Meet Jenny Nuccio | Founder of Imani Collective + Co-Founder of School of Ethical Impact

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jenny Nuccio and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jenny, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Imani Collective actually started as a training program first. Over the years of traveling to Kenya, I had become great friends with the women and noticed some major gaps in education and opportunities for women. So in 2013, we started Imani Collective – a socioeconomic women empowerment program to empower women through education and training. Then over the years, we grew organically to the brand we are today.

What should our readers know about your business?
Imani Collective started simply as a training program in 2013. After building relationships with the women over many years, I had seen a gap in opportunity. After many conversations, Imani Collective began with 16 women – who still today, I call the pioneers of Imani Collective. Over time, we realized that there was not many places to go after training and so overtime, we organically grew. It was in 2016 that we entered our first wholesale market and realized that in order to make our program sustainable we needed to be competitive with our product and not just our story. We rebranded in 2017 to focus on products for the modern mom and never looked back. Today we have 3 locations in Kenya and provide for over 100 artisans and staff.

The best part about it all is that this is only the beginning.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Considering I live in Kenya – this would be hard for me to put together. But, my husband lived in Denver for over 6 years and his itinerary would look something like this 🙂 (and this is a similar itinerary that we do every time we visit – visiting in May!)

1. Red Rocks
2. 16th street mall
3. Hop on some brewery tours
4. Botanical Gardens and the zoo!
5. And of course to get out of the city and hike some 14ers.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Oh man, this is so good. In the beginning, there was not much support or really I just had extremely audacious goals that were overwhelming for many people, but from the beginning my mom was always there. She listened and never questioned and always told me “she believed she could. so she did.”

Then throughout all the years, my husband has been the biggest support, friend, shoulder to cry on and guy to celebrate with. He has picked up when I wanted to quit and continues to encourage me daily. We would not be here today without him.

Lastly, Yellow Co. is a community that I am so proud to be a part of. The women I have met in the group have been life changing. I have developed forever friendships and have launched many projects through the collaboration of the women in Yellow Co. I absolutely love walking alongside women who are doing meaningful work in this world.

Website: https://imanicollective.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imanicollective/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennynuccio/

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/imanicollective

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClegWWpKGWjt0z0lpzjEzSw

Image Credits
Surefooted Media: https://www.surefootedmedia.com/