Not most inspirations for leadership styles are found in rock-star royalty, but as a believer in the MBJA—short for Management by Joking Around—management style, Luum Lash co-founder and CEO Nathan Harding likes to keep a sense of humor about him. “Henry Rollins said that David Lee Roth told him, ‘He who laughs, lasts.’ Start-ups are wonderful in some ways, but you don't know what's going to happen, constantly have new obstacles, and just have to keep going,” he states. “You’ve got to be able to laugh it off because it always happens that the thing you are really worried about actually comes easier than you think and there's something new you didn't even think of standing in your way. That's just the nature of what we do.”Specifically speaking, the nature of what Luum Lash does is beauty-focused robotics technology. The company currently holds 31 global patents. Following a $700K crowdfunding campaign, in July 2022 the enterprise closed a $2.9 million seed funding round with Ulta Beauty, Foundation Capital, Artifact Ventures, Ascendant Venture, Handshake Ventures, SaxeCap, and XSeed Capital as investors, with the amount to go towards building its next-generation pilot program with the top-five leading US cosmetics brands. Luum Lash’s next crowdfunding campaign could raise up to $4.29 million.Despite the visible results for both customers and businesses from Luum Lash’s robotics, the road there was not easy—not just because the team had to pivot the business from an initial concept of a multi-unit retail business owning and operating stand-alone salons.