Beauty Mavericks: Crafting the Future of 'It' Brands
A business accelerator or incubator is a program that provides new and developing brands or enterprises with access to mentorship, investment opportunities, and other essential types of support to enable them to become stable, independent businesses. The main objective of an accelerator is to assist small startups in becoming self-sufficient, profitable businesses.
Accelerators play an important role in bridging the gap that generally exists between these new, fledgling businesses and more established enterprises. This gap is formed mainly by a lack of key information, mentorship, capital, logistical and technical resources, and critical networks on the end of the startups. All of these and more comprise the fundamental support that these accelerator and incubator programs offer.
Significantly, there are 2 key contributing factors to the emergence of many accelerators, specifically in the beauty industry in recent times. These factors are the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic. The existing racism within the beauty industry is a reality majority of the world was already aware of. What the BLM movement did was compel the entities who hold sway in the industry to do something about it. And one of the things that were done is the establishment of accelerator programs that pay special attention to BIPOC beauty brands and founders.
The COVID-19 pandemic majorly accelerated the rate at which businesses evolved and highlighted the significance of innovation and creativity. Owing to these 2 factors, there is now an abundance of accelerator programs in beauty, and this has created somewhat of a race for both the accelerators and startup brands. Accelerators and incubators are running to find and nurture the next big thing in beauty. The business world has realized that it is the innovation and creativity of newcomers that creates key disruptions in the industry. On the other hand, every new startup brand wants to get its hands on what these amazing accelerator programs have to offer.
It is also interesting to see so many legacy, luxury, and premium brands tapping into this trend that is crafting the future of “it” brands in beauty. These include industry royalty such as LVMH, Estée Lauder, L'Oréal, as well as new, trailblazing programs including Beauty Boss Club and BrainTrust Founders Studio. Now let’s take a look at a list of royalty in the realm of beauty accelerator programs!
1. LVMH - La Maison des Startup.
“La Maison des Startup” is the accelerator program of LMVH, the French holding multinational corporation and conglomerate that specializes in luxury goods. LVMH is a fusion of Louis Vuiton, Moët & Chandon, and Hennessy. Launched in 2018, the physical location of the annual 6-month program is at Station F (the world’s largest startup campus) in Paris. Nonetheless, it runs internationally with the yearly objective of working with selected startups from all over the world. The program provides these startups with the opportunity of teaming up with key stakeholders from LVMH Maisons to facilitate sterling innovation in the luxury market.
According to Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of LVMH, innovation as well as an entrepreneurial spirit and excellence lie at the core of the distinguished Maisons of LVMH. “This is why we know, perhaps better than others, how to find ways of working with startups that benefit us all,” he admits.
2. Sephora Accelerate.
Sephora Accelerate, also owned by LVMH, is a brand incubation program committed to creating a community of innovative, inspirational brand founders in beauty. Today, the program focuses on founders who are people of color. This is in line with Sephora’s commitment to the 15 Percent Pledge—an undertaking that calls on retailers to support BIPOC founders by selling a larger percentage of their brands.
The goal of the Sephora Accelerate is to make sure that the beauty industry includes companies that reflect all the colors, races, and ethnicities that make up the Americas. This is accomplished through a 6-month program that gives selected BIPOC founders access to skill-building resources and support that will enable them to grow and sustain a successful business.
3. Beauty Boss Club.
Beauty Boss Club is a beauty accelerator program that was founded in 2021 by beauty maverick, Montré Moore, with the superior goal of empowering beauty entrepreneurs with funding opportunities, eLearning modules, professional networks, studio access, and one-on-one mentoring. The underlying objective of the club is to help beauty businesses make broader impacts socially, economically, and environmentally.
Led by a woman of color with nearly 2 decades of experience in the retail industry and an extensive background and knowledge of fundraising, beauty business strategy, and sales, The Beauty Boss Club sets out to propel every aspiring “Beauty Boss” with the best resources and mentorship that they and their brands need to achieve their desired business goals.
L’Oréal’s Beauty Labs work a little differently than the typical business accelerator. The Beauty Lab is still an engine for innovation and increased consumer satisfaction. However, it works majorly to support L’Oréal and its customers in realizing the goals of premium cosmetic innovation built on the pillars of quality, efficiency, and safety. Call it “self-acceleration” if you will.
The Beauty Lab program operates much like a two-way communication network in which users interact with the L’Oréal brand, sharing their opinions and reviews of as well as recommendations for the brand’s products. On its end, L’Oréal stays alert within this communication for new, implementable proposals, innovations, and best practices to keep scaling the excellence of its products.
5. BrainTrust Founders Studio.
BrainTrust Founders Studio is a business incubator for new and promising beauty and wellness brands as well as an accelerator for existing brands to enable their growth and sustainability. The platform is a membership-based community founded in 2021 by Kendra Bracken-Ferguson. She created this community because she realized that there are a lot of currently unprecedented opportunities for Black founders that aren’t being taken advantage of. Hence, she founded BrainTrust Founders Studio to provide a working ecosystem of resources and capital to support BIPOC founders and businesses in maximizing the abundance of opportunities available to them today.
The BrainTrust community understands that there is so much untapped success to be grasped by BIPOC founders in the $500 billion-worth global beauty and wellness industry. Hence, the platform provides scalable ways to tap deeply and sustainably into this success via a global ecosystem of like-minded founders that share invaluable business, financial, marketing, and technology brain power.
6. Coty Digital Accelerator.
World-renowned multinational beauty company, Coty, launched its Digital Accelerator program in 2017 which has been a huge success since. In 2022, the company announced a new program for tech startups looking to pitch their work in artificial intelligence (AI) and partner with one of Coty’s 70 existing brands. Startups with winning pitches stand to win up to $100,000 in cash prizes! Coty, on its end, is looking to expand its digital presence in AI, 3D printing, augmented reality, and voice technology.
Jason Forbes, Coty’s Chief Digital and Media Officer says, “At Coty, we’re focused on transforming our digital capabilities across the organization, and the launch of the Digital Accelerator represented a key milestone in this transformation. I’m thrilled to take this initiative a step further by bringing external startups into the mix… Throughout Coty, we foster an “act like a start-up” culture, encouraging creativity, agility, and quick action. We’re excited about fostering deeper commercial relationships with start-ups aligned with our key priorities. AI is a foundational example of this.”
Conclusion.
Becoming a beauty maverick implies evolving into a beauty business owner with success that is independently sustainable. Clearly, beauty accelerators and incubators coupled with the vital support and resources they provide comprise the entities crafting the future of 'It' brands in beauty. So if you’re looking to make your brand the next household name in beauty, an accelerator program that specializes in beauty and wellnessis, no doubt, your surest ticket.