Danielle Cohen-Shohet started GlossGenius as a profitable side business when she was a college student, fusing her passions for design and entrepreneurship.
Important Points
Cohen-Shohet founded GlossGenius in 2015 out of a desire to solve the problems associated with client-first business management using technology.
With innovations like GeniusAI and Genius Loans, GlossGenius caters to the needs of its 65,000+ corporate customers.
I was wondering when you got your start in the self-care sector and what motivated you to start your side hustle.
When I was a freshman at Princeton University, I dabbled in freelance makeup application, which piqued my attention. As far back as I can remember, I have been an entrepreneur with a lifelong love of design and the arts. I started a side business in college because, as is my wont, I want to be the best at whatever I do. When I was interested in cosmetics, I did more than other people and became an expert. We (my twin sister and I) were also involved in a digital receipts payments enterprise at the time. Both of those things taught me a lot, but looking back, I can’t believe I was so naive about how they would one day form the basis of a software payments company that is currently valued at more than $510 million.
Tell me about the initial stages of launching your side venture.
I threw myself headfirst into learning, competed fiercely, and never stopped pushing myself to improve. In college, I delved headfirst into the newly democratized makeup artistry videos on YouTube and got my hands filthy practicing. From that point on, I continued to improve by relentlessly soliciting comments from my college classmates and acquaintances. I was able to achieve more success with less effort by following these basic procedures.
Has managing the side hustle presented any difficulties? How did you manage those, if at all?
If it’s something you can learn from, it will inevitably have obstacles. As a former makeup artist, I can attest to the fact that many of our GlossGenius business customers are now dealing with issues such as poor time management, scheduling conflicts, and an inadequate foundation upon which to build a clientele. I threw myself into overcoming these obstacles using haphazard spreadsheets and tools, which led to the development of GlossGenius. I set out to help other company owners by providing them with first-rate tools and resources that would streamline their operations.
In what time frame did you start to see a steady flow of money coming in each month? What was the average amount of money it made?
At first, I was more concerned with making a creative interest satisfied than making money. It took a long (a few months) but I finally started making money, and it was enough to pay for a lot of my college expenditures.
When did you decide to launch GlossGenius, and what was the impetus behind that decision?
After researching the challenges encountered by service-based self-care companies, I made the decision to launch a software company to provide technological solutions to a number of these issues. After finishing college and beginning my career in finance at Goldman Sachs, the idea of assisting self-care entrepreneurs in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their enterprises continued to occupy my thoughts. With so many different technologies, it was difficult to run a customer-centric company.
Because I had trained myself to code, I thought I could accomplish anything. I took a risk and quit my job at Goldman after two years to establish GlossGenius. It felt natural to combine my industry experience, technical background, and the digital receipts payments company my twin sister and I had founded with GlossGenius, a software payments company specializing in the self-care industry. My sister is my business partner and chief business officer.
Tell me the strategy you’ve used to grow the business.
Our primary focus was on resolving an actual problem that our consumers faced before we even considered expanding the business. Plenty of chances exist to provide people the tools they need to start, operate, and grow their own enterprises in their communities. Many of our clients rely on our platform for their day-to-day needs, and our solutions play a significant role in their livelihoods. Prior to scaling, that concentration was essential.
Building goods, releasing products, hiring, marketing, closing partnerships, addressing customer support tickets, and much more were all part of my early learning experience with the company. I have been able to scale the company by gaining a thorough understanding of every facet of it and by learning what constitutes excellence in each area. Knowing that would allow me to surround myself with great leaders and incredible individuals, allowing my teams to reach new heights.
Businesses have a lot of challenges, so we had to be disciplined and focus on fixing the most pressing issues for our clients first. Consequently, we have maintained our rigor as we have grown, focusing solely on projects that will benefit our clients. We are deliberate in our pursuit sequencing and frequently say no. Feedback from clients is crucial to the development of new goods and services offered by GlossGenius, therefore we pay close attention to what they have to say and take it all in. I am quite pleased with how we have maintained our relationship with our customers despite our rapid growth.
What are you most looking forward to in terms of GlossGenius’s future?
We are facilitating more entrepreneurship by building a platform that self-care business owners may use to expand their operations. There is still a long way to go until we reach our goal, even though we have created a platform that is vital to our clients’ operations. Our software products are constantly being enhanced to make them more user-friendly and enchanting for our valued customers. We take great pride in servicing more than 65,000 organizations and in powering transaction activity totaling billions of dollars.
An excellent illustration of this is the new GeniusAI product that we just released, which is powered by generative AI. With this tool, wellness and beauty professionals can easily create personalized email marketing campaigns. Users just need to add a few notes to receive messages that are tailored to their brand and goals. It is thrilling to be the company that gives this to consumers in an industry that has historically been slow to adopt new technologies. Genius Loans, another new product from GlossGenius, provide quick and flexible financing to help customers expand their businesses. These kinds of products demonstrate how we go above and beyond the usual expectations of SaaS platforms to provide customers with exactly what they need, exactly when they need it.
Tell me about some of the most important things you’ve learnt as an entrepreneur.
By ensuring the success of others, I have realised that my own success is the result of my own efforts. I count it a great fortune to be the head of a business whose goals are so congruent with those of our clients. Leading GlossGenius has been an invaluable experience in understanding the unique framework for making decisions that create value for consumers in the long run.
If you were to give someone your opinion on how to start a side hustle or business, what would it be?
No is not an acceptable response. Make sure you surround yourself with people who share your values. You may ask those closest to you or join an online community like the one we’ve built for business owners with GlossGenius. Even though I’ve had a lot of people rooting for me, my twin sister Leah has been my most reliable partner. From the very beginning, she has been an important sounding board for ideas, and her contributions have been critical to the growth of the business. Put yourself in the company of understanding people.