT DEADLINES
For any questions about the below grants, including eligibility, please reach out to the granting organization directly.
[$10K] The Sky is Not The Limit Social Impact Grant. Calling all social impact founders! The winner receives up to $10K in design, marketing and AI services. Deadline: August 19, 2026
[$2500] The 2026 Black Women Photographers x Nikon Grant Program. This grant provides funding and mirrorless camera equipment to Black and African women creatives pushing the boundaries of storytelling. Deadline: August 21, 2026
[$1K] HerRise Micro Grant. A monthly grant for women entrepreneurs creating innovative solutions that impact their community. Winners are announced at the HerSuiteSpot First Friday Mixer in the following month. Deadline: August 30, 2026
[$10K] August Amber Grant: Hair Care & Skincare. Remember, applying for one Amber grant actually puts you in the running for three! What have you got to lose?! Deadline: August 30, 2026
[$10K] Hey Helen Grant Program. A monthly grant for businesses that generate less than $1M in revenue. Deadline: August 30, 2026
💥 POWER PICKS
Your monthly shortcut to better decisions. Handpicked listens, curated reads, and expert events that will level up your thinking and skills.
📚 I Reviewed 20 Small-Business Homepages. Here Is What Most Got Wrong. The 3-minute website audit you didn't know you needed!
🎧 Why Great Brands Don't Chase Trends. We genuinely loved this conversation between Camille Moore and Phillip Millar on the impact AI is having on marketing and intellectual property at large, and the lessons we can learn by watching giant brands stumble over trends.
📚 Give Lenders Something to Root For. An inside look at the overall lending business model so you can make it work for your business.
📚 "Every ‘yes’ has to be fiercely protected by a thousand ‘no’s’.” This article digs into the contradictory idea that saying no is absolutely critical to opening your path for growth.
🩵 LAUNCHER SPOTLIGHT
In celebration of all women who build. Be sure to give your fellow Launcher some love online... It's easy, free, and means the world!
Meet Kim Roxie
Kim Roxie entered the beauty industry paying close attention to the people who it left out.
As a teen, she spent years working at a makeup counter and could see, up close, who the beauty industry was overlooking.
Women with deeper skin tones were constantly being asked to settle. Formulas disappeared on the face, undertones were wrong, and shade ranges often stopped well before they reached the customers standing at the counter.
So naturally, at the age of 21, Kim decided to solve this problem by opening a makeup shop in Houston’s Sharpstown Mall.
There was no elegant launch strategy. Kim describes that version of herself as “ignorant, crazy, delusional,” powered by “a little bit of ignorance mixed with a whole lot of bliss for what could happen.”
That bliss became LAMIK Beauty: Love And Makeup In Kindness.
Getting her products made was another matter entirely. Kim traveled to a cosmetics trade show in New York and approached manufacturers with what she thought was a perfectly reasonable request: 100 units so she could test her formula and build a customer base.
Their response? Laughter. Because apparently their minimum orders started closer to 10,000 units.
Kim took that response as a challenge to negotiate harder. Up and down the expo hall she haggled, hoping to get anyone to reduce their MOQ. But the vendors kept saying no. Finally, a man nearby overheard the exchanges, tapped her on the shoulder, and handed her his business card.
Later that evening, completely exhausted and disheartened by the day, Kim remembered that business card. She pulled it from her pocket, surprised to see the job title “chemist” printed on it.
It turns out, the man had recently retired from a large cosmetics conglomerate, where he had helped develop bestselling foundations. He had also seen companies in the beauty industry refuse to produce deeper shades because executives did not like how the pigments looked inside the bottle. In Kim’s idea, he saw a chance to do something differently.
Together, they began experimenting with products made without parabens, talc, or other toxic chemicals that would actually show up on deeper skin tones. He worked with her at no charge, giving the young founder the kind of access and attention no large manufacturer had been willing to offer. Her products are still manufactured in Houston, TX to this day.
That clarity helped LAMIK Beauty become the first Black-owned clean makeup brand to launch on Ulta.com. The opportunity came through a pitch competition, but the final round required customers to vote with their own money. Kim spent the last hours calling people from her desk, and ultimately, LAMIK beat brands with more resources because its community showed up.
“Our vote is the reason why we got on Ulta.com,” she said. “That means so much to me, even bigger than a buyer telling me yes.”
Other retail wins required different tactics. For a meeting with JCPenney, Kim arrived with photographs of empty spaces in its beauty departments. The buyers were visibly uncomfortable.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I know. That’s how it looks when you go in there,’” she recalled. “So there’s room, right?” It was kinda hard for them to disagree.
LAMIK became the first brand JCPenney Beauty allowed to host trunk shows, using the events to test markets and prove where the brand belonged.
When Kim later pitched Nordstrom, she made the case by pointing to the customer the beauty aisle still was not serving. She did not ask them to stock another makeup line, but instead, she focused on showing them the business opportunity that everyone else had missed.
LAMIK’s real strength comes from Kim’s ability to see what the beauty industry has trained itself not to notice: Women with deeper skin tones. Women with alopecia, vitiligo, or other skin conditions. Women whose faces have changed with illness, age, or life. Women who are not interested in shrinking themselves to fit inside someone else’s idea of beauty.
So while LAMIK began with makeup, her work is much larger than that. Kim is not trying to correct the women in front of her. She is working to correct an industry that failed to imagine them there in the first place.
Photos from @lamikbeauty and @thekimroxie.