Kim Lewis is the co-founder of the CurMix Company, a clean beauty brand for curly hair. The company makes a complete hair care range for curly-haired women. The firm’s products include a comprehensive range of quality handmade organic gels, oils, shampoos, and more.
The firm was discovered by Kim Lewis and her husband, Tim Lewis. Kim graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in Logistics and Marketing. Tim was known among friends and family for his mastery of facts, and he worked at Starbucks. After quitting her first job with no savings and no job lined up, Kim started her entrepreneurial journey.
I founded Curlmix in 2015 with my partner Tim. Tim used a portion of his $100,000 to sponsor my first business venture, Natural Hair Academy. This was a social network for women with curly hair. Unfortunately, the experiment did not work out, but it did inspire the development of CurlMix. So my second effort was CurlMix.
I started it as a monthly subscription box that gave consumers the components they required to make their own natural hair care products. I sold one box. Back to the drawing board, I redesigned my website, conducted extensive research, contacted industry influencers, and relaunched.
I sold 90 boxes on the first day and went on to make $100,000 in sales for the year. My goods are luxury hair care products, and they are priced accordingly. It costs $18 for a bottle of any product, with reductions available when purchasing a complete “Wash and Go system” bundle. I sell on my website and on Amazon, but I’m most likely looking to get into the high-end care store sector.
Tim and I went to the Shark Tank show seeking $400,000 for a 10% equity in the form. This could bring up a valuation of $4 million for our CurlMix company. Unfortunately, most of the sharks seem not to be big supporters of the hair care industry. However, Robert says he does not understand the market, and makes an offer of $400,000 for 20% equity in the form. We did not accept the offer, so we walked out of the show without any deal.
After rejecting the offer, we obtained $1.2 million for 10% equity in the company from Jeff Weiner ( Former LinkedIn CEO) and Arlan Hamilton (Backstage Capital). As a result, we increased our sales from $1 million in 2018 to $5 million in 2019 and $6 million in 2021). Also, we included in Forbes’ 30 under 30 lists for Retail and e-commerce in 2020. During the Covid-19 outbreak, we also took up a forgiving federal PPP loan offered to small enterprises.
To a young Kim Lewis, once you get a product, you should create a brand for it. This will make people remember it and speak about it. Next, find a name and hire a designer to create a brand identity. You should always hire the right people. This is because ideas themselves are not worth it, but the people behind them mostly matter. Finally, spend a lot on your product. You should build, test, iterate, reiterate, pivot, and get to MVP and beyond.
We had a plan to have over $13 million in lifetime sales by 2021 and continue to expand. In May 2021, we also raised $5,288,846 on Wefunder. The firm was ranked 93rd on the inc. 5,000 list in 2021. The company is worth $12million. We sell our products at a sustainable discount because of the low shipping costs. Currently, the company is still running, and we have already hired more than thirty staff, and we serve over 200,000 consumers.
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