Wendy Slattery 0:01
The more we actually got into the beauty industry. We're speaking to like makeup artists, beauticians, brands and retailers. They were all like, how does that not exist already? It's because they knew the answers, but the consumer doesn't. That's Wendy Slattery, CEO of the beauty buddy, an idea which brought technology and community together in a way that had never been done before in the beauty industry. She shares with us the lessons learned about scaling and thinking big enough when you decide to grow your business. She's got some really pragmatic advice based on her own experiences of breaking into the US market and so much more, you will love this story. It's one that's lived and one worth remembering as you grow your business.
Finola Howard 0:51
I'm Finola Howard, Business Growth strategist with a joyful heart and your host of the your truth shared podcast. I believe that every business has a story to tell, because that's how the market decides whether to buy or not, and your story has to resonate with who you are and with the people you want to serve. And this podcast is about helping you reach the market in a way that feels right to you. So if you're an entrepreneur with a dream you want to make real, then this is the podcast for you, because great marketing is your truth shared.
And today we're going to talk to an entrepreneur who's in business with her sister, but also they're in this stage of the business where they're just about to explode or move to the next level of the business. And they're in the tech sector, but they're also in the beauty industry. So that's kind of an interesting combination. So today, I want to introduce you to Wendy Slattery from the beauty buddy. Welcome Wendy.
Wendy Slattery 1:51
Thank you, Finola, for having me today. Very excited to talk to you and share our journey. Well,
Finola Howard 1:58
I love that we kind of just reconnected recently because we originally met in 2018 really early on in the life of your business, and we were sitting beside each other at a networking event and just kind of shooting the breeze and stuff. And a lot has happened, like we've had COVID, we've had Brexit. You were launching the app later that year, and then everything changed. And I think I kind of want you to tell the story, because one of the things that happens with people, they start when they're launching a business, even at this level, you're trying to figure out how it's going to try to have a vision. You're trying to see where you're going to position yourself, all of these things. And that's really important for people to do, because it keeps you focused. But your business is such an interesting observation in how everything really moves and evolves, the more you put into it. Would you say that's fair to say?
Wendy Slattery 2:54
Oh, absolutely. 100% we're definitely not the business. We started out being that we thought we would be,
Finola Howard 3:05
and yes, and yet you are also, you are also the same business, but not the same, yeah. Okay, so here's my question for you, why don't you share what you started out as you started out wanting to be the trip advisor of the beauty industry. What does that mean? Well,
Wendy Slattery 3:24
I suppose, first of all, just to explain a little bit about the fact that we're myself and my sister, co founded this, but we're both not from the beauty industry, or both not from the tech industry. We were the consumer that had the problem, that was overwhelmed with the amount of products in the beauty industry. We're trying to find products that worked for us. We're trying to find products that weren't a waste of money, because that was the big issue for us as well. We had so many half used products in our in our collection of products, because we bought products that were not any good, that we thought were good based on, I suppose, marketing and different things like that. And and as myself, my sister will tell you, like our our mother was one of these people, and he couldn't throw anything out that wasn't empty, you know. So we just end up gathering more and more products and not throwing anything out. So we started off basically when we said about the TripAdvisor part, that was for us to be able to read reviews from other people using the products, but that we trusted that they were just consumers of the products. So it wasn't on the brand's website. It wasn't on the retailer's website. It was just potentially at the beginning, like a website where it's just consumers and their opinions, and we wanted it really first. And it ended up that, you know, we were looking at the technology, I suppose, of scanning the bar code and and different things like that. We were in, um, a store, and we were looking to buy a product. Asked the girl in the store about the product, and she literally went, I only work here on Saturdays, so, um, obviously not very helpful to us, but at the end of the day, that's what triggered us to go, could you imagine if you could scan the barcode and you could get all the reviews you needed from the consumers? And that was the trigger for us of the business. So it was solving a problem for ourselves as the consumer, going into a store and deciding on what products were best for you.
Finola Howard 5:43
But the moment of saying, of saying, I could do this as a business, like, how did that come around? Like, like, you're connecting the dots between, I have a problem as a consumer to I want to run a business. Like, what did that how did that happen? Well,
Wendy Slattery 5:59
I suppose we had always had kind of myself and my sister had always worked together on different businesses, and we were always thinking of something that could be global. We always had the idea we really wanted to have a global business that would work anywhere in the world, even when we're in Ireland. And we can build it from Ireland and scale it from Ireland, so you know, but it would work while we're sleeping. And I suppose for us, it was trying to find that idea or that inspiration of something that was passionate enough for us to really believe in it and to put everything into it. But what we didn't realize was, obviously solving the problem for ourselves was the biggest piece, and we're the experts in that field, right? Because we are the person we're solving the problem for. So what we did is, obviously we were kind of going, Are we the only ones who really, don't really know what we're doing here? And so we did market research, as in, just asking people different questions. We asked them, you know, the market research was really good, as in, they didn't know what we were building. They didn't know the idea behind it. We were asking them how they figured out what products to buy in store, and that was what. And most of them actually said they end up leaving because so I think it was worked out about 36% of people put the products back because they don't get the social proof they need when buying a beauty product in a store. So that was a big
Finola Howard 7:37
so they walk out of the store with nothing.
Wendy Slattery 7:41
Yeah, because they pick it up. It's new. They like the packaging. Sometimes they can't read the writing because it's so small, so they're not really sure what it does, but they like the look of it. And no one really is there to help them in the store, there's no real, you know, because it's like, self select, and then they're like, is it worth the money? I don't know. Is it? I'm not sure. And then, because they don't have that moment of, oh, my friend thinks so, or whatever. And it's different. Like, beauty buying is different. You know, you don't do that like with something else, like a, you know, a car. I need to ring my friend and see what she thinks. But definitely, it's more about that personal piece with beauty. So that was the moment for us. So what they were, what would they would do is take photographs and send it to a WhatsApp group and go, anyone has used this before, you know? And so they were, we're trying to get social proof, and without them realizing they were trying to get social proof, or they were buying it because their friends had it on or saw it in their friend's makeup bag at the weekend in the nightclub or a pub, and they liked it. So it was all very much about friends and trust in your group. And so that for us, was a big moment where we were like so that's why the TripAdvisor piece came.
Finola Howard 8:58
Did the beauty industry realize this is what was happening.
Wendy Slattery 9:04
Oh, that was actually that was really interesting for us, because the more we actually got into the beauty industry, we're speaking to, like makeup artists, beauticians, brands and retailers, they were all like, how does that not exist already? And it was very much, what I thought was really interesting was it's because they knew the answers. They're not looking for the answers of a product. They know the answer. The makeup artist knows the best product knows about the yellow tones and blue tones depending on the color of your vein, like think they know the answers, but the consumer doesn't know the answer. So they're all like, it was very much, a lot of aha moments where for everyone in that, in the industry as such, where we were like, yeah, the consumer does not know. Just because you launch banana powder. We don't know what to do with that banana powder, you know, you know, do you put it in a drink? Because you could drink it now, because there's, you know, do you what do you do turn it into a milkshake? Do you put it on over your makeup, onto your makeup? You know, it's just little, tiny things. Even the brand called elf, which a global brand, and most people didn't realize l stood for eyes, lips and face like because that's, you know, if you're buying a brush in a shop and it's their brand is going, Oh, you need to buy the E 20 brush or the F 16 brush, or the L whatever brush. And if you go in, all the brushes have all those numbers on them, and they just stand for I lit face. So this brush is for your face. This one's for your and like, the consumers still didn't know that, but the brands and the makeup artists, they all know that, so they don't ask the questions. So that's that was the aha moment for us.
Finola Howard 10:53
And because they're only talking to each other, yeah,
Wendy Slattery 10:57
yes, yeah, absolutely. And their messages they're putting across is very much about how good the product works, like, how good it is and how amazing the ingredients are. But we don't really know what those ingredients do. They know what the ingredients do. So if a brand is like, Oh my God, we've got, like, we managed to get 10% e fitment, and I'm like, Well, I don't know what that what's that do? Like, it was due to my face. Yeah.
Finola Howard 11:26
Does that actually matter? I mean, that's so that's so true for regardless of your industry, not just the beauty industry, that assumption that you know, that your customer knows as much as you do and they don't. No, they
Wendy Slattery 11:41
really don't and but actually, it to be fair to the consumer and the beauty industry, they are so much more knowledgeable now. I'm very much more wanting to know what they're putting on their skin, what they're putting into their bodies like so they are looking, do you know what I mean? So they are learning and looking and trying and but you don't have time to learn that about everything if it's not your full time job. So,
Finola Howard 12:10
yeah, yeah, fantastic. Okay, so you had this idea with your sister. You went and did some research, and then what happened? Because I know you've gotten loads of you've been on loads of programs like new frontiers with the NDRC, DCU, female high flyers, adopt a startup, loads of stuff. So what did you do after you went I think there's something in this.
Wendy Slattery 12:34
Well, to be very honest, we had other businesses before, and we never got any help. And that was because we never looked for any help. We didn't realize, you know, and I think the difference was we really had we could see a global ambition for this. We could see this being really a global business. And we were like, We need to take all the support now and advice and we can get from the people that have already done this before, or know the path that you should be on or looking at. So I literally Googled like and then we got on to the New Frontiers Program in Blanchardstown, and that was it was very much game changing for us, because it's nearly like a world. The startup world is like, clearly, like an underworld that's going on everywhere, and you don't know it, and don't see it until you're in it, and then you're in it. And it's just the most incredible of just so motivational, just inspiring, like, I just love listening to even the other businesses ideas. And the I was just, they had experts come in, kind of give you an idea of where they thought, you know, their feedback on your business, and different things like that, and and that was new frontiers one. So that was like two weekends you got them, and it was just to see if your if your idea was viable, like you didn't have anything, you just had the idea, then New Frontiers too, when we did it. Now, I know I think they give 30,000 euro. Now, when we did it, it was 15,000 you got to work on your business, and it was six month program. And again, what I would say about any of these programs is you get out of these programs what you put into them. There is no point in just gathering programs. Just to gather a program. We put everything into the program. We gave it the time. There's people you know didn't show up to different things, you know, different parts of the program which are so important, and it wasn't like full time nine to five, you had time to work on your business. You had time to do whatever you wanted. So for us, we got so much from that program, which led us then to the next level, because we'd obviously then learned. Obviously all about enterprise Ireland and HP su funding. And we were like, well, how do we get that? How do how do we get that? What do we do next? And we actually the next step from us as a level up was the NDRC, because that was actually an accelerator program, but it was tech based, and that's where we needed to be in a tech environment. But actually what happened there was we applied. We'd missed out on the Dublin one, and so we applied for the Galway one, which was in the porter shed in Galway, and we got that, and myself and my sister moved to Galway for three months, so we were like students left our families behind and came home at weekends. We're like college students for three months. But that was incorrect. That was incredible. Galway, apart from anything Galway the porter shed, and the guys that back the porter shed are literally like, what do you need? Who do you need to talk to? I know such and such down the road and connected to such and such like, it was such. How can we help? How can we grow? What do you need? And it was just very, very intense, and again, all about what you put in. So me and Tracy worked there during the day. We were there for the whole program, but we stayed later working on it. And actually, we were more fortunate than the people that actually lived in Galway, because they were going home to their families, where we got to actually work on the business, then later in the evening and together, and it was so much more intense, and we got so much more and made so many connections, because we had the time we could meet somebody on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then went home at the weekends,
Finola Howard 16:43
I have to say, of all the people I've ever worked with, you're the first people that did that of gave up your had you both families at the time, so you moved to Galway.
Wendy Slattery 16:56
Yeah, we didn't bring our families. We also left them here. No,
Finola Howard 17:00
no, I understood that, but that you must have had this incredible belief that this was the thing to say, listen, listen, significant other, we're off. How do they take that? Your families? Well, the
Wendy Slattery 17:19
thing about it is, is my I was my family weren't as young as Tracy's. Tracy's little girl was only seven. Mine were older, so at the time, Sean would have been 13 or 14, and then or 14 was 14, and then Dylan was like 22 so he was actually quite happy, because I'd go home on a Friday, and sometimes he'd arrive in Galway to live in the apartment with his friends for the weekend. So we swap. I wasn't even so I was just warning him that it better be clean by the time we get back on Sunday, but so he was in so the and actually, do you know what I think, for me, like my husband and Tracy's partner are just all in behind us, supporting us. And it's like, you know, the other way around. When a man is successful or a woman like they need the support. You need the backing at home to be able to do something like this and to go all in into really but it also inspires your kids. You bring them on the journey with you, so you're letting them know what's happening, what's next, where you're going, you know, and but yeah, I wouldn't be able to do it without the support of all our families we really wouldn't like.
Finola Howard 18:42
But I also think it's your nature. It's a real can do entrepreneurial, gritty, but can do nature like I love this story, and I'd like you to share it with everybody, which is a story of very early on in like 2018 or something, you came across somebody who you thought could really make a difference. He got on a zoom call them, and they said, and they're in New York, and they're saying, are you free for coffee sometime? And you're like, Yeah. And what did you do? Share with people this story, please?
Wendy Slattery 19:11
I Well, in fairness, I had forgotten, because we were just chatting away like and I forgotten she was in New York when she asked me, and I was absolutely, yeah, I'd love that. And she was like, when are you next to New York? And I was like, I just need to check my calendar. Because I was like, you know, okay, so I literally hung up this, like, off the zoom, and I messaged Tracy, going, I need to go to New York. And, you know, she was like, We have no money. Like, we're all in on this. And like, we literally have, you know, no jobs, you know, technically. And so we just went down and found the cheapest flight that we could find over the next, like, three weeks, or four weeks, I think it was, and we literally found the cheapest flight. We didn't cheapest accommodation. And, like, we got flights, I think, for 300 and something Euro return. And so Tracy came with me, and what we had done is, like, we reached out to everyone, like, from the New Frontiers Program, from the NDRC, like, to people we knew that lived in America, and going, Okay, we're coming to New York, we have one meeting. We would like to fill up our week with just meeting anybody, everybody we they don't have to be in the beauty industry or the tech industry. We just want to network in New York and meet people, whether they're doctors, Lord or whatever job, because everyone knows different, people, you know, and we ended up with, like, I think it was 38 meets, like it was just bananas. Like, me and Tracy didn't really see each other. We had to split and go, you know, different, like, we didn't even see each other. We're eating pretzels on the corner. Like it was just crazy. But we met the most incredible people. The Irish network in New York was incredible. Once you met one, they introduced you to the next. We are literally at one meeting with a woman, lovely woman we met, called Caroline, and she literally took us by the hands. And Caroline must be six or got tall, because she literally said, got on a phone. Said, you need to meet this person. Rang them and said, Follow me. So we followed her. But like, she was, like, walk in New York style, six foot three walking. We were jogging behind her. It was just full on, full on. We didn't even know where we're going. Like, full on, full on. But listen, at the end of the at the end of the week, I got to actually meet with, like a director from Estee Lauder like and it was just the most incredible. I had nothing like we had nothing like we hadn't built anything like, you know, this was still on the I wonder, will this work? And I suppose every time we talk to someone, and he got the why is that not exist? How is that not out there already, or, you know, different people going, Oh, will, will your data be able to tell you they and we're like, data. We're like, God. And then, you know, so all these new ideas. We met an amazing lawyer from from New York. He ended up finding out that he dated my cousin down in Wexford. I see like, it was just the most incredible, incredible network of people. And, yeah, it was brilliant. And we went back that year. We went back twice that year.
Finola Howard 22:32
Did it shift your thinking about the nature of business? Oh,
Wendy Slattery 22:36
absolutely. Well, what, what it actually did for us was make, made us realize, from a business perspective, and the opportunity size of how how small Ireland is and and the opportunity size in the US. And I don't think people, you know, still get it, you know. I think when we were like, in New Frontiers, one, we were like, you know, you had to do your plan and your business plan and all that. We were like, launch in Ireland, launch in the UK, launch in America, like one year after the other where, like, if you were to launch in the UK, and, sorry, into the US, you really would nearly have, you know, you need to pick west side is, you need to pick a state, even, even the states are bigger, so than Ireland, do, you know? I mean, so it's, I don't think people still even think, Oh, I'm gonna launch it, because we were that person. We were like, Oh, we're gonna launch in America. Like, just launch in America with, like, Google ads, you know? And they were like, well, what state we're like, well, all of them can't, you can't, because they're all different people. They're all different customers. They act differently, they buy differently. You know, you have to treat them differently. So for me, it was like, you know, you could get into 32 stores in Ireland, or you could get into 24,000 stores in in the US. And that's just with this, just meeting one person in Ireland and meeting one person in the US, same effort, and the conversations are the same. They're about your systems, you're about your products, or about whatever. It's exact same conversations, except for the opportunity is way bigger, you know. But do
Finola Howard 24:12
you think some people are afraid of the size of the opportunity?
Wendy Slattery 24:16
Yeah, I don't. I don't know, because I think I don't know if they're afraid of it, or whether you know, Ireland, for some businesses, is a huge opportunity, like, you know, you could different businesses in Ireland that you don't need to step outside Ireland, you know. Or you could be a really, really successful business and not step outside Ireland. But if you have global ambition, that's different, right? So that's different, because most people with global ambition will look straight to the US to think, how am I going to get to the US? It's always there. It's like, Ireland, UK us, like, that's, that's the way it was always kind of came across, was the kind of they were saying, Ireland great place to launch, because, you know, you can, you know, make mistakes in Ireland. People in Ireland are, you know, very forgiving, as in, you know, you get another chance, you know, but some places you can't launch, and then come back and launch and different things like that. So, um, yeah, I don't think people are afraid of the US. I think they're, you know, it is depend on your business. See, we're tech, because we're tech, it's obviously a bit easier if you're product based. I can't even imagine how you'd manage that, as in the quantities and because of that store, if that company came back and said, Yeah, 24,000 stores, here you go, production of that product, distribution in America, of that product, it's just a totally different business, um, but from a tech solution when you're not actually, you know, putting product on shelves and different things, it's definitely easier to to not be as afraid. I love
Finola Howard 25:50
the numbers that you shared with me, which were in Ireland, angels invest between 10 and 50,000 and the US, it's 1 million minimum,
Wendy Slattery 25:58
yeah. Well, like most of the angels. You know that now, in fairness, you have angels in Ireland that will reinvest and come back in for another 50 or another 50 or whatever. But like when we met angels in the in the US, they were like, they wouldn't even get their lawyers involved unless it was for like, a million, maybe. And some of the angels where, if you're looking for a million in Ireland, it's a Stephanie VC, it's venture capital and those companies. So it's just a different piece. And as well as that, it's, it's really, it actually confused us a little bit, because we hadn't launched a product, and we were looking for investment, and we were caught because of the excitement of America and the opportunity size in America that are kind of, our business plan and our projections, where we're for America had to be. We gave them the Irish projections, as in what we had done, say for, like, enterprise Ireland, whatever. But they were looking going, they're tiny, like, there's no interest in us because they were way too small. Our ambition wasn't big enough. And I think that's actually a lot to do with women. When it comes to financials and projections and raising investment, we definitely don't look for the bigger amount like we look for what we believe we need. Why do you know what? I've thought about this a lot, and I'm not too sure whether it's to do with how we are brought up as a, you know, basically you'll see in the staff. So most women will walk in and say, you know, I need, you know, 355,000 pounds, because they've worked out exactly how much this will cost, that would cost, that will cost. And the guy sitting beside her will walk in and go and eat we need 2 million. I won't have done much research. Sometimes. Do you know what I mean of what they need, but as an investor, sometimes that looks like you're thinking too small by not asking for the bigger amount of money. And I suppose for for for you, you're thinking, well, I could take that money and I could make it and I could get that and I could give the person back the money. Where they're thinking, because they've been in business, they know 355,000 will get you very far. But if you've never raised money, and you've never had 355,000 to you, it's like, it's like, it's, it's like, the biggest amount of money you've ever seen or heard of that you would be managing yourself on behalf of someone else, who's who's trusting you. So I don't know whether it's, we're just a little bit more cautious of being able to, like, pay back, or to make sure it works and and it is something that we put on ourselves, you know. So the thing about it is, is that I know when we were looking for the quarter of a million of enterprise Ireland with the hpsu funding, how we like, we didn't get the funding for the previous one with just 50,000 or the CSF, and we applied for that twice. So we just stopped applying for that and went for the quarter of a mission instead. And we got that instead.
Finola Howard 29:10
So you got the bigger figure,
Wendy Slattery 29:12
we got the bigger money. We didn't get the smaller money. But I think when we had been applying for the smaller amount of money, our messaging wasn't as clear. So was part of being part of the new frontiers. NDRC, getting your wording right, getting your figures right, getting everything right. But we thought we had them right, but then as you just go on, you just get them better and understand it more. And I think by the time we actually went then for the bigger money, we knew more about
Finola Howard 29:43
you are more believable. Yes, you're more believable to them, but you're also more believable to you, right? Yeah, no, 100%
Wendy Slattery 29:51
but at the same time, if you look at the application, probably the difference of the business from where we thought it would grow and differ. Aspects of it. It's not the same. Do you know that kind of way, but it's still beauty tech, it's still the reviews, but now it's just evolved. Do you know that kind of way which all businesses do? So
Finola Howard 30:11
how many people are on beauty buddy, the app?
Wendy Slattery 30:14
So we've over 100,000
Finola Howard 30:18
and well done.
Wendy Slattery 30:19
They now, now they're not, you know, they don't all, there's all different pieces, right? So you have on the app, you have, I suppose we have, like, a beauty squad, which is our elite, like, they're like, basically what they do is they do consumer generated content.
Finola Howard 30:38
They let's, just frame this for people. If you forgive me, no, go ahead. Your business has evolved. Your business has evolved from this idea of TripAdvisor for the beauty industry, so that women can not have all of these unused products on their shelves with loads of bottles of the wrong color foundation or whatever, right and so now and and because you loved that and were passionate about it, and people got on board, and you uploaded all of these products to the beauty buddy, it just evolved. And now there are three aspects to it. So one, you've got your trip advisor for any woman or man going into a shop and scanning the barcode and going, does this work for me, that's, that's pocket number one. Pocket number two is you've created a community, which you now call the beauty squad, of people who actually share content about those products and reviews out in the ether, like out on their Instagram accounts everywhere else. And what you what you realize then is that's kind of interesting, because that's monetizable, because what you're doing is you've got this third bucket to your business, which is bringing the voice of the customer with all these reviews and and their, you know, videos and consumer generated content, which is the videos they shoot of unboxing the hair dryer, whatever it is, and you can sell that data to the beauty industry, which they never had access to before. You said they only had a point of sale. What did they have before and what do they have now with you? Yeah,
Wendy Slattery 32:18
so I suppose what happened as part of the journey, I'll tell you about just the connection with the brands. As we were talking to brands, we realized how little connection they had with the end consumer, which to us, we just presumed, you know, there was something we didn't know about that the brands were doing with their consumers, you know. And actually they very little connection. So if you can imagine, as a brand, you sell a product into a store, you don't know who's picking it up, you don't know who's putting it back down. You don't know who's looking at it. You don't even know who's bought unless you know, unless the retailer tells you who bought it, but then they'd have to know who bought it.
Finola Howard 32:59
So you don't know if they're a woman, what age they are, what kind of skin condition they have, so you don't so there's no face to the consumer,
Wendy Slattery 33:07
no and but not only that, it's not necessarily the person who buys it is the end user, right? So women are buying products for their whole household, for their teenagers, for their husbands, for their partners, for, you know, their children or their parents or their grandparents, or buying products. So they're not the end user, so you technically don't know. So basically, brands would have point to sale data returned to them, which is like this, and what you sold, and brands can get data to see how much another brand sold, you know, if there's a competitor, you know, there's data analytics on that, where you can see what the sales were of another brand in the same period, in same store. And that kind of information, I suppose, where our information when we were talking to the brands, it was like, you know, we can go back to a brand and say, the women that love your product more are 30 to 35 with, you know, blue eyes and dark skin, or brown eyes and dark skin, or blue eyes and blonde hair, because we can tell by the reviews who likes a product. We don't obviously share any details of any individual, but as a as a community, we know that, like a brand came to us before, and they had, they wanted to compare, like, what they presumed was their competitor, tan brand, to another competitor, tan brand, and they felt the two products were, you know, the main competitors. So we done analysis on both of them based on what customers were saying about the products, and they're actually wearing doing the same customer buying the products, one of the customers buying it was dry skin, and the other people that love the other brand was oily skin. So they weren't even competing for the same customers. But they thought they were, do you know, that kind of way? And it was a different age profile. So so they thought that was. Main competitor, but that wasn't a competitor at all. They weren't even like,
Finola Howard 35:04
what did they say when you were able to say this to them? Well,
Wendy Slattery 35:07
they were a bit mind blown. But also, they were able to change their marketing to target, you know, women oily skin, but
Finola Howard 35:14
they believed you. Oh, no, they
Wendy Slattery 35:16
believed Well, yeah, because there are reviews from people, do you know what I mean? So they, they believe us. But actually, what happened then was we start getting them reviews. So we could, they could send us, like 100 products. We send out the products, we can either send them to the people of oily skin with, you know that they want to target, because then they might, you know, potentially they report, just from sampling and all of that. And because they find a product they like, right? So this works for our beauty squad. If we send you a product that matches your skin type or skin tone, or, you know, that should work for you, then you could end up finding the product that actually really works for you. So work for both. And then they get the reviews that they can use on their website. Then you have the brands were saying, you know, is there any way they could mention us? We if we give them, you know, full size product on social media? And we were like, well, we can ask them. So we went out to the squad, and we were like, Would you be willing for a full size product to, you know, share it on your social media? And they were like, yes, we would. And we were like, Okay, that's crazy.
Finola Howard 36:24
Were you surprised? Were you surprised, really?
Wendy Slattery 36:28
And you know why I was surprised a bit as Alice, because I wouldn't have been someone that would share on social media something like that. I would do the reviews for brands and different things like that, but I never really would have put my face out on social media to do something like that. And I just thought, Okay, those people are great for everybody, and but since then, I've created my own Tik Tok account where I do product reviews myself. Because that so I they gave me the confidence when I was watching there of you ask on actually, I Why can't I? That's the whole point of what we built, right? So we got to give our opinions and and review products and stuff. So, yeah, so the brands like for So what happens now is the consumer generated content is so like, such a simple solution for brands that are just trying to get people to know their product exists. Like, you have brands that have, like, millions in a budget, and then you have brands that don't have millions in a budget, but would still want people to know they live and they're here and they exist, and this is our product, and the influencer market is like, you know, it's so it's so expensive, first off, and so we kind of pride ourselves in like, for the same price of one influencer, you can have 100 people. So you have 100 people talking on their social media platforms about your product. All are in the same period of time. The Reach is incredible, the return is incredible. And it's just like our squad are loving doing it. They're loving finding the new products. They're loving learning about the new products. We also do, like lives with the brand, so we tell the rest of our squad that don't do the content about this brand, about because we're like, why did you do it? What does that ingredient do? One on Earth, like, we love the story behind the product. So it's just evolved into like, how can we help the brand? How can we help if it helps the three of us, then we're good, right? So it benefits the beauty squad, and it benefits the brand, and it benefits us, then we're doing it. And and, like, it's like, market research now, Brad can send us in questions within, like, in fairness, within about an hour, with 250 people responded, do you know what I mean to to the survey? And
Finola Howard 38:52
it makes me ask the question that you said at the very start, why doesn't this already exist? So you really did fill a gap in the market, yeah,
Wendy Slattery 39:02
it did fill a gap in the market. There was like, don't get me wrong. There was another app saying from Canada that did something similar, like this, but it was based on only products that were clean beauty. They didn't do it was, like, specific to not having chemicals. There was another app that did it, but they did everything like from washing machines to cars to they weren't doing the consumer generated content because that obviously, about six years ago, wasn't paying and but they were doing reviews. So we were kind of dedicating ourselves to the beauty sector, where it was like a one euro product from pennies to a 500 pound serum from it like, doesn't matter what product you're using, you should be able to get reviews or review it.
Finola Howard 39:53
So how's the challenge around going from a, you know, an app that's consumer job? Generated. So B to C to moving to having different models. You've got B to C, B to B models going on simultaneously in your messaging. So how, how are you addressing that? Yeah, that
Wendy Slattery 40:13
was always something that we struggled with when it came to, like, investment decks or pitch decks, because it would only be saying, explain beauty buddy, and we're like, Well, there's two sides. Do you know what I mean? So this is the app and the consumer side, and this is the, you know, other side. And then all the messaging, though, got too confusing. So we were always told, you know, you need to condense it, but you're like, so it was always something we struggled with to put together. But now I suppose where we're at is we have beauty buddy, and then we powered by beauty buddy is for the brand site, because it is powered by beauty buddy. You know, it's without beauty buddy. This wouldn't be here on this site. So it's very much, you know, if what a talk is a long time to figure out, because we were trying to explain beauty buddy as two businesses in one business, and it the messaging did get, definitely got confusing. I suppose. The difference is now we're able, when we're looking to talk, you know, to the consumer. We have a can we, you know, all our social media is consumer. LinkedIn is for the and, you know, for the business side. So we've just, yeah, changed our channels, but at the same time, our link, our Instagram, is very obvious to any brands that are looking that this is what we do. We do consumer generated content, do, you know? So it has be, it has, like, we had a lot of problems trying to do, because we are B to B to C, and there's not a huge amount of B to B to C in Ireland. And it would be, we would be classed as very high, high risk, high reward, you know. So most investment in Ireland will go to B to B SAS models, which are like, you know, software that's a reoccurring revenue every month, which makes sense as an investor, right as from their side of the table. And we understand, you know, what we're trying to build. And because if you were in the US building this that would make sense, because they can just see it, because they understand that model. But Ireland, when you're trying to say consumer model, fueling the other side, I think it's because Ireland so small, they're not seeing it outside Ireland. And so it has been, has been a challenge, and you know, but we're definitely there now. What you know, the two sides of the companies, but we mentioned both sides in boat messaging, as in the brands. Know what's powered by the beauty squad from Beauty buddy, do you know? So it's very much bad honor.
Finola Howard 42:55
What's next then for you?
Wendy Slattery 42:56
We're currently scaling in the UK and and it's like, for us, the beauty market in the UK, like the beauty market, and I'm not sure if the latest rains, but like, they're the third biggest beauty market in the world. Like you wouldn't think for just the UK, but they are, and they're a massive market for us and and we have lots of work still to do. There are 1000s and 1000s of brands, you know. And what we're doing is we're working where I'm in London a lot, and I'm meeting and networking in London. London has actually an amazing network in the beauty industry. So in Ireland, there's brilliant networks and but there's none specific just to the beauty industry. So it's like either like female networks or founder networks or and it's such a mix. But in the UK, you can network in your own industry, which is incredible. So you have to see w the cosmetic Executive Women, which, you know, I'm excited to say that at the awards this year for the first like was when we were going over there, there was no Irish brands entering those awards. And now there's Irish brands winning, like, awards over there, Ella and Joe and Amy Connolly, they've won at the CWs recently. And then you have, yeah, it is, it's great to see it. And then you have the British beauty council. So in October, they have a whole week where they take over part of London, and all different brands pop up, and they have talks on E commerce and how to sell and direct consumer. It's just a massive, big beauty industry in the UK, and I'm just, yeah, connecting and networking and working with brands over there, and just getting us established and launched over there. When we work with the brands we're working with over there, it's easier to do the connections, because these brands are global, so they can connect you to the US market. So that will be our goal, is that we're introduced from the. UK to the US and but currently we don't
Finola Howard 45:04
establish in the UK and use it as a springboard to get into the US, absolutely, because
Wendy Slattery 45:08
those brands have the connections. So we don't have to go into the US and try and make the connections that will because we're working with them in the UK, they'll introduce us to the US and customers. So we're currently scaling both sides. Beauty buddy in Ireland, on the consumer side and on the brand side. And the UK, we have consumers on in the beauty in the app. They're not in the beauty squad because we can't send them products in the US yet. So they keep asking whether we want to be able to, you know, send them stuff to do as well. So, but we do have a UK brand that's launching a big campaign, but they're doing UK and the US, and they've asked us to maybe look at doing some of the US in February next year. So that's interesting already, but we'd have to focus on getting different people for the squad over there. Diff, you know, because we need, we need, we don't need millions of people using the app to understand the products we need in the beauty squad. I mean, we need, like, so many people with, like, a certain age group, but certain skin type, but it's skin tone. Do you know what I mean? So we can understand the data and stuff like that. So it's more US gathering people of all to make sure we have all diversity in the app. Like pure diversity.
Finola Howard 46:32
I love it. What would you like to leave people with today?
Wendy Slattery 46:37
Oh, wow, so much. I would like to leave people with today that to trust your gut a lot and not to be afraid to pick up the phone or to reach out to someone. Everyone's only human, and they're not any better than you or any less than you. So don't be afraid, because I know, when we were starting, I was afraid to reach out to investors. I was afraid to reach out to the CEOs of companies. I'm not afraid, but you had that kind of, oh, will they give me their time? Or won't, you know, you know, I and now I'm like, they're just human, either they want to, you know, be involved, they don't want to be involved, or they want to help you, they don't want to help you. So just reach out. But just keep going. Just keep going and following, following your dream. Just follow it like you know, the worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't happen. The worst thing that could happen if you don't try is that you didn't try, and that's harder to live with. So
Finola Howard 47:40
I love it. That's a great way to leave it.
Wendy Slattery 47:43
It's a bit of a waffle there, but no,
Finola Howard 47:46
I love it. Leave it at that. Thank you so much. And wishing you every success of the future. And we shall be watching, and I hope you'll come back in a couple of years time, and let's see where you are. Then, would you be up for that? Absolutely,
Wendy Slattery 47:59
absolutely. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me, and I can't believe it's been so long since we just met. That was just the idea stage when I sat down beside you, just crazy idea sitting in a room thinking everybody knew what they were doing, except for me, and nobody did.
Finola Howard 48:18
Thank you so much. Wendy. Have a wonderful
Wendy Slattery 48:19
day. No problem.
Finola Howard 48:23
And that's it for this episode, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Make sure to check out the beauty buddy app, especially if you'd like help supercharging your own beauty brand. Check out the details here at powered X beauty buddy.com and connect with Wendy on LinkedIn. She's such an advocate for female founders, you won't regret it. And thank you for listening to your truth shared. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to share it with your entrepreneurial friends and help them grow their businesses to even greater heights. And until next time, let's keep growing. You.
