Page 45 - Forbes Magazine-September 30, 2018

Entrepreneurs SMALL GIANTS

her products could hit a new, hard-to-reach con- where the industry was going.”
sumer: one who wants to buy a high-end, nontoxic Early on, Twine bootstrapped the business with MARGIN
product but at the lower end of the luxury range. “I her savings while looking for an investor. But she PROPHET
love her price point because it says she’s taken the was pitching mostly to angel investors who special-
time to do her homework,” says Dana White, the ized in tech and weren’t interested in beauty’s latest
African-American owner of Paralee Boyd, a bud- gold rush. Eventually, at a Long Island Angel Net-
ding Detroit chain of walk-in salons that cater to work event in 2012, Twine met Philip Palmedo,
curly and textured hair. “We have money to spend.” who liked her presentation but acknowledged he
Th e event that spurred Twine to start her business knew nothing about hair care. Early the next year
was a tragedy that struck in 2010, three years into her he gave her $150,000 for a small stake. Twine’s only
stint at Goldman Sachs. Th at was when her mother, outside backer, Palmedo says the decision violat-
a doctor turned chemist who had just fi nished creat- ed everything he’s learned about investing—but has
ing a natural face cream she hoped to take to market, been one of his most successful. “Decisions like this AMPED UP
was hit by a car. are intuitive,” he says. “Believing in the person.”
Is the guitar industry going
Her mother’s death was life-changing for Twine, Briogeo’s fi rst two orders—from Urban Outfi tters the way of Hendrix and
who says she realized that working on Wall Street and the buzzy L.A. boutique Fred Segal—came later Cobain? Not necessarily:
Last year retailers sold
was “not how I should be living life.” that summer aft er Twine had taken vacation time
$1.9 billion of new fret-
Inspired by both her mother and her grand- to attend Cosmoprof, a Las Vegas trade show. It was ted instruments and
mother, who taught her how to make products with there that she met Sephora’s buyers. In January 2014 related gear, up 9% from
2016. Andy Mooney,
natural ingredients, Twine started devoting nights the chain agreed to launch Briogeo on its website in
CEO of Fender, based
and weekends to researching the beauty business. At the U.S. and Canada. Th e next week, Twine gave no- in Scottsdale, Arizona,
tice at Goldman. Today Briogeo says his famed ($500
million revenues) company
is the fastest-growing hair-care
HOW TO PLAY IT BY WILLIAM BALDWIN increasingly caters to fi rst-
brand on Sephora’s site. “She time shredders.
You can make gobs of money in hair care—if you pick just brings some of the most innova- Why are you optimistic
the right company and get in when it’s small. Shares of tive and exciting products that about the guitar’s future?
Helen of Troy are up 226,000% over the past 40 years. Consumption of live and
we have seen in hair care to the
Investing today, you’ll probably wind up with something recorded music is at
table, truly,” says Artemis Pat-
less exciting, since personal-care brands tend to be folded an all-time high. There
rick, Sephora’s chief merchan- are [nearly 200 million]
into very diverse product lines. Thus, at Helen of Troy you
now get, alongside cologne and shampoo, mops and dish racks. Clorox dising offi cer. people paying for digital
streaming services, and
has Burt’s Bees but also bleach. Hain Celestial sells toothpaste and tea, To select packaging, Twine LiveNation reports 82
Church & Dwight vibrators and cat litter. Solid companies all, but not visited Sephora locations and million people went to
future jackpots. turned bottles over to check the concerts last year—up 21%.
In Fender’s case, we’re
William Baldwin is Forbes’ Investment Strategies columnist. manufacturer. To source in- doing a good job of being
gredients, she called up sup- a provider and marketer
through digital channels.
pliers and asked if they would
We’ve really stepped up
New York City’s small-business library, she spotted deal with her directly. “From the commodities and our game online.
reports of a shift toward natural skin care but saw logistics business,” she says, “I always felt comfort- Will sales increasingly
little if anything suggesting a similar shift involving able dealing with manufacturers. Some of my found- move to the Web?
hair. And nothing she saw in the reports focused on er friends have a consultant do a lot of that work for It’s inevitable that it’ll be a
higher percentage, but less
the luxury end of the clean hair market. them. It eats into your margins because they’re mark-
than in other industries,
On her own time, while working at Goldman, ing up the prices.” because guitar players
Twine spent more than a year searching for a lab Briogeo is now expanding into Sephora stores in want to physically hold the
guitar, hear how it sounds,
and chemist with the ability to create nontoxic the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia. A new plug into an amp.
products. It took another year to test hundreds of line available at Sephora and elsewhere features a
What’s the business case
formulas. Twine named her startup Briogeo, blend- shampoo and a conditioner made with nutrient-rich for going after beginners?
ing the Italian word for “liveliness” with the Greek superfoods like apple, kale and matcha extract. In About two years ago we
word for “earth.” By 2013 she had four formulas. July, the company also launched a shampoo and con- did a lot of research into
new guitar buyers. We
“It’s the combination of clean beauty with identi- ditioner in a large “back bar” size for salons to use found that 45% of the gui-
fying a specifi c consumer segment with a specifi c while washing clients’ hair. Twine expects revenue to tars we sell go to fi rst-time
need,” says Marla Beck, the CEO and cofounder of top $15 million this year. “Goldman always had a cli- players—much higher than
we imagined. Ninety per- MARGIN PROPHET BY PETER CARBONARA; HENRY DILTZ (TOP)
the beauty retailer Bluemercury. “She saw that real- ent-fi rst mentality,” she says. “Relationships are every- cent of fi rst-time players
ly, really early, so kudos to her for having vision for thing. Th at’s the same thing that I’ve applied here.” abandon the instrument in
the fi rst 12 months, if not
the fi rst 90 days, but the
FINAL THOUGHT
10% who don’t commit to
the instrument for life.
“Simplify and purify. What better way to live your life? Simple and pure.” —TONY CURL
54 | FORBES SEPTEMBER 30, 2018