Danielle Cohen-Shohet’s background in tech, finance, and the beauty industry inspired her to start GlossGenius in 2016—one of the largest vertical software-embedded payments companies, enabling service professionals to instantly integrate everything entrepreneurs need to run their businesses better. Her determination enables and inspires tens of thousands of underrepresented business owners.

Danielle's inspiration for GlossGenius came while studying at Princeton and doing makeup artistry on the side as a passion. She experienced the pain points of managing a small business while engaging with clients and recognized this was a struggle many others go through every day. Given the passion she had for the industry and the gap she saw in vertical-focused business management in the self-care services industry, Danielle taught herself how to code and set out to change things for everyone.

Danielle is both the business and technical founder of GlossGenius and coded the first version of her product. She’s an excellent example for women, showcasing how they can be leaders in industries typically dominated by men. She leveraged her finance skills along with her self-taught programming ability to create what has now become a leading solution in this space.

In July 2023, GlossGenius announced a $28 million Series C funding round, led by the prestigious investment firm L Catterton with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and Imaginary Ventures. This latest infusion of capital has brought the company’s total funding to approximately $70 million to date and increased the company’s valuation to $510 million.

BeautyMatter caught up with Danielle Cohen-Shohet, CEO & Founder, GlossGenius and BeautyMatter NEXT 2024 Innovator of the Year Finalist.

What does innovation mean to you? 

Innovation is a result—of dedicating yourself to solving problems that matter. Dedicating yourself to solving problems that matter requires curiosity, resilience, creativity, excellence, focus, and customer obsession. When you apply these values and discipline towards a problem, innovation is what you get.

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? 

We have built a true economic engine at GlossGenius, powering the American self-care industry through our technology every day. While we still have so much more to accomplish, our product is already enabling local entrepreneurs to scale their businesses and be more successful. As I look around at the many talented business owners who use and love our software, I am particularly proud of how the GlossGenius team has improved outcomes for customers in this unique industry. Our focus on improving outcomes has not only impacted our customers directly but also many others around them.

Innovation is about trying new things and taking risks, making failure inextricably tied to the process. Everyone wants to be innovative but they fear the consequences of failure. What is your relationship with "failure"? 

Some see failure as an end, but I see it as just a step of the learning process. When something doesn’t work out as expected, it’s actually an opportunity to learn about what went wrong and apply those lessons in the future. This perspective comes from my early entrepreneurial experiences running a freelance business and starting a digital receipt point of sale venture with my sister, Leah. I saw early on that some things will work as planned and others won’t. What didn’t go as planned was converted into stored value in the form of learnings that we got to use later on. Even today at GlossGenius, we continually remind ourselves of the opportunity to learn from setbacks—and be better because of it.

True innovation often spurs imitation. How do you ensure you maintain the competitive edge your innovation provided? 

It’s easy to copy things but hard to copy values. Staying ahead of the curve means continuing to live the values that are inputs to our innovation. Doing this enables us to improve and innovate at a high velocity so we can maintain—and extend—our competitive edge. I see a lot of companies that are disconnected from customers and in most of the cases, understanding customers and solving problems that matter for them is not only a requirement for maintaining a competitive edge but also having one in the first place.

It is easy to be disruptive in the early stages of a business but organizational culture often resists change and innovation. How have you built a culture that will continue to support innovation as you scale?

To build a culture that supports innovation, we have to create an environment where experimentation, creativity, and ambitious thinking are encouraged. To do that, I prioritize working with people who share the same values we think are important to the company and celebrate those that challenge the status quo. It is truly one of the most exciting feelings to me when someone has asked why something is the way it is and is ready to make it better. It’s important to me to elevate that. I talk about those examples in meetings that I have so others can be inspired too. Our culture of continuous learning and iteration has enabled us to scale while not losing our true innovative spirit. The only way to continue to support it is if we ignite it from within.

What advice would you give to the next generation of innovators? 

My advice to the next generation of innovators is to stay curious, embrace excellence, and be skeptical (about why something can’t be done). When my sister and I pursued a digital payments venture in college, we had no idea at the time that that experience in addition to my experience with the beauty industry would later be combined into what has become GlossGenius today. The path to innovation is often nonlinear, but it’s through great curiosity, adaptability and persistence that you’ll find success.

What excites you about the future of the industry? 

The future of the self-care industry is exciting because it’s a growing industry with many opportunities for technology to keep on improving it. As a verticalized software company, we get to be at the forefront of creating even more personalized, powerful, and life-changing experiences for our customers. When I think about the impact we can have doing that, the future of the industry looks more entrepreneurial than it ever has.

Where do you find your inspiration?

I get inspiration from many things: art, design, history, leaders, books, customers, etc. Most of what inspires me comes from a single mindset that someone at some point in time had: a desire to create their best work.