We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephanie LaFlora a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Stephanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The Origin Story of Moxie

Moxie was born out of lived experience—the kind that forces you to see the gaps in the system and do something about them.

I wasn’t supposed to make it. As a Black woman startup founder in tech, the odds were stacked against me. Raising venture capital was an uphill battle, breaking into the industry felt like forcing my way through locked doors, and yet—I did it.

I built and launched my product with a waitlist of 2,000 users and secured venture funding because I knew how to tell a story that made people believe in what I was building.

That’s when it clicked.

I looked around and saw countless founders—brilliant, driven, relentless—struggling to get the traction they deserved. Not because their ideas weren’t good enough, but because they didn’t know how to communicate them in a way that resonated.

Meanwhile, traditional branding and marketing agencies were either:
1. Too expensive: Their high-ticket strategies were built for companies with established audiences, not for founders still figuring out product-market fit.

2. Not built for startups: They worked best for businesses that already knew exactly who they were, leaving early-stage founders without a roadmap for how to position themselves.

The gap was clear: founders needed a brand partner that understood the dynamic world of startups and could help them tell both their funding story to investors and their story to customers in a more compelling way.

The Lightbulb Moment
Moxie wasn’t planned in a boardroom. It was built in the trenches—inside coffee shops with founders, in late-night Slack messages dissecting failed launches, in real-time learning from viral campaigns and brand breakthroughs.

The realization was simple but game-changing: People don’t buy products. They buy stories, personalities, and movements.

And yet, most startups were stuck in either:
✔ The Overthinker Trap: Spending months trying to craft the perfect brand story, but never actually publishing.
✔ The Copycat Cycle: Mimicking big brands, losing their own voice in the process.
✔ The Feature-Focused Pitfall: Selling features instead of the impact those features have on people’s lives.

I knew it wasn’t just about having a great idea—it was about making people feel something. The startups that thrived weren’t just functional; they were felt. That’s the power of storytelling.

What got me most excited was proving that you don’t need a million-dollar budget to build an engaged community. You just need a bold, clear, and emotionally resonant message.

Why This Was Different*
Moxie isn’t about creating another agency. We’re on a mission to help early stage founders and small business’ find their audience faster, and reduce early pitfalls.

The core pillars are:

Cultural Competence: Brands need to move beyond surface-level messaging and deeply understand the communities they are serving.

Emotional Storytelling: We take what makes personal brands powerful and infuse it into startup branding—because people connect with people, not faceless companies.

High-Impact Campaigns: Instead of focusing on content for content’s sake, we engineer brand campaigns that move the needle—turning attention into real, tangible momentum for early brands.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a startup founder, storyteller, and strategist who believes that great ideas don’t sell themselves—powerful storytelling does.

Before launching Moxie, I was in the trenches as a tech founder—one of the few Black women to raise venture capital.That experience gave me firsthand insight into the brutal reality of early-stage startups: having the best product isn’t enough.

What made the difference for me wasn’t a massive budget or insider connections. It was the way I told my story—to investors, to users, to the market. It was about making people believe, not just in the product, but in the why behind it.

And that’s what led me to create Moxie.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing our clientele has been storytelling—hands down. People don’t just buy into products or services; they buy into narratives that resonate with them, that make them feel seen, and that give them a reason to believe in what’s possible. With Moxie AI, we position businesses as more than just products and services. We create stories that connect deeply with their audiences, making brands feel personal, necessary, and irreplaceable.

Every campaign we run is built on a foundation of authenticity. Instead of just saying, ‘Here’s what we do,’ we craft a narrative around the why—why this business exists, why it matters, and why now. Whether it’s a founder’s journey, a community impact story, or a behind-the-scenes look at what makes a brand unique, we tap into the emotional and aspirational elements that drive human decision-making. And because we understand how digital culture works, we don’t just tell these stories—we optimize them for reach, engagement, and conversion.

In an oversaturated market where consumers are constantly bombarded with information, the brands that cut through the noise are the ones that make people feel something. That’s what we do at Moxie AI. We turn businesses into movements, customers into advocates, and advertising into culture-shifting moments. And that’s why we’ve been able to grow—because when you tell the right story, the audience finds you.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

The way we keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty is through deep cultural competency and relevance. And when I say culture, I don’t just mean ethnicity—I mean the entire ecosystem of wants, frustrations, language, and interests that define the audience we serve. We don’t just market to people; we create a universe for them to explore, one that feels tailor-made for their values, their experiences, and their aspirations.

Moxie AI operates on the belief that loyalty isn’t built through transactional interactions—it’s built through immersion. Our clients don’t just get marketing strategies; they get access to a world that understands their audience at a fundamental level. We speak their language. We anticipate their needs before they do. We recognize the nuances of what makes them tick, what excites them, and what turns them off. And we translate that into experiences—campaigns, content, interactions—that feel like an extension of their own reality.

The brands that last are the ones that don’t just sell but create culture. They don’t just offer a product; they invite people into something bigger than themselves. That’s what we do. We help brands build ecosystems where customers don’t just engage—they belong.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.moxieaibrands.com
• Instagram: @moxieai
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/moxieaibranding/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@moxieaimedia