The Glamazon Girls
Lauren Silvers & Lisa Maree
Lauren and Lisa sat down with esprit for the January issue to chat about how they both began in business as competitors initially; how merging helped them grow their business, and how they are passionate about empowering beauty professionals to become micro-entrepreneurs. As the pioneers of at-home beauty services in Australia, owning the largest marketplace platform with over 1100 active freelancers around the country available, Lauren and Lisa share their tips and tricks on joining forces, growing a business together and pioneering a new concept in Australia.
Explain how you two met and merged your businesses.
(Lisa): Well I have another business, it’s a fashion label called ‘Lisa Maree’ that I bootstrapped from startup to a multi-million dollar international label, and I spent years living in LA building that up. Whilst living over there, I noticed an emerging trend in the market for at-home beauty, and when I looked back to Australia I realised no one was doing it. I moved back to Sydney and started Glam Crew, and after three months in business I met an investor who eventually introduced me to Lauren.
(Lauren): I think this investor found me by researching the market that Glam Crew was in and found my startup Glamazon, Australia’s first salon-booking platform. We’d been growing for three years and had strong publicity, a growing database and great technology. The investor said, if you and Lisa merge your businesses then I’ll invest! So we merged Lisa’s freelancer at-home beauty model with my tech and brand name Glamazon and raised $1.2m in funding the rest is history!
Why do you think you were able to merge businesses so successfully?
We both had an aligned vision for where we wanted to take the company and how we were going to do it. Neither of us brought ego to the negotiation table, we both just had equal passion to grow the company in the same direction.
What is the biggest challenge you face in pioneering a brand new concept that has no path paved before you?
Our biggest challenge initially was educating the market that you don’t have to visit a salon; you can actually order a beauty professional to your home. We were able to educate the market quickly after appearing on Channel 10’s ‘Shark Tank’, and via the various press articles we secured. Once customers started to book at-home beauty, we started to see 40% repeat business, and we knew that we had created a sticky product.
What is your mission and vision for the business and what’s next for Glamazon?
Our underlying mission is to empower beauty professionals to become micro-entrepreneurs, by giving them the right tools and payment systems to grow as a freelancer, ultimately liberating them from a low-earning salon wage.
We are focused on growing a loyal and supportive community, and helping beauty professionals as best as we can. Or vision is to be a global one stop shop for beauty inspiration, content, services and products delivered to your door, and we’re thrilled to be entering the Asian market in 2019.