Meet the founders behind the world’s first crowdsourced beauty brand - Volition Beauty
Sauce sat down with Patricia Santos and Brandy Hoffman,
founders of Volition Beauty.
Volition Beauty is the world's first crowdsourcing beauty brand, we chat all things entrepreneurship, overcoming roadblocks, friendship in business and how Volition Beauty launched its crowdsourcing initiative - needless to say, we're going to suggest a product idea or two after this. Volition Beauty is now proudly stocked at Mecca Australia and New Zealand.
How did you two go about raising the necessary capital to launch a beauty brand (e.g. crowdfunding)?
We boot-strapped the brand ourselves until we wanted to accelerate growth. It was very lean and tough but it is so critical to get to proof of concept and build it without the pressure of other voices in those early stages. When it was time to raise, we looked at investors that were diverse and, actually, used our products. They were a small group of people who knew us and were aware of our track record, believed and valued what we were building. It is important that you look beyond money when finding the right partners. They need to align with your mission.
Where did the idea of crowdsourcing beauty come from? We love it.
We always joke that we bonded over two things: our unparalleled love of food and our shared gripes with the beauty industry. We frequently travelled together as we worked for a beauty company and found ourselves fixating on the apparent issues of the “normal” product development process within beauty. We both had agreed that a boardroom of (typically white, male) executives shouldn’t make the call of what’s trendy or what consumers want. It was a light bulb moment of “ Why don’t we have them tell us what they want?” Then, the concept of Volition Beauty was born.
Do you have any business advice for friends wanting to launch a brand together?
It’s important to outline what you would do in any given scenario to make sure there is alignment. For example, what happens if one person cannot put in the same amount of capital, how roles are separated or what happens if someone wants out. They might not come up but it is better to go over before you launch a company. Also, it is best to have worked together in some capacity. Friendship is important but it might not be enough to launch a successful brand. It is stressful and it can break people so you need to be prepared with a plan if it starts to fail. For us, we worked together first at a different company and then became friends. We are similar enough to be aligned strategically but challenge each other to make Volition better. Laughter and humour is critical for our day to day. There are going to be disagreements but we move past them successfully.
How do you two manage the difference of opinions between yourselves?
Our internal process is a democracy, too. If we can’t agree on something, we often turn to our team to vote or help ideate and decide. If it is something that can’t be shared with the larger team, we work it out and trust that with the other’s support, either direction can still be successful and just a different route.
“We both had agreed that a boardroom of (typically white, male) executives shouldn’t make the call of what’s trendy or what consumers want. It was a light bulb moment of “ Why don’t we have them tell us what they want?” Then, the concept of Volition Beauty was born.”
How involved are the 'innovators' in the production process? Technically, are they then employed by Volition or do they receive product dividends?
We involve them as much as possible and where it makes sense. Anything from design to formulation, we want to ensure we get their input so we can execute their product as they imagined. Innovators receive royalty share on their products and get commission based on sales.
Compared to other brands on the market, why is your production process efficient? How do you get products to market in six to eight weeks from idea curation? When other brands take months, if not years.
We work in tandem with the campaigns that gain traction and brief it into the labs to get a head start. This allows us to turn around products quickly and cut down on the formulation process.
You've had several best-selling products. Which product do you think has had the biggest impact on the market and why?
The Snow Mushroom Water Serum is a big one for us. The snow mushroom (or “tremella fuciformis”) is an amazing ingredient that to our knowledge is not found anywhere else in skincare. The ingredient is readily found in Asian markets, and it is a wonder ingredient because it’s nature’s sponge. The snow mushroom holds nearly 500 times its weight in water, so the Snow Mushroom Water Serum delivers a surge of moisture and it also naturally minimizes the appearance of pores. Our innovator Keidy brought the ingredient to our attention as she was using the snow mushroom in a DIY formula herself. Keidy quickly saw her skin tone and skin texture becoming flawless in every aspect and she knew this beauty hack could not be kept a secret any longer. We’re so proud of the formula because it is our #1 formula in the USA and Canada, and we are constantly receiving messages from our community about how the formula has transformed their skin – and their self-confidence – like it did with its Innovator Keidy. The Volition community is totally grateful to Keidy for divulging her skincare ingredient secret!
On average, how many product submissions do you receive each month? How can we submit and vote?
Monthly, around 100-160. To submit, go to volitionbeauty.com, click on “Ideas” at the top in the navigation bar, then “Submit an Idea” to take the quiz. To vote, instead of clicking “Submit an idea”, click “Vote on an Idea” to see all the campaigns that are currently being voted on to see which ones you would like to be manufactured by Volition.
What's the best piece of business advice you've been given?
Being an entrepreneur is a rollercoaster, so be prepared for the ups and downs. But if you follow your passion, work won't feel like a job. It will feel like an essential part of your life.
What's next for Volition beauty?
Our community is growing day by day which we expect to continually rise and broaden. We launched in the UK in January 2020, and the expansion to Mecca is the next stage. Later on in 2020 we hope to expand to a few other key beauty markets in the world, as well as launch some ground-breaking skincare via our community’s ideas and campaigns. We are also actively looking for beauty breakthrough ideas from our new community in New Zealand. It would be great to have a Kiwi Innovator who gets to see his/her product on the shelves at Mecca Maxima next year.
Images — Volition & Dylan Suarez
