Serial Entrepreneurs building beauty brands
The 5 PIECES OF ADVICE from Founders to Founders, FaB CLUBHOUSE conversation June 24th hosted in Berlin
Entrepreneurs life is a long journey. We asked some of them what they have learnt building their company, what matters to them, how they keep their motivation when they have bad days. Their advice to others. Meet European entrepreneurs building conscious beauty and wellness brands and platforms.
Speakers: Estella Benz, founder of Skin Match Technologies (Artificial intelligence solutions for the beauty industry),Romina Bungert, founder of Soil Skincare (evidence-based holistic skincare. personalized to your needs), Antoneta Bursac, founder of Klarskin (Skincare Supplements For Acne & Clearer Skin),Maikel Kletsel, co-founder of 100 Cherries (is a house of brands, launching and growing D2C brands brands with professional influencers and content creators ),hosted by Elnura Ashimova, founder of relove cosmetics (upcycled beauty skincare using coffee grounds & coffee oil)
BEST QUOTES curated by Elnura Ashimova:
‘Ask 100 Customers questions you are afraid to ask to find true Product Market Fit.’ Estella Benz, Skin Match
‘Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you have questions — people love to help, just hit them up on LinkedIn’ — Maikel Kletsel, 100 Cherries
‘Bring innovation to saturated markets, communicate with your customer and don’t be afraid to pivot’ — Antoneta Bursac, Klarskin
‘Continuously collect, observe & analyse your user data to master customer centric development’. — Romina Bungert, Soil Skincare
‘Don’t depend too much outsourcing your needs on external companies, try to keep most of the know-how in-house.’ Elnura Ashimova, relove cosmetics
THE 5 ADVICES FROM FOUNDERS TO FOUNDERS
1-🎙📞 Listen to your customers… for real.
“Don’t be afraid to ask your customers! We have the concept of 100 customers, to build the core base and validate the concept, build features that customers want. Estella
“Take your phone, use your email list and ask your customers. They love that and want to be engaged’ Maikel
“We focus on some of the biggest problems of the customers.” Focus has been the most helpful exercise during prototype creation. It is easy to get distracted trying to solve all problems. Better to focus on relevant problems: e.g. focus on solving skin impurities and scars instead of having a blown out portfolio that is too generic. Romina
2-💪 Fix big problems. Adapt to the needs.
Antoneta
I never intended to be in the beauty space after a career in Finance or wasn’t set out to create a company. I myself had a severe acne problem and went from doctor to doctor in search of a solution. My story inspired me to share the products via Klarskin. Antoneta
“I was suffering from acne when I was pregnant.” I needed to be careful what I put on my skin. Romina
3-⚡️🚀📈🛍 Pivoting! Be ready to be flexible as a founder.
‘We pivoted a lot until we felt comfortable with the features of our software. Now we feel more confident.’ Estella
“We have reliable partners. Building brands with influencers together. Look at what the market is telling you.” Michael
‘From my first startup I learned to pivot many times and being flexible is a standard for a founder. The product or service needs to be shaped by listening to the needs, and adapting to the market.’ Elnura
“We had to change, pivot as we were trying to fix too many things.” Antoneta\
4-🔥🔥🔥 Be Obsessed by Talent. Build long term relationships with VCs
Michael
“We started as a bootstrap, now we have some VCs and private investors”
‘We used funds from our previous exits of tech companies. Mostly work with institutional angels and we feel its early for VCs’ Romina
“We had a C-suite level executive from a corporation, then able to convince retailer partners, including Douglas.” Antoneta
“It’s a long term partnership. Choose some mentors and advisors. We business angels invested” Elnura
“I’m a solo founder. You need a strong community. You have bad days: manufacturing, other issues. Having people supporting you matters.” Antoneta
‘In early days we had an investor who helped with the manufacturing. We focused on B2B in our first year but now are shifting to B2C sales and investing more in content’. Elnura
It seems common that bigger supplement brands (example: Bears with Benefits) start as a retail (in drug store such as DM & Rossman) and then make efforts to turn to B2C with their own online store. It’s a very interesting market that is growing with 6% each year, with1,35 billion Euro in Germany.
5-💚 😇😉Take care of yourself! Selfcare matters to keep your motivation and inspire others.
“Meditation every day.” Michael and Estella
‘I bike to work. I get some fresh air! Fresh mind. I disconnect the weekend” Antoneta
‘Work-work attitude can be very one-sided and drain your energy. Don’t get too attached to the outcome in your business and having a side-hobby that is unrelated to your business helps a lot’. Elnura
👋 Questions &Answers with the founders in the audience. Moderated by Odile Roujol co-hosting with Elnura Ashimova. Happy to see founders in New-York, Paris, London…
- Is passion only enough to build a brand? How to get started?
The value of Podcasts by Antoneta. Recommendation: ‘How I Build This’Podcast by Guy Raz (How I Built This is an American podcast about “innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built”) You learn, don’t bother not to be everything. Learn by yourself listening to experts.” — Antoneta
“Be a problem solver vs knowledge and academics. We don’t outsource product development, as we believe it’s valuable in the long-term’. Romina.
“YouTube +LinkedIn is a great combination of source. If you’re looking for information use YouTube. And get the remaining knowledge from people (experts) by reaching out on LinkedIn. People like to help each other. Ping them with a short message or offer a virtual chat. Michael
“Yes, the power of social media. Commenting and liking people when you like their content, it’s like a conversation, many people react to that because its more personal.’ Elnura
2) How to chose an influencer/ Product co-creation
‘Relevance, Reach and Resonance — these 3 factors decide if the influencer is a good fit. Maikel
Relevance: is the influencer relevant for my business? It doesn’t make sense if someone who has a lot of followers is holding your product into the camera. It has to be an authentic fit.
Reach: does the influencer has enough reach in your target audience.
Resonance: is the level of engagement the influencer is creating with an audience both valuable and relevant to your brand.
3) How to ensure if the product with influencers are sustainable and not just a another hype?
‘Create a product that people like and need. Use marketing hacks to build a brand. And offer the products outside of the influencer space/audience.’Maikel
🤝 MEET HE FOUNDERS
Estella Benz, Skin Match Technologies: Skin Match provides each customer with their personal beauty ID. Offering them a personalized experience with best-fit product recommendations and transparent consultation as part of their regular shopping process.
Romina Bungert, Soil Skincare: Soil Skincare is creating evidence-based, personalized, and purely plant-based products for people suffering from skin problems. Their formulas are free from side effects and they support their clients on the way to healthy and clear skin with holistic at-home consultations.
Antoneta Bursac, Klarskin: Klarskin with their scientifically developed and natural approach treats the skin from the inside out. They make products designed to have the most significant long term impact on skin health.
Maikel Kletsel, 100 Cherries: 100 Cherries is an impactful company builder in the sphere of direct to consumer e-commerce by building successful brands by transforming followers into customers — with next generation brands
Elnura Ashimova, relove cosmetics: re:love transforms what’s left from coffee into high-performing, organic skincare products, As a beauty brand with a conscience, they give those coffee grounds a new lease of life and mindfully formulate efficacious products by utilizing their healthy properties.
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