What prompts an entrepreneur to enter the eyelash {industry}? For Jason Wong, it was watching his girlfriend apply make-up. Just 23, Wong is a Los Angeles-based serial entrepreneur and advisor. His newest firm, Doe Lashes, launched two years in the past as a direct-to-consumer vendor of snug, light-weight eyelashes.
“I seen my girlfriend was struggling along with her lashes,” he informed me. “She was doing her make-up. It took a very long time. Then I began observing. For my girlfriend, placing on lashes was troublesome and uncomfortable. I informed myself, ‘Maybe I can repair this.’”
Fast ahead to 2021, and Doe Lashes is a thriving, seven-person ecommerce enterprise, having skilled a 1,000% improve in gross sales in 2020. He and I lately mentioned the corporate’s launch, development complications, sourcing methods, and extra.
Our whole audio dialog is under. The transcript that follows is edited for size and readability.
Eric Bandholz: Tell us about Doe Lashes.
Wong: Doe is our magnificence model specializing in snug eye merchandise. Lashes are the primary providing. So far it’s been our hero product.
I launched Doe Lashes about two years in the past. I seen my girlfriend was struggling along with her lashes. She was doing her make-up. It took a very long time. I waited for her. Then I began observing. Lashes are often the final step when making use of make-up. You put the whole lot in your face, and then you definately placed on lashes. For my girlfriend, placing on lashes was troublesome and uncomfortable.
I used to be on the lookout for one other model to start out. I informed myself, “Maybe I can repair this.” Curiosity obtained the most effective of me. I flew to China for one more firm that I used to be sourcing for. While there, I checked out factories for lashes. I found the nice and the unhealthy in regards to the lash {industry}. That’s how I obtained into it.
Bandholz: How are lashes made? Why are they uncomfortable?
Wong: Lashes are sometimes mass-produced with machines from the identical stuff in nylon ropes, simply thinner. They often are available a regular eye form. They’re not very versatile. The ideas are plastic. They poke your eyes everytime you blink. Plus, the hairs in lashes are heavy in your eyes. Human eyelids don’t have a lot muscle to carry the additional weight.
Combined, all of these makes for a really disagreeable expertise.
To begin, we modified the provision chain. A number of lash firms had been unknowingly sourcing from North Korea. E.l.f Cosmetics, a U.S.-based firm, paid a $1 million fantastic to the U.S. authorities in 2017 for violating commerce sanctions with that nation. Many different manufacturers had been doing the identical factor by shopping for from China-based producers who had bought uncooked supplies from North Korea.
We discovered a manufacturing unit in China that managed your complete course of. We paid 3 times the quantity of different suppliers however figuring out that the supplies are ethically sourced was the precedence.
Second was redesigning lashes from the bottom up. I broke aside the lashes and found out what I might change, such because the glue from the hair to the band, a band with various kinds of cotton, and totally different hair. We’re identified for our delicate silk hair. It’s artificial silk. When you sweep your finger throughout the silk, it appears like actual lashes. Being artificial is how we’re cruelty-free.
That’s the expertise we in the end created.
Bandholz: Has the pandemic affected Doe Lashes? With a masks, eyes are extra outstanding.
Wong: The pandemic has helped lots. Sales from mascara, eyeliner, and false lashes elevated industry-wide by 225% in 2020 due to the masks necessities. There’s additionally the Zoom impact, the place the main target is on the face. Our gross sales exploded, up 1,000% in 2020. It’s good and scary. Without exterior funding, we needed to stability operation bills, hiring, stock, and analysis and growth.
It was exhausting to scale as a result of we didn’t have the funds for. There’s a whole lot of complications with scaling. That is seldom mentioned. Everyone talks about development and advertising however not the implications of scaling.
We had three stockouts final 12 months that harm us. Plus, the logistic nightmare of everybody making an attempt to maneuver private protecting gear. Freight and even container allocations had been typically non-existent. I needed to be very artistic in negotiating fee phrases with suppliers to chop prices.
It was a course of of regularly holding our heads above water.
Bandholz: Is it higher now?
Wong: I can’t say, “Everything is trying nice and dandy.” Doe Lashes, after we launched two years in the past, was purely an eyelash model. But there’s a much bigger play, to develop from a lash model to an eye fixed product model. We could make eye cream, brightening sticks, contact lenses, mascara. These are areas that we will develop into. Doe has bigger ambitions. We want extra money to fund it.
We’ve been bootstrapped since we began — no exterior funding. We’ve been artistic in working with lenders, bank cards, financing companies.
Bandholz: How large is your workforce?
Wong: We’re based mostly in California. We lately downsized to seven folks. We had a couple of extra, however then we consolidated roles and carried out automation. Anything that we might automate we did. We introduced in consultants to assist us streamline inside communication and construct methods and processes to generate buy orders and forecast stock. All of that allowed us to scale back human hours.
We have two individuals on social media, one for operations, one for buyer assist. We have a normal supervisor, a graphic designer, and an outdoor advertising company. We additionally retain freelancers for video design, computer-generated rendering. Occasionally, we’ll usher in consultants to assist refine our processes.
Bandholz: Is Doe Lashes completely direct-to-consumer by way of your web site?
Wong: We’re additionally on Amazon, and now we have a retail presence at Urban Outfitters. That’s just about it. We promote wholesale exterior of the U.S. For instance, now we have a distributor within the Philippines. But DTC on our web site is 95% of complete income. Amazon is roughly 4%. Not a lot for wholesale.
Bandholz: How do you drive of us to your web site?
Wong: Our lashes are priced a lot decrease than many opponents. We do not need sufficient gross revenue margin to compete on promoting in opposition to bigger firms. So we deal with natural efforts and our social media channels. Social, natural, and influencers generate 60%, 70% of our income.
Bandholz: What’s your course of with influencers?
Wong: We have a low-cost method to influencer advertising. Instead of participating with macro-influencers, these with greater than 100,000 followers, we went with smaller ones that don’t get as many model alternatives. We attempt to perceive why influencers need to work with us. Is it alternate for merchandise? Is it cash?
Smaller influencer accounts typically need to construct a portfolio to draw extra manufacturers as shoppers. Those accounts would possibly say, “I labored with Doe. This is the content material I made for them. Can I work with you?”
Most micro-influencers between 10,000 to 100,000 followers will alternate promotions for merchandise. We constructed an inside bot to obtain an influencer’s bio and different data and robotically create Shopify orders to ship her our merchandise.
Whenever we attain out to them, if they comply with it, all they should do is click on the hyperlink that we constructed, they usually’ll place an order. It will robotically go into Shopify. Effectively, we decreased the time to work together with an influencer to almost two or three minutes. By condensing that down, we’re capable of scale our influencer advertising.
Then, after we had a big library of influencers working with us, we began choosing which of them are participating the most effective.
Bandholz: What is the long-term plan for Doe Lashes?
Wong: I’d like to get acquired in a couple of years and transfer to the subsequent undertaking. My persona is to leap round and do various things. I should be in all places. I want to show. I have to do lashes. I’ve a provide chain firm in China. I should be doing one thing continually. I’ve to work on totally different initiatives to maintain my thoughts contemporary throughout a number of industries.
Bandholz: How can listeners attain you and assist your organization?
Wong: I’m on Instagram — @pug. On Twitter, I’m @eggroli. I at all times reply my direct messages. Our web site is DoeLashes.com.
