Hello and welcome back to Fashion Founders Podcast. My name is Victoria Smith, and this week I'm joined by Colby Mitchell, the founder of Swan Beauty. If you were on the internet a couple weeks ago, you heard at least something about Acquired Styles Bachelorette Trip that was sponsored by a beauty tech company making smart mirrors, which was Swan Beauty. Given the element of the beauty tech, the AI, the personalization, I thought it'd be really interesting to have Colby on the podcast to go behind the scenes of not only the trip and how it came to be, why it made sense, where the funding came from, but also behind the scenes of the business, of the product, and of this industry. We only had 30 minutes to record, so this is a bit of a shorter episode, but I think we still touch on the main points and questions that some of you guys had sent in. Swan Beauty and Colby touches on it is funded by their family office, the Mitchell family office. I've heard from other people as well. For example, Bianca Rangecroft was on the podcast, founder of Wearing, based in London. And she talked about how she had worked at and with family offices and then went back to a lot of those people when she was fundraising for her company, and that it gives a lot more flexibility for founders than raising from VCs does, because a VC wants a pretty quick return on their investment and is going to put certain pressures and maybe restrictions on the business. I don't know if a VC would have okayed doing something like this trip. Obviously, for brand awareness, it was insane return. But I think for any founders listening, I would look into pitching family offices for your startups. Specifically, I think if it is fashion tech, and this is again, I'll link the episode with Bianca, but it was someone who had that money who was like, you know what? Yeah, I need this product, and I am your target user. I need something to help me organize my wardrobe. I need something to help with my beauty routine. I think there might be more people in that world who actually truly understand these problems. And I can see this becoming a bigger and bigger thing. I think it used to be that people really wanted to raise venture money for clout, honestly, for name recognition. But more founders are kind of talking about the pressure it put on the business to grow at all costs, and they end up shutting down after like three years, and you just have less of that from a family office. So I think that is maybe like a tip to be taken from this. I know it's not the most relatable thing to self-fund a business in this way, but I think it is an interesting takeaway. Okay, let's get into it. I used to think that only celebrities could get their hair and makeup done for big events like the Mech Gala, Red Carpet. Maybe I would do it on my wedding day because it would just be way too expensive. But Glam Squad is changing all of that. Giovanni was just on the podcast, so you can learn more from him. But you can get your hair done at home, salon quality service, whatever time you need for $65. Glam Squad has given Fashion Founders podcast listeners $20 off their first blowout manicure makeup with code in all caps, Fashion and Founders. Well, hi, Colby. Hi. I'm very excited to have you on the podcast, talk about Swan and everything that's been going on. Yes, thank you for having me. So I'm thinking we can start with maybe the elephant in the room, acquired styles bachelorette. You guys broke the internet and it left everyone wondering what is Swan Beauty? So I'd love to hear it from you and how this trip even came to be.
SPEAKER_01For sure. Okay, so yes, Swan Beauty is a new beauty technology platform. We launched January 14th of this year, and we have an interactive beauty smart mirror along with an elevated app. Swan was built truly out of my own pain points with my beauty routine. So we came to market to really help simplify, organize, and elevate your beauty routine, curating and personalizing for you. Why choose this moment, this bachelorette trip to really launch into culture? You know, there were so many. And we really put our minds together. She was an early adopter of Swan Beauty, was one of our beta testers, giving us feedback on user experience. And in developing that relationship, we thought it would be an amazing partnership to go on her bachelorette trip together because Bridget wanted to show her loyal community really how she uses Swan Beauty every day in her life. There were multiple opportunities with get ready with me, using the skin analyzer on the trip, showcasing creation within the mirror. You can record right on the mirror and in the app, and uploading content right into our social platform. So it really provided a lot of opportunity for education. And again, it was a truly organic, authentic partnership where Bridget was able to showcase how she uses Swan in her daily life.
SPEAKER_00I think people are really looking at this now as a case study for marketing or the power of the creator economy. Did you guys anticipate this being so big?
SPEAKER_01We knew the partnership was going to be powerful. It was, again, so organic and authentic about how we're using this in our daily life, how Bridget is using this as a beauty and lifestyle creator and expert. I don't think we were expecting the volume, but there has been so much gratitude with our brand awareness and showcasing the educational component on what the Swan Beauty platform can provide.
SPEAKER_00And you were somewhat on the trip as well. You got to kind of take part in it. How was that for you?
SPEAKER_01It was good. It was, it was a working trip for us. My team and I went and we set up the villa with the mirror so the girls could have that true organic experience in their rooms, doing get ready with me, recording content. So we wanted to make sure the Wi-Fi was connected and it was really a seamless experience for the girls so that they could just showcase how it does interact with them on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00I'd love to hear about the inbound, I'm sure you've been getting too like the growth for maybe socials, the website traffic, sales, how many pitches you've gotten to sponsor people's bachelorette trips, how multiple.
SPEAKER_01You know, right after the trip, the brand awareness has been exceptional. We saw over, my goodness, 1.6 million views on Instagram. We had over 30,000 impressions. Yeah. We are really thrilled to share that after that trip, we have over 27,000 downloads of our app. So there is a lot of momentum and engagement. So, yes, there's there's been a ton of outreach, a ton of bachelorette proposals. But it's it's all been very exciting. And I'm I'm honestly still sorting through everything. So we're we're really excited about the brand awareness and the you know education that was provided.
SPEAKER_00I'm sure it's been a whirlwind on your end, and it's also exciting. Just with all the mystery and excitement around it, a lot of theories and maybe numbers circulating. Have you guys raised money? Is this self-funded? How is that looking on your end?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so Swamp Beauty is owned by Mitchell Family Office, which is also known as MFO. Being owned by MFO has really given us the landscape and opportunity to be strategic and work with experts and have amazing partnerships. We actually have a partnership with Cosbar, which is a luxury retail chain, and MFO does own them. So the synergy there to partner was amazing. But to answer your question, there was no fundraising, and Swan Beauty is funded by Mitchell Family Office.
SPEAKER_00And I'm sure the family office gives more flexibility. I don't know if a VC would have understood maybe the true influence of someone like Acquired Style.
SPEAKER_01You're exactly right. Yeah. So we were trusted by the family office, and I think demonstrated what an impact that that natural engagement and partnership can do.
SPEAKER_00And for someone who discovered Swan Beauty during this trip, you touched on what it is in an overview, but I want to get a little bit more into the tech behind this product. We have one somewhere here in the studio, but it's a mix of diagnostics, of beauty tutorials. There's a marketplace. How did you land on this combination of everything and creating this product?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so great question. This really landed from, I think I mentioned earlier, my own pain points in the beauty industry. I was severely overwhelmed by the products that were sitting on my vanity. I have a dear friend that's a dermatologist that was constantly recommending me products. I was confused on, you know, does the serum come first? Does the eye cream come first? When does my sunscreen come? And then I was doing beauty tutorials on my iPad and looking at my vanity beer and toggling back and forth while I was getting FaceTimed by my children. So I thought, I looked in the mirror and I thought, you know, there are interactive fitness mirrors that help you learn about your fitness journey and talk to you about your heart rate. You know, why isn't there an interactive beauty mirror that educates you on your skin, that talks to you about the six parameters of, you know, the skin wellness that you have, that guides you through beauty tutorials. There's got to be something with an AR overlay. So I started digging deeper into researching, and there really wasn't anything like it on the market. And I said, you know, there's there has to be other people out there that have these pain points, that would love to have guided tutorials, that would love to have precision of AR overlay, looking in the mirror, able to provide these looks that you can follow through. And wouldn't it be lovely to just purchase while you're sitting there the mascara you just ran out of versus waiting until you get to the car and you forget about it for the next three days? So put my ideas and started the development process, which was about four and a half years. Oh, and went through beta testing. And I'm really into listening to your customers. And I think that's really important. So going into the market, beta testing, listening to the creators, listening to our buyers, and continuing to develop our product and just keep getting innovative over time.
SPEAKER_00So four and a half years ago, you began this. What did that journey look like from idea to execution? Like now we can see it, we can play with it, we can purchase it. But were there certain obstacles where like, oh, hey, wait, I actually needed to add this and I didn't realize?
SPEAKER_01Many. Yeah. Many. You know, it's it's a very large learning curve, especially for me. I didn't have a tech background. So really diving in head first, going at my challenges. And yes, there was there were multiple pain points. And I think that's with any startup. You just have to have the courage to keep on going and, you know, believe in your path. You put in your 12-hour days, I mean, maybe even 15-hour days when you're a mother. But you just, I think, keep going forward with your dream and you know, surrounding yourself with experts and asking questions and overcoming obstacles. And I think it takes a while to get there, but I think if you keep following your dream and like I said, listening to your audience, you end up, you know, delivering and having a long-term product that I think will complement your routine.
SPEAKER_00Let's say I have a swan beauty mirror in my bathroom, in my room. How would it play into my day? Would you say like I wake up and how would I interact with it maybe during the day at night? What are these different features and how could I use it?
SPEAKER_01Yes, this is great. So this is what we really want to do. We want to curate and personalize a beauty routine for you, such as, you know, if you have an aura ring, you look to it for wellness. So I'll give you an example. When I wake up in the morning, we have our morning routine. So it's your AM routine, and it goes through and talks to you about the skincare routine that you're following. Nice thing is it will have reminders during the week. Like you wake up on a Wednesday and you go, Oh, today's a hair mask day, or today's my retinol day. That's all provided there for you in your AM routine and your PM routine. So it really holds you accountable and allows you to be consistent with your skincare routine. In addition to that, I always love going into our social platform, see new tips, trends, educators. We have brand partnerships and they go in and talk about product launches. So I'll be the first to know right when I wake up of a new product launch or new iPad that's coming out for my skin. Content creators are able to go onto the mirror or within their app and record right there. And then my favorite part is the skin analyzer. So it talks to me about the six parameters of my skin. It keeps track of the history of your skin analyzer, and then it gives you product recommendations. So if you go in and it recommends a new product for you, you might give it a try. And in four weeks, you're gonna see a difference on your skin analyzer for improvement. So really personalizing and curating a routine for you, and you are able to buy right off the mirror. So you can, we're trying to make it as user-friendly and customizable for you. So you can just go on, buy that product recommendation, and it'll ship directly to your home. It's smart.
SPEAKER_00There's a marketplace because that would get me to buy faster, I think, than if I have to wait. I've heard uh many people and I'm like purchase.
SPEAKER_01Yep. It's it can be dangerous when you're sitting there searching. It comes real easy to your basket and it comes straight to your home.
SPEAKER_00Something I've been thinking about is beauty and skincare can be kind of a vulnerable thing. Like if you're going through a hard time with your skin, if someone has acne, if it's part of your cycle and you're breaking out, where does the tech piece come into that for something so personal? How do you make a product that doesn't feel cold, but it's almost there to support you in a way?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So, you know, with our features, we really wanted to humanize the hardware. So for our skin analyzer, we worked with dermatologists and they went in and they read thousands of faces around those six parameters. So acne is one of those parameters. So that doctor went in and rated skincare from zero to 100. And it tells you the most accurate result based on where the AI comes into place. But we thought it was really important to involve dermatologists because a machine isn't touching your face every day. Doctors are, right? And these experts that are looking at your skin and categorizing you and wanting to help you. So it isn't really a diagnostic tool, it's more of an educator on skin wellness and educating you on how to improve an acne score and possibly product recommendations that you might not have access to, or if somebody can't get to a dermatologist, it can, you know, curate a certain routine for you and not be intrusive, but be helpful and become part of your routine.
SPEAKER_00It's cool that you have the dermatologist and the expert layer there, and it's less recommendation from scrolling on TikTok and some influencer. It's the doctor's POV, but you have the creator side as well, right?
SPEAKER_01More so for tutorials. Yes. And that's another place where people can go and they can actually search exactly what they're looking for, whether it be about acne or about dermatologist tutorials. You can go in and search those tutorials and find what you're looking for and really educate yourself. We want our social community and our beauty platform to be welcoming for beginners, for experts, for educators, again, brand education. So all are welcome, but we really want it to be an educational environment where people feel they can go for beauty content and education.
SPEAKER_00Kind of reminds me of early days of YouTube, watching makeup tutorials, that sort of thing. And I'm curious where you see the future of beauty going. This is a multi-billion dollar industry, AI as well, adding this, the tech, the personalization, the hardware, the app. There's so much potential here. This is just the beginning, I'm sure. Where do you see the next maybe five to 10 years?
SPEAKER_01I see AI and technology having a large integration into beauty. I think that with Swan, and that's I can speak to Swan Beauty on this. I think that what we'd like to do is become smarter, become more innovative. And again, we just launched in January. So I think it's really important to listen to your audience. We've already received so much feedback on, you know, shade matching and different features that we are going to provide and really excited to. But I do see that AI and technology are going to meet the intersection of beauty as we move forward.
SPEAKER_00Are there any maybe rumblings you're hearing of we're going to see more wellness into this? Or I think the at-home tech piece in beauty is really interesting. And it reminds you when Peloton launched, and everyone was like shocked that they could do this. Are there any things that you're hearing at maybe conferences or events you're attending that investors are interested in, founders are talking about that maybe the everyday person isn't, doesn't even know it's coming?
SPEAKER_01That's a good question. I'm not off the top of my head that I'm I think we are so new to market and we are the first that met technology with beauty at this moment, launching with our interactive mirror. I think people are excited to see what's gonna come and new innovative features that haven't even hit the marketplace yet.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm sure you'll have more insights coming as you go to more events, talk to more people and everything. After this viral moment, how are you continuing to build your brand? The attention economy is an interesting landscape to navigate now, but you're here for the long haul. This has been part of your plan. I'm sure you've been building this for four and a half years. What is next for you after this?
SPEAKER_01Our goal with Bridget was, you know, to showcase her authentic way of using the product, which was really about turning discovery of our brand into loyalty. So we would love to continue to expand our community and prove ourselves to our customers that, you know, there is a reason for the Swan Beauty platform. We want to really personalize and curate this experience for you. We're just really excited about showcasing the beauty technology landscape. And we really want to continue to do, you know, more in-person experiences. Swan Beauty does take some education because there is some components to it, and it is such a new feature to the market that we're going to continue to do influencer events, in-store experiences with Cosbar so you can come into the store and really experience the mirror. You know, we'd love to invite everyone to download the app for free so you can experience what Swan Beauty has to offer prior to even purchasing a mirror. But we'll continue to do more education and more tutorials and more in-person experiences.
SPEAKER_00I think the in-person experiences I'm sure people would love if you're there doing your own makeup, following along. Yeah. What would you say the customer persona for your product is? Because it's definitely like a luxury price point. I've I think I've heard some people be not scared, but like they don't want to alienate anybody, obviously, but there's a market for everything.
SPEAKER_01And you know, we want to speak to the masses, and that's why we created the app to mirror our mirror. And we recognize that the mirror is an elevated price. But when you do experience it, it it truly is like a beauty computer. It's a very durable, really aesthetically pleasing piece of hardware. And we have so much to offer within the mirror itself. But again, want to make sure everyone feels included. And that's why we did, pun intended, mirror the mirror to the app so that everyone has the same experience and is able to be part of our platform.
SPEAKER_00And I have a few questions that I've gotten in my DMs from stories, comments that people have been wondering. And I'm kind of summarizing some of these. So, how can someone get involved? One, maybe they're an influencer, they have a brand, they want to be on the marketplace, something like that. I won't ask you to sponsor anyone's bachelor. How would you recommend someone get involved if they're curious?
SPEAKER_01Well, on our website, we do have an email address that we are checking daily, and we are receiving a lot of emails in regards to creators and partnerships, which we are responding to everybody and super excited to explore all possibilities and opportunities. So all are welcome. We're really excited to you know explore all opportunities.
SPEAKER_00Okay, this is kind of like a clarifying one. I think people saw that the plane was sponsored, you guys. Was the villa yours? Was a question.
SPEAKER_01It was not.
SPEAKER_00No. Okay, we're clearing that up.
SPEAKER_01It was sponsored, sponsored by Swan Beauty, but it was not personally owned.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I think that was in there. And then let's see, some people were saying this was a genius marketing move. Other people are asking, how does this make sense long term? Why did this make sense for you?
SPEAKER_01Again, I think going back to the relationship with Bridget and showing the authentic use of the mirror and how it fits into her daily routine. And I think Bridget has a very trusted and loyal community. And she always wanted to showcase products that she lives with and brands that she lives with in a very organic way, not an ad. I mean, Bridget gets offered, you know, multiple partnerships on a weekly basis, so probably daily basis. So I think she wanted to be authentic to her community and really showcase, again, how this fits in her daily routine. So I think the partnership was very synergetic in that way. And yeah, I think it was it was a great way to showcase.
SPEAKER_00I have a few speed round questions. Do you have a beauty hot take? Hot take, yes. Beauty starts within. But it doesn't hurt to have a fabulous of gloss on topic. What is a beauty industry misconception?
SPEAKER_01I think using a lot of products, I think it's important to have your technique and consistency is key. The best advice you've received?
SPEAKER_00Listen to your audience and listen to your team. And you have a resource recommendation, maybe like a book, a podcast, newsletter.
SPEAKER_01Journaling. I think it's really good for mental health. And I also have a really great book that I just read, How to Manage Your Boss. Ooh. It's a Harvard Business Review, and it's it's really good for leadership to read that to get a better understanding of how to be your boss. Love that. And do you havecoming announcements? We have lots of exciting pictures that are going to be released. So I will keep that a secret. Okay. Visit us on SwanBeauty.com.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And where can everyone find you in Swan Beauty?
SPEAKER_01You can find us on SwanBeauty.com or Swan Beauty underscore US for Swan Beauty, or mine are Colby T. Mitchell on socials.
SPEAKER_00And then something I wanted to note is I found this super interesting when I was doing research on the companies. Vogue had released an article about four AI beauty startups to watch the day before the trip started. And I think it's so interesting because my first thought was like if I was the editor, I would wish I had waited and would have capitalized on this, would have known about it. But I think it's the brand awareness key that that unlock of just what is it? And now people know who you are. So more to come, I'm sure. More to come.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Can we grab the mirror really quickly to just show it?
SPEAKER_01Do you want to put it on the table? Front or back?
SPEAKER_00Well, is there anything else that you want to add for people to know about Swan Beauty, about how to use the product? I'm sure you could go on and on into your company, but anything else?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're just super excited about, you know, as I mentioned, the partnership and the brand awareness. We'd love to invite everyone to come to visit our community. Again, I mentioned the app is free to download. So join us and see what Swan Beauty is all about. And we're really excited to be here for the long haul and be at the forefront and the innovation where beauty meets technology. Exciting. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me.