On a Mission to Power SMBs with Danielle Cohen-Shohet (GlossGenius) and Graham Carney (GGV Capital)

TL;DR

GlossGenius helps salon, spa, and other beauty and wellness business owners manage their entire back office through an end-to-end software and payments platform. CEO and co-founder Danielle Cohen-Shohet says her makeup artistry, retail POS experience, and technical background inspired the company. Its initially bootstrapped model sharpened its focus on customer love and unit economics, while later funding supported faster hiring. Read on for the company’s founding and growth lessons.

Transcript

um danielle thank you so much for joining us today at the smb tech summit i'd love to start things off with your background and have you tell us more about gloss genius happy to be here so i'm danielle i'm the ceo and co-founder of glossgreenness glossgenius is a software payments company for small business owners in the beauty and wellness space s... Read More

Key Insights

• 💗 GlossGenius has experienced growing demand for its product beyond salon ownership, indicating the broader market need for SMB software solutions.
• 🦮 Being mission-driven has helped GlossGenius navigate the challenges of COVID-19 by guiding their decision-making process and prioritizing customer success.
• 🥰 The bootstrapping approach initially taken by GlossGenius empowered them to develop a product that customers love and focus on unit economics.
• 🈺 The SMB tech market is witnessing increased adoption and digital acceleration, with small business owners becoming more open to digitizing their operations and embracing centralized platforms.
• 😫 GlossGenius recognizes the importance of creating user-friendly and affordable products that align with the expectations set by consumer tech.
• 👨‍💼 COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of SMB tech, as small business owners see the value in working smarter by leveraging effective digital tools.
• 👨‍💼 The SMB tech market will continue to see increased centralization and a focus on user-friendly solutions that are accessible to small business owners.

Questions & Answers

Q: What does GlossGenius do for small businesses?

GlossGenius is a software and payments company for small business owners in the beauty and wellness industry. Its end-to-end suite helps salon and spa owners manage their entire back office while making it easier and more enjoyable to run their businesses.

Q: Who is Danielle Cohen-Shohet?

Danielle Cohen-Shohet is the CEO and co-founder of GlossGenius. She describes the company as a software and payments platform built to help beauty and wellness business owners succeed.

Q: What inspired Danielle Cohen-Shohet to start GlossGenius?

Three interests came together: makeup artistry, retail point-of-sale systems, and her technical background. While doing makeup artistry in college, she saw firsthand how difficult it was to manage client relationships and operate a business simultaneously.

Q: How did Danielle Cohen-Shohet’s digital receipts company influence GlossGenius?

Before GlossGenius, Cohen-Shohet started a company that digitized receipts at the point of sale. That experience deepened her interest in POS systems and in using transaction information to empower businesses involved in those transactions.

Q: How did GlossGenius expand over three to five years?

Demand grew beyond salon ownership, widening the portion of the beauty and wellness industry that GlossGenius serves. The company also expanded its product capabilities and deepened the platform’s impact on small business owners.

Q: What motivates Danielle Cohen-Shohet to keep building GlossGenius?

She says customers keep her going because the platform affects both their businesses and their lives. By reducing the stress and hardship of running a small business, GlossGenius aims to improve how owners show up at work and outside it.

Q: Why did GlossGenius initially bootstrap its growth?

GlossGenius was primarily bootstrapped, with a tiny amount of seed capital, and was revenue-financed for much of its history. Cohen-Shohet says this required an intense focus on building a product customers loved and on understanding the company’s unit economics.

Q: What benefits did GlossGenius gain from raising institutional capital?

Cohen-Shohet says raising capital helped the company move faster, particularly in building its team and attracting top-tier talent. It also helped spread the company’s message beyond the small group already familiar with its fundamentals and provided validation from institutional investors.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• GlossGenius provides a suite of software functionalities that streamline back office operations for salon and spa owners.

• The inspiration for starting GlossGenius came from the CEO's interest in makeup artistry, retail POS, and transaction information collection.

• The company's focus has expanded beyond salon ownership to serve a wider surface area of the beauty and wellness industry.