Interview Transcript

Could you highlight how the process has changed of bringing a product to market for a small startup today versus ten years ago? What are the major differences in bringing a product to market?

I don't think that the process, with the contract manufacturers, has really changed. If you're an independent founder of a beauty business, and you need to go to contract manufacturers in order to get your product made, the process is basically the same. Now you could have a philosophy, like Glossier, that you don't really care about the formula that much. It's all about the marketing and community. So you go to a contract manufacturer. You do a turnkey, and they've got products on the shelf. You take those, and you don't change them. You can be out the door in a very short amount of time.

If you have a very specific product that you want to develop, with an ingredient that you haven't researched, then that takes time. That’s because you're going to a contract manufacturer and you're going to have to work with a bench chemist to actually take a base formula that they have and then incorporate whatever the results that you're looking for and the ingredients that you want to be added, and that takes time. So I wouldn't say that the process has changed that much. It just depends on, as a marketer, independent beauty startup, what is your idea? Do you have to start product development from scratch? Or can you take something that's already been developed by the contract manufacturer?

How would you advise a start-up today to come up with an idea? Would they mainly need to leverage contract manufacturers or would they look at the audience, consumers, and then build in a formula around that.

The first thing is, what is your idea? It was like Jamie when she was developing IT Cosmetics. She had really bad rosacea, and it was a confidence killer for her, because she had redness and bumps all over her face. For her, it was, I wanted to develop a makeup product that's good for your skin and will also help to heal my skin, but also cover it up. It was a personal journey and a personal need that she identified. She then ran with it. That's where the science-backed, problem-solver position for IT Cosmetics came from.

If you look at Tiffany Masterson, who created Drunk Elephant, for her, she had skin issues, and there were certain ingredients that she knew irritated her skin. She knew that there were certain ingredients that she wanted in her products because of what she was looking for that product to achieve, such as vitamin C, an AHA, a glycolic. Yet she didn't want alcohol or an artificial fragrance. She had specific rules and regulations around what she wanted to achieve and the message that she wanted to give to the consumer. These are two examples of very successful startups that ended up being unicorns, and it started with their own personal journey, and their own personal need.

Did they build the formula with the contract manufacturer?

Yes.

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