February 28, 2022 | Shaping the Startup Scene: Secrets from Georgetown Students
GRLA’s Start-Up Speaker Event was an opportunity for two current Georgetown students and two alumni to share the inspiration and progress behind their entrepreneurial businesses with the community and encourage like-minded peers to follow a similar path. The speakers and businesses represented on the panel included Sabrina Sadeghian from 4AMSKIN, Luigi Ambrosi from Cardenxe, Ava McDonald from Zfluence, and Besart Copa from Chestr.
4AMSKIN
Sabrina Sadeghian founded 4am Skin as an ode to her obsession with dermatology and skincare from a young age. Her motive for the brand was to make skincare easy, convenient, and minimalist: accessible for even those who hated skincare because they found it tedious. She wanted to take away the effects of modern lifestyle, allowing consumers to pay for a luxurious convenience. Rather than focusing on the symptoms, 4am skin is preventative, ensuring skin problems do not happen in the first place. With this goal in mind, 4am skin care looks at what problems affect young peoples’ skin, such as blue light, alcohol, air pollution, smoking, and dehydration. As Sadeghian put it, “we’re not here to fix your bad habits, we’re here to help you avoid the consequences of them.” This authentic messaging eliminates the performative lifestyle in skincare that Sadeghian was tired of in the industry. She advised her peers to find their niche and tap into it because when no one else is doing what you’re doing, your work gets picked up. For example, 4am Skin partnered with Patron and Kendal Jenner’s 818 Tequila brands to prove that self care and fun are not mutually exclusive.
Cardenxe
Luigi Ambrosi founded Cardenxe from his love for the underdog tequila of the industry: something good and impossible to find. Inspired by the only region in the world where the plant of sotol grows, Sotol de desierto in the North of Mexico, Ambrosi wanted to do something completely different. Cardenxe is named after the musical genre, representing the unleashing of deep emotions, as well connection and sharing to open up and feel confident enough to share one’s true self. Rather than being created to merely solve a need, Cardenxe was created to satisfy a need, a pleasure, and a craving for affiliation and identity. Reflecting Ambrosi’s vision of turning people into teachers and trendsetters through his product, the target customer is the curious maverick – someone who aspires to be the leader of his social group and builder of a community. In addition, Cardenxe is aligning itself with the art world as a brand. It partnered with Art Basel and continues to position itself as something new and cool by tapping into NFTs. Ambrosi’s advice to his peers was to lose the ego, stay humble and patient with the product and suppliers, be able to admit when you are wrong, and be open to changing your mind.
Zfluence
Ava McDonald founded Zfluence after noticing the lack of authenticity in social media marketing. She began in 2018 by interviewing brands and the Gen Z community. This prompted her to invest $5,000 of her personal savings to build a website and MVP app. The website and app launched in 2019; by 2020 her company grew to over 1,000+ Zfluencers and received substantial media coverage. Recently, Zfluence got their first Fortune 500 client to connect to Zfluencers. Zfluence looks for authentic Gen Z influencers, not necessarily content creators, for brands to review and choose to work with. There is a monthly subscription based on the number of Zfluencers a client works with. The company is built on authentic brand love and advocacy. McDonald believes that risk taking and curiosity is the key for a business like hers.
Chestr
Besart Copa founded Chestr to create a universal wishlist for every online store. After realizing that there was no mainstream universal wishlist that users could use in different stores, he developed a tool to address this fragmented and slow process. The motive behind Chestr is to not overlook the wishlist feature and to find a great solution for product recommendations. Chestr makes it easy for influencers to share links as well as wish lists. It now has over 150 installs, friends, and redditors, and is in the works for receiving its first round of funding. Copa believes that it is important to have a good partner that compliments your skills. He also believes that a good presentation is important for investors and user feedback. Encouraging his peers to consider starting their own start-up, he emphasized that the personal reward is unmatched when doing something you find meaningful.