Nancey Flowers Harris + Tracy Vontélle Green, Founders of Vontélle
Name: Nancey Flowers Harris + Tracy Vontélle Green
Founder: Vontélle
Who are Nancey Flowers Harris + Tracy Vontélle Green?
Ms. Tracy Vontélle Green is the CEO and in charge of the overall designs, finance, and direction of the company. Ms. Green has amassed a strong professional career which has developed her leadership skills, business, and financial acumen. She has been involved in funding procurements as a Budget Analyst for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget; wrote grants for the New York City Department of Health; managed financial mergers as a Consultant for Accenture; oversaw the NYC public assistance budget of $6.1 billion as the Deputy Commissioner at Human Resources Administration; worked at Harlem and Bellevue Hospitals in key financial positions before becoming the Chief Financial Officer to the Department of Education School of Support Services and at Health + Hospitals Corporation- Metropolitan Hospital Center and One Brooklyn Health System - Interfaith Hospital Center.
Ms. Nancey Flowers-Harris is the COO with a focus on operations including marketing and the design of the products. Ms. Harris is a highly experienced senior executive who has worked at International companies such as Viacom (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon), as a Sales Executive, and at Black Enterprise as the Multi-Media Sales Director. With a strong history of revenue generation, sales management, cross platform product marketing and in program integration, she moved to (BET) Black Entertainment Television as a Senior Sales Executive where she grew her portfolio of advertising clients from $13 million to $28 million in 3 years. She is an excellent communicator who drives strategic initiatives through to completion.
In less than three sentences tell us about your company and what you do.
Vontélle was founded to satisfy the demand for better-fitting vibrant, luxury eyewear designed to see the world through a cultural and global lens. We offer optical frames and sunglasses in sizes that compliment diverse faces; wider bridges for the nose, longer temples for behind the ears and larger lenses for high cheekbones to fit more comfortably. We fulfill prescriptions (readers, single vision, and progressives) and offer custom lens color/tints including blue light blocker and/or polarized lenses in any pair of frames.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
Being women FoundHer(s) means that we have the ability to be impactful and make change in the world of optometry and fashion. The concept for Vontélle was born out of a need when Tracy and I lost our expensive eyewear within the same year and decided to focus efforts on making our next purchases from a Black-owned brand. After searching high and low for glasses that were stylish, and had an ethnic flair, we realized it simply did not exist. Upon further research, we learned the glasses we have been wearing for years were simply not made to fit diverse faces with very narrow bridges which cause dark blemishes on the nose, short temples causing tension headaches, and indentations on people with high cheekbones.
Last, after visiting an expo in Paris with nearly 10,000 attendees we saw that the industry is 99% male dominated and Caucasian. During our trip, we saw thousands of glasses and met eyewear manufacturers and designers, but nothing like what we envisioned. This served as our “aha moment.” there was simply no choice other than to create a new narrative and vision for the eyewear industry. Our goal is to add more diversity and culture to the world of eyewear as well as representation.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
We support other female founders who work within our field as well as outside. Nancey Harris is part of the Southern African Delta Sigma Theta PAMOJA Fellowship Mentorship program where she mentors several new female founders.
Tracy Green mentors women within the community and assists by helping with grant applications and writing business plans.
At what point did you make your company a full time gig? How did you know the time was right?
In February of 2018, my (Nancey) company began downsizing and fortunately I was a casualty of the layoffs. I say fortunately, because I was unhappy. The money was fantastic, but the division I worked for was extremely toxic and as a new mom, I knew it was time to go. I immediately landed a freelance gig and was able to work from home. It was a win-win. However, a year later, the new organization began to unravel and I knew it was just a matter of time before I'd find myself looking for another job, so I gave them notice. One day, my husband asked, "Why don't you find something you're passionate about? You and Tracy are so talented, put your heads together and build your own brand."
It just so happened that June Tracy called me to lament about losing her very expensive glasses. Coincidentally, I had just lost my luxury prescription glasses and was in the same unpleasant situation. Tracy suggested we look for glasses from a black-owned proprietor. We had a certain type of style in mind and when we couldn't find what we wanted Tracy said "We should start our own eyewear brand". She may have been saying it in jest, but my husband's words came rushing back to me and I replied "why not?" Aside from that, I've always been a serial entrepreneur, and I loved this idea. By the following week, I had commissioned someone to create our logo, purchased our domain and a month later, purchased tickets for us to attend the largest Eyewear Expo in the world in Paris, France and the rest is history!
How did you land your first client?
Funny story...In mid-August of 2020, we had been putting the word out that we were going to launch Vontélle Eyewear in October of 2020. Our webmaster created a beautiful landing page, but the remainder of the site was supposed to be unavailable to consumers. However, it had a 2-3 second delay and unbeknownst to us at the time if you clicked the "Coming Soon" button before the flash page ended, you could view the shop. As a result, a dear college friend and supporter went on the site and began shopping. She purchased 3 pairs of glasses. Our payment system was not yet linked to our bank account and our glasses were not scheduled to arrive until mid-October. There were tons of things to be done on the back end. However, the purchase went through and we had to get the wheels in motion.
We did launch on October 1st, 2020, but our first customer came before we were ready. However, we've learned to always be prepared and ready to handle the unknown. Our first wholesale customer, Majestic Optical in Houston, TX found us in March of 2021. Ms. Pam called us on the phone and said she was interested in purchasing Vontélle. Since then, she has been a strong supporter, mentor and has even become a friend.
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