Who Really Runs Music City? The Women Building Nashville’s Next Business Empires

Courtesy of Rolled 4 Ever Ice Cream

As Beyoncé once said, who runs the world? Girls. But as it turns out, they rule Music City, too. Nashville is home to an increasing number of female entrepreneurs – women who start businesses from nothing, build empires, and abound with drive, innovation and perseverance.

Here’s the Scoop

©Journal Communications/Jeff Adkins

Maneet Chauhan, celebrity chef, author and television personality, co-founded Morph Hospitality and launched Chauhan Ale & Masala House restaurant in Nashville in 2014. Since then, her business operations have expanded to include The Mockingbird and eet, two popular local restaurants. Bailey Spaulding founded Jackalope Brewing Company, one of the city’s earliest craft breweries, now a landmark famous for its great brews, cocktails, food, music, board games and patio evenings.

Mallory Ervin has given pajamas a boost into the stratosphere with her In My Sundays retail line, while building her Living Fully Co. brand into another mega-popular apparel company.

Jessica Steddom

Similarly, Maliyah Bass and Bariangela Segovia have joined the ranks of successful Nashville women entrepreneurs with Rolled 4 Ever, a unique ice cream and catering business. What began as an idea dreamed by two college kids turned into a food truck imagined from an old church bus, and eventually a business with a production staff and rave social media reviews. Bass, chief experience officer, and Segovia, chief production officer, have worked with scores of bigger businesses and nonprofits. Rolled 4 Ever, which also supports schools through its Sweet 5 Initiative fundraising program, has got a big heart and big plans.

“Ultimately, we’re building something much bigger than an ice cream company,” Bass says. “We want to build an experience-driven brand that can expand beyond Nashville and continue creating hope, happiness and community wherever Rolled 4 Ever goes.”

Just Roll With It

Rolled ice cream, for the uninitiated, is made by pouring liquid ice cream onto a metal slab chilled to minus 15 degrees. As the liquid freezes, it is scraped with a spatula into a roll. Throughout the process, any imaginable sweetener and flavoring can be added.

Lifelong Nashvillians Bass and Segovia met as 6- and 7-year-olds playing Little League basketball. Their friendship continued through college, with Bass at Middle Tennessee State University and Segovia at Belmont University. On a junior year trip to New York in 2016, they fell in love with rolled ice cream, and the idea for a business came soon after. Watching endless videos, they taught themselves how to make the product in their garage lab. Founded in 2018 with the launch of the Roll Bus, the business expanded in 2021 by opening a location at the Nashville Farmers’ Market, which features the Rolled Academy.

Pivoting and Preserving

Their journey has not been without struggles, Bass says. Business capital was a particular problem early on.

“As two young Black women building a business, we quickly realized that we didn’t always have access to the financial resources or networks that could help us grow,” she says. “We had to learn how to bootstrap and be extremely resourceful with what we had. Looking back, those challenges helped shape us as entrepreneurs. We learned how to pivot, make smart decisions with limited resources and continue building even when the traditional path wasn’t available to us.”

Bass’ parents, Mylica and John Cathey, owners of the popular Smokin’ Buttz food truck, were inspirational.

The business community has been supportive too. Bass and Segovia are intentional about their involvement with organizations such as the Nashville Business Incubation Center, the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and BrainTrust – all of which, Bass says, “have played an important role in our journey through mentorship and access to resources.”

The future, they hope, will bring a fleet of food trucks and, “after excelling in Nashville,” an expansion beyond. They are pleased and proud to have had an impact on the community they grew up in, and enjoy speaking to students about leadership, self-confidence and entrepreneurship.

Bass has thoughtful advice for young women who are beginning their business journey. “Have the courage to begin and have the courage to pivot,” Bass says. “Don’t become so attached to how you thought the journey would look that you’re afraid to shift. Sometimes the pivot isn’t a sign that you’ve failed; it’s the thing that moves you closer to where you’re supposed to be.”