Emma Grede is speaking out after some backlash over how Diarrha N’Diaye’s move from Ami Colé to SKIMS went down. 

On the podcast “She’s So Lucky,” Grede said she passed on investing in the beauty brand when it was first pitched because, in her view, she did not see “something extraordinary about that founder and about that proposition.” She said, “It’s okay. But I was like, ‘It’s gonna come and go,’” while also noting that she kept up with N’Diaye over time. 

N’Diaye, the founder of Ami Colé, had already built a beloved beauty brand centered on melanin-rich skin before announcing in July 2025 that she was winding it down after four years. In her own message, she described the company as “a brand rooted in purpose, storytelling, and the bold celebration of who we are,” and said she had taken it “from a sketch in my Brooklyn apartment to the shelves of every Sephora in North America in 4 years.” 

Grede’s comments are getting even more attention because, after Ami Colé closed, N’Diaye was hired in November as executive vice president of beauty and fragrance at SKIMS. That move sparked mixed reactions, with some people questioning why Grede did not back N’Diaye as a founder when she had the chance. Grede said their relationship never really ended, because N’Diaye kept calling, asking what she could learn and who she should know. 

Grede’s argument is that the SKIMS role gives N’Diaye the kind of infrastructure and investment she may not have had on her own. She called it a “perfect opportunity,” and said that if someone can spend three years inside a company learning how to scale, then go start again, “Why would you not?” She added, “The point of being in business is to make money. It isn’t to service the community.” 

When it comes to Black beauty as a business, what happens when a founder with a strong cultural vision hits a wall? Is the best next move rebuilding independently or entering a larger system? N’Diaye’s journey has always been rooted in community — from her Harlem salon upbringing to building products she says people wanted because they felt seen — so her next chapter at SKIMS feels both strategic and complicated to many on the outside. 

At the center of it all is a very modern business question: when does backing a Black woman founder mean investing in the company, and when does it mean giving her the platform, resources, and runway to build somewhere else? Grede clearly believes she chose the latter. The internet, as expected, is still deciding what that means.