Launched: 2015
Founder:
Key Executives:
2024 Full Year Expected Revenue Range: $50 to $75 million
Offline Points of Distribution Projected Globally for 2024: 2,000
Primary Beauty Category: Haircare
Other Beauty Categories: Facial Skincare, Fragrance
Key Markets:
Retail Partnerships:
Primary Distribution Channel: Prestige
Other Distribution Channels:
Funding Rounds: Private Equity
Notable Investors / Funding Partners:
My family has been beekeeping for over 200 years. I grew up witnessing my father’s dedication and love for the traditions of beekeeping while my mother, who is a hairdresser, was using our family honey to create incredible hair products for us. Early in my career as a content creator, I noticed how particularly interested my community was in my family’s beekeeping heritage and my haircare routine. In a very organic way, their interest inspired me to start Gisou, which came from a real deep love for crafting what my family had long been creating, and blending this with my passion for beauty, creativity, and community.
Bringing the Gisou Honey Glow to the world fuels me every day. That means developing products that exceed our community’s high expectations, not only in terms of the glossiest hair and most glowing skin but complete sensorial indulgence and irresistibility, all with a high respect for nature. Before haircare started booming, we launched Gisou in 2015 with the Honey Infused Hair Oil, gradually expanding our haircare assortment and eventually developing skincare. Each product is powered by our unique Mirsalehi Honey and Bee Garden Oils from our family apiaries, to intensely nourish, hydrate, and protect hair and skin, while being clinically proven to be rich in antioxidants and microbiome-friendly.
Insight provided by Negin Mirsalehi, Co-Founder
What are your key business initiatives for 2024?
Our focus in 2024 will be fueling the incredible momentum and headroom for growth we have, not just with our iconic hero products but across all aspects of the Gisou business.
Despite our rapid growth, there’s still so much untapped potential in our most iconic products, especially our Honey Infused Hair Oil, Lip Oil, and Hair Perfume. A key focus in 2024 will be driving the haircare category growth through our existing icons. At the same time, we will continue to create irresistibly luxurious, responsible beauty innovations that captivate our global community.
Meeting our loyal community with authentic, creative big moments remains at the core of our priorities—we aim to illuminate the Gisou Honey Glow through our sell-out campaigns and pop-ups, across social media, and in real life to truly embody what Gisou is: distinctive, widely desired, indulgent, and attainable with a fanatically loyal and engaged community!
What are you most proud of having accomplished?
I am so proud of our Gisou community and the results we’ve been able to achieve together with them! Our community is at the core of our DNA; we are in constant conversation with them on social media or in person so that we can deliver products and experiences that don't just meet but exceed their needs and expectations. Thanks to our community, we are the #1 most followed luxury haircare brand on TikTok, and we are the world’s #1 haircare brand for growth among creators according to Tribe Dynamics/CreatorIQ in 2023. We’re also incredibly proud that the growth in our community of customers is driving consistent triple digit sales growth for us (CAGR 102% over the last eight years). When we double down on activation, despite our limited SKU count (for an intentionally simple, edited product range), we stand in the league of “beauty giants” in our retail sales results, outperforming established brands with significantly broader offerings.
What has been the biggest surprise?
Everything we have been able to achieve has exceeded our wildest expectations. When Gisou was founded, I could not have imagined how strongly our vision for Gisou would resonate with our community. From partnering with Sephora and other retailers worldwide to become a truly global brand, to winning numerous prestigious industry awards, becoming the #1 luxury haircare brand on TikTok, hitting 1 million followers on Instagram; realizing that we’re playing at the highest level with the biggest beauty brands out there in the world is a dream come true.
What fuels your competitive advantage?
Gisou blends iconic, irresistible product, and exquisite, honey glowing creativity. Our responsible, performance-driven beauty is centered around a highly engaged and rapidly growing community, driven by passionate sharing across social and real life! Powered by Mirsalehi Honey and our precious Bee Garden Oils, Gisou delivers nourishing hydration, so that everyone can discover their glossiest hair that’s full, soft, and strong.
For example, our award winning Honey Infused Hair Oil is clinically proven to deliver hydration and humidity control for 72 hours, reduce frizz 19x, and increase shine by 143%. Beyond product performance, we believe the experience should be a sensorial indulgence, and together with Gisou’s cute packaging, we are making investing in a luxurious haircare routine irresistible!
The Mirsalehi Honey and Bee Garden Oils that power every product come from our Mirsalehi Bee Gardens, where my sister, Negar, is Chief Beekeeper and continues our family’s 200-year heritage of beekeeping. We are proud to champion the vital role bees play in powering nature’s ecosystems through pollination and aim to inspire our community to do the same.
Please share your insight on the future of the beauty industry.
The beauty industry has evolved tremendously over the last decade alone. When we launched Gisou in 2015 into premium haircare, the category was oriented towards professionals/professional products and tech innovations. With Gisou, we have been shifting the category towards the at-home consumer, marrying performance with luxury, simplicity, and do-it-yourself, to create a feeling that you or anyone—can create glowing results from the comfort of your own home. Just like I do my own hair, we empower our community to do the same.
We also believe beauty, wellness, and lifestyle will enjoy greater overlap, and social communities will continue to drive frenzied growth. Authenticity and real responsibility will become increasingly important to deliver lasting success. Fortunately, this aligns exactly with our core values. I strongly believe in staying true to your authentic self and doing what you love. I am very proud that my family’s heritage, our proprietary Mirsalehi Honey, and the brand that we have built based on these facets, cannot be replicated. From the organic beginnings of Gisou and forevermore, it is our utmost priority to continue to deliver an authentic, inimitable, socially responsible experience to our community around the world.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
The best advice I’ve been given is to truly go after what feeds your heart and soul first and foremost and give it your all. The most important thing is to really love what you do. If you are going to start a business, it has to be for the right reasons; that's the only way to overcome the challenges, sustain for the long run, and really succeed.
What is the best mistake you've ever made?
Since starting Gisou, we have approached everything very organically while always planning for the long term. We don’t take unnecessary big risks and we’re always very prepared. While mistakes happen, we learn from them, and they drive our growth.
Paying it forward, what advice would you give to someone contemplating launching a beauty brand?
The best advice I've been given has been so valuable and such a constant guiding principle to me, that it’s the same one I share: only do something you really love and stay true to that authentically and absolutely.
If you could change one thing in the beauty industry what would it be?
There is a need for greater transparency, sustainability, and authenticity. Fortunately, we are feeling the industry change already with more and more brands demonstrating on these facets. We are lucky to have a very loyal community to inspire us and our Mirsalehi beekeeping heritage to guide our respect for nature and to keep us true to ourselves.
