Maesa has built brands such as TPH by Taraji P Henson, Flower Beauty, and Hairitage—and is now turning its efforts towards the next generation of beauty entrepreneurs. In honor of the beauty brand incubator’s 25th anniversary, the company has launched the #MaesaMagicIncubator, a program “open to all under-served communities in pre-launch or early launch phase” with less than $100K sales to date.
The company emphasizes the importance of such initiatives by citing stats including the monetary boost of $2.5 to $5 trillion to the global economy if entrepreneurship were balanced between genders and executive teams with ethnic diversity outperform their less diverse counterparts financially by 36%. Incubator programs, whether prompted by retailers, conglomerates, or indie beauty brands, are an indispensable resource for budding beauty brand owners, offering access to capital, insider industry knowledge, and an invaluable platform for diving headfirst into the industry.
In the case of Maesa’s model, three beauty or wellness CPG start-ups will be selected to join a 12-week curriculum with mentorship, a $35K grant, advertising access, and education. Mentors include brand owner and celebrity hairstylist Andrew Fitzsimons; Mindy McKnight, founder of Hairitage; Hui Chan, Managing Director of Bain Capital; and Piyush Jain, Chief Executive Officer of Maesa, to name a few.
The program will focus on setting up the businesses for long-term growth, with additional workshops such as the Emerson Group’s Future of Commerce and Work program. The first six weeks will include lectures incorporating the pillars of product and creative, retail and logistics, supply chains, financials, and legal and regulatory, as well as marketing. After entrepreneurs have identified the biggest gaps in their business with the help of the mentorship team, they will then choose one track on which to place their main focus before presenting their pitch decks to the incubator’s panel of industry experts at the end of the program.
Applications are now open until September 1, 2023. Winners will be announced on September 25, 2023, before the program commences in October, with the curriculum concluding in January 2024.
