Mike Kelly (MBA ’22) discussions with the Hue crew about
their personalized advice engine for splendor.
Tell us extra about your heritage and what inspired you all
to come to be marketers.
Shah: When I became 5 years old, my dad stop his process and
commenced his own employer, a circuit board production commercial enterprise,
which now has 50 personnel and has been in commercial enterprise for over
twenty years. His ardour for his enterprise and the impact he changed into
capable of have at the lives of his personnel stimulated me to need to start my
own organization in the future. However, I knew I could handiest need to take
that step when I observed a trouble I was obsessed with and a group that
changed into really worth taking that adventure with, and I am extraordinarily
lucky to have discovered that with Hue.
Clay: Growing up I became insecure approximately my dark
pores and skin, and I would flip thru magazines feeling like I wasn’t stunning
due to the fact I didn’t look like the models and stars. I will never neglect
the primary time I bought powder foundation, the shade changed into as a
minimum shades lighter than my actual
skin tone, and I became embarrassed as soon as I realized how wealthy and deep
my complexion definitely became. I wanted to begin a company to make certain
that beauty shoppers sense represented, confident, and exquisite while looking
for beauty products.
Guo: In my HBS admissions essay, I wrote that it become
usually my dream to paintings within the splendor or fashion industries. I
actually have constantly been focused on makeup – in truth, one among my early
youth memories become “borrowing” my preschool teacher’s dark crimson lipstick
and sporting it round faculty—which I did get in problem for (oops!). Fast
forward to my teenage years, and I grew up in an Asian immigrant family that
targeted on STEM. Beauty and fashion have become my manner of expressing my
identification—a creative outlet.
I didn’t come to HBS with the goal of being an entrepreneur,
more often than not because I discovered it “volatile” and wasn’t sure if I
turned into the typical founder. However, with maximum of splendor transferring
online during 2020 till the close to future, I did realize there has been an
possibility to leverage more tech in the splendor enterprise. Then I met Janvi
and Nicole and thought “Wow, those ladies are badass”—and the rest is records!
For all and sundry inquisitive about entrepreneurship, I’ve learned the maximum
vital things are 1) having a personal interest within the hassle you’re fixing,
because it’s something you can paintings on for a decade or more and a couple
of) locating the proper Co-Founder group—from a values, character and
complementary abilties perspective.
What is the hassle that you are trying to solve?
Our group came collectively as 3 ladies throughout the skin
tone spectrum (Black American, Indian American, and Chinese American) who all
struggled to locate make-up products that complemented our complexion. Growing
up, all of us experienced the sensation of not being represented in mainstream
splendor standards and have been inspired to combine our backgrounds in beauty
and tech to clear up this problem. We felt what become lacking became the human
detail. We observed ourselves spending hours searching on Youtube, Instagram
and TikTok for human beings with our similar pores and skin tones to look what
products might look proper on our pores and skin. As we began speakme to
customers, we found out that we have been now not by myself—humans need to peer
real, everyday people like themselves trying on makeup products. However, the
process of finding a person who matched their pores and skin tone and pores and
skin worries became time in depth and regularly unsuccessful.
Hue is a tech platform that recommends the nice make-up
merchandise on your pores and skin tone and pores and skin kind. Our
proprietary skin profiling algorithm, Hue ID, matches you to micro-influencers
who share the same pores and skin profile, Skin Twins, so that you can see
earlier than and after photos, videos, and opinions from individuals who look
like you as you’re purchasing online. Our plug-and-play API integrates without
delay on splendor brands’ and outlets’ e-trade shops for a continuing customer
adventure without having to down load some other app or go to every other
internet site. On any product where you see the “Powered by using Hue” emblem,
you may log in along with your Hue profile and unencumber your customized
pointers so that you never have to undergo a color matching quiz once more. Our
set of rules improves through the years as you keep with Hue and we research
what products work first-class for your pores and skin kind and alternatives.
For brands and retailers, our solution presents a terrific patron enjoy that
integrates each matching technology and user-generated content material this is
validated to seriously growth conversion, decrease returns, and enhance
universal purchaser confidence while shopping online.
Who is the group at the back of your startup?
Right now it’s the three people full-time, and we are also
supported via exceptional advisors from HBS which include Professors Christina
Wallace, Julia Austin, Jeff Bussgang, Mark Roberge, and Lou Shipley, in
addition to executives from the splendor and tech industries. We currently have
an splendid group of contractors that we are working with throughout
engineering, UX, and challenge control, and we are also trying to grow our
full-time crew!
We first met at a virtual speaker occasion remaining year
with Vicki Tsai (HBS ’06), founder of Tatcha, a skincare agency, and one among
our inspirations as marketers. Clay asked Tsai a query approximately beginning
a organisation, which caused the three people to connect in a while to discuss
the hassle space at the back of Hue. We decided to take part in Startup
Bootcamp together, and ever in view that then we were off to the races! We took
a very scrappy method to checking out and iterating on our solution with real
customers. One of the first thoughts we prototyped changed into a multi-shade
sampling kit. Within every week we set up a Shopify keep, ran Facebook ads, and
purchased out the entire coloration ranges of a few popular foundations at the
nearest Sephora in Fenway. We’ll never neglect the day we earned our first real
revenue (a $5 sample package order from a female in Ohio) and we spent hours
pumping out samples and transport kits to customers from our “Hue HQ” (also
called Sylvan’s condo in SFP 2). While we ended up pivoting away from sampling,
tests like this allowed us to swiftly research what clients wanted out of a
coloration matching experience and what they have been willing to pay for,
which has led us to our answer today.
Coincidentally, we ended up crossing paths with Tsai again
approximately 8 months after starting Hue, due to the fact she became one of
the enterprise specialists on the judging panel of the Project Connect Grant we
won through Unilever and WWD, and we were given to inform her that she become a
big a part of what added our team together in the first location!
Exciting information—we simply signed our first paying
emblem associate! We are co-growing the integration with our early brand and
retailer customers, and we're looking ahead to launching the revel in to the
general public this summer season.
Janvi Shah (MBA ’22) grew up in Fremont, CA. Prior to HBS,
she labored at Google as a product manager. She is the co-founder and CEO of
Hue.
Sylvan Guo (MBA ’22) grew up in San Francisco, CA. Prior to
HBS, she labored at startups consisting of Airbnb and Tubi on increase
marketing and analytics, and additionally spent time at Accenture. She is the
co-founder and COO of Hue.Nicole Clay (MBA ’22) grew up in Detroit, MI. Prior
to HBS, she was a advertising and marketing director at L’Oreal, centered on
the Lancome and Kiehl’s manufacturers. She is the co-founder and CMO of Hue.
