Glamsquad CEO Amy Shecter with three of the company’s beauty professionals.
“From Glamsquad’s inception, we’ve approached the business with the goal of being a beauty and lifestyle brand powered by technology,” explained company CEO Amy Shecter. And it was the company’s tech-focus, as well as a firm belief in its founders, that made it the ideal fit for Carmen for her growing investment portfolio. However, as Shecter went on to explain recently in an interview for WWD.com, the company has since evolved into a “multidisciplinary beauty brand” with personalization, empowerment and community at its core, values which bring the brand even closer to Carmen’s personal vision for businesses seeking to disrupt the commercial landscape today.
Based on the concept of the blow-out bar, Glamsquad offers personal pick me up and party-ready appointments for busy mums and time-poor professionals alike, via a dedicated app and website. Conceived by founder Victoria Eisner when she couldn’t get a last minute beauty appointment one New Year’s Eve, the company now delivers a comprehensive range of on-demand hair, make-up and nail services to clients at their chosen location across New York City, Los Angeles, Orange County, South Florida, Washington DC, Boston and the Bay Area, and to date has clocked up more than 600,000 appointments.
Before joining the company in 2016, former fashion professional Shecter was what she has called a “power user” of Glamsquad’s services, and spent a lot of time talking to the beauty professionals who came to her home about their jobs and the company. This friendly interest actually mirrors her professional approach, and she explained to WWD.com how when joining a company, “The first thing I do is immerse myself in the brand, the people and the culture. I believe it’s important to understand what is working and what’s not”. And from what she learned as a client, and from subsequently coming on board, she quickly realized that the staff had so much passion for what they were doing.
Glamsquad’s personal connections with its customers helped inform the development of its new range of styling products.
And it wasn’t just the beauty pro’s and employees whose feedback she valued, but the views of the company’s customers too, who Shecter acknowledges expect a high level of personalization and immediacy. “The in-home experience becomes a unique micro lab that fuels this feedback loop, allowing us to invent and iterate,” she said, explaining how the constant communication between the two allows their relationship with Glamsquad to evolve and grow, and indeed informed the development of the company’s new range of hair styling products.
With a mission to empower women to look and feel their best, and with consumers seeking luxury experiences that are curated specifically to fit their lifestyle, Shecter is proud of the brand’s proprietary technology that was developed in-house to ensure clients are paired with the best beauty pro for their needs. And this sense of empowerment extends to the Glamsquad pro’s. “They spend their days doing exactly what they love and we are here to empower them to be successful entrepreneurs,” she said. Indeed, as part of “the squad” they are able to set their own hours, choose where they book and essentially be their own boss, while the company makes sure they receive consistent opportunities to learn about trends in the industry, as well as ongoing support from the Glamsquad community.
And when it comes to community, Shecter told WWD.com “I am lucky to have an incredible “village” of peers”. She stressed the importance of utilizing the strengths of one’s team, as well as creating a community of motivated people with a strong, shared vision and high integrity, something she said she is very proud to be part of.
