Startup Weekend Europe artikel over BeautyBookers

In September 2012, founder Ingrid Sloots submitted her business plan for BeautyBookers to Marie Claire, and was subsequently nominated for the Marie Claire Starters Award.  Fast-forward ten months; BeautyBookers is now appearing in the June 2013 edition of Marie Claireas a Starters Award success story.

The company, an online platform where you can find, review, and book your beauty appointments based on real-time salon availability, has rapidly evolved since its origins atStartup Weekend Amsterdam and Lean Startup Machine Rotterdam.  I had the chance to chat with Ingrid about those last ten months – the inception of the idea, the transition from the corporate world, the discovery of her business partner Edward Granville at Startup Weekend, and their iterative implementation of the Lean Startup methodology.

In the beginning

BeautyBookers began at Lean Startup Machine Rotterdam, which Ingrid refers to as her first entrepreneurial venture. “I was actually still working in my corporate job,” she says, “but I figured if I didn’t start doing things like that, and start getting really involved in the startup world, I would never do it.”  So she showed up, pitched a version of BeautyBookers, and formed a team of four to pursue the idea.

“I realized then what you can do in one weekend – it’s quite big, if you have a good team of enthusiasts who are willing to help you out, and who like the whole entrepreneurial excitement of founding something.”  Ingrid accordingly decided to attend Startup Weekend Amsterdam one week later for another 54-hour entrepreneurial adventure; when she arrived, the idea “had evolved quite a bit further, although it was still just pieces of paper.”

Ingrid recruited an 11-person team at SW Amsterdam, including her business partner, Edward Granville, who was doing design work for the team at the time.  In discussing her keys to success in building a startup, Ingrid cites the impact of implementing Lean Startup methodologies.  “If I hadn’t joined these weekends, I would have been writing a business plan behind my desk for six months, going live with something that I thought was brilliant, and then realizing that no one wanted it.  It sounds simple, but we’ve learned so much just from talking to customers.”

After SW Amsterdam, Ingrid’s business plan was nominated for the Marie Claire Starters Award, which was “really cool,” she says, “but also meant that we would be in a published magazine that has quite an extensive reach in our target audience in about four weeks.”  Ingrid and Edward (who – surprise! –happened to be a rare designer / developer double threat), worked four weeks day and night to build the frontend of what is now BeautyBookers.  They went live the night before the magazine was distributed in September 2012, decided they still liked each other and what they were doing, and thus formalized their business partnership.

At that point, they began to work on the backend, again using Lean development strategies.  They built on the minimum viable product part by part, adding pieces and testing them in the real world to find out what exactly they needed in the backend.  “I would often be sending out emails that people thought were done automatically,” Ingrid laughs, “but we could see where the questions and hiccups were in the system, and really start structuring the backend.”

She emphasizes the importance of gaining a deep understanding of both sides of the platform – the salons and the customers – and what their needs and questions are.  BeautyBookers is now a complete, automated system, with calendar and customer tools for the salons and a broader frontend content base for the customers.

Two-sided

Ingrid talks about a dual perspective in coming up with the idea for BeautyBookers.  There’s an element of personal need – the convenience of being able to find and book services online at a time that suits you, instead of waiting for the opening hours of a salon – but there’s also a parallel business perspective, of building something that makes sense.  “I realized I wasn’t spending money where I was actually willing to spend money,” she says, “I’d be stressed out from my busy week really wanting a massage, and if someone said here I am, I can do that, and it costs 60 Euros, I would say, oh hey, where can I sit or lie down?  I was really willing to spend money on things like that, but no one ever asked me that question – I had to go after it myself, and I realized that most of the time, it’s a hassle to figure it out.”

Further, Ingrid liked the idea of being part of a market with ample room for improvement; instead of focusing on discounts (a popular strategy over the past few years), she wanted to focus on building up the market itself.  She cites the number of entrepreneurs within the beauty market that love what they do, and love taking care of people, but aren’t equipped to run a business in an entrepreneurial way.  “I like the idea of being part of a business that actually helps out and scales up expertise, and builds tools that they can all use to actually build and grow the market.”

Business-minded

Ingrid had acquired seven years of experience in Marketing, Sales, and Finance roles at Unilever before making the transition to an entrepreneurial lifestyle and starting her own company. “I worked 60+ hours at Unilever, and now I work a lot more – the whole idea of weekends and holidays just vanished, but I don’t mind!  For the first time, we’re enjoying it…it’s really nice that we’re building something that we really believe in.”

The startup world presents a stark contrast to her previous job at Unilever in that Ingrid is building her own network – rather than being constantly surrounded with great people in a formalized, corporate environment, she seeks them out, and cites the importance of surrounding herself with people of varying skills and experience.  “I often realize that it’s really, really important – having people around you that you can ask specific questions, especially about things you’ve never done.  Everything you do is new – it’s really nice to have people around you that are willing to help.”

Ingrid further appreciates the enthusiasm and excitement within the entrepreneurial space.  “Because there’s something being built here,” she says, “people love being a part of it, and love having something to say about it – we take in every piece of feedback.”

Scaling up

BeautyBookers is scaling up nationally – they already have 100+ salons using the platform, and are looking to increase that number fast.  “The plan is to make it work – really work – in the Netherlands, and then scale up to other markets in the Netherlands first, and then internationally.”  Considering the progress they’ve made over the last ten months, bookended by Marie Claire awards, I can’t wait to see what comes next. 

You can follow BeautyBookers @BeautyBookers on Twitter.

Startup Weekend is coming back to Amsterdam July 5-7, and tickets are going fast! You can find out more and register here.