Finding the right fragrance is hard, we get it! Therefore, co-founders Erika Shumate and Christine Luby developed Pinrose, a fun, user-friendly way of discovery new scents by matching customers personalities to scents via an algorithm-based online quiz. For the woman on the go, who has a curious nose, this one is for you!

Co-founders, Erika Shumate and Christine Luby met back in 2010 at Stanford during their MBA. “We were both in an improv theatre class and bonded over our love for fractal geometry and revolutionizing consumer brands. It was while I was helping Christine shop for a new perfume that I was overloaded by the retail process of selecting a scent and felt that this category was ripe for disruption.” Erika has also always been obsessed with fragrance and how it triggers our brain to transport us to different moments in time. Essentially, making smell a time machine. “I studied the History of Science at Yale with a focus on olfaction (smell) and the psychology of scent.”

Testing An Idea

Pinrose launched in 2014, and the ladies spent roughly one year in R&D, building up their supply chain and testing out the market. “We made a fake, cheap website initially to test out different packaging styles and chose the winner based on the click-through rates as well as set up our supply chain before going to raise money. Both of us had no prior retail or beauty experience and developing this product was very new to us.” Typical background story of our RADICHE Makers, but what is interesting is Pinrose’s agility to consistently evolve the packaging and branding of their product over time to adhere to their customers.

“We were inspired by synesthesia, incorporating colors, sounds, and textures to create a scent map for women to identify the best fragrance match for their personalities. Our tiny bottles also enabled customers to experiment with different scents before committing to one.”

Instead of producing the product overseas, Erika decided to create everything locally as the shipping costs were astronomically high. “We were lucky enough to have a friend who worked in the bottling industry to help guide us, but production, in general, is always a nightmare as each part comes from a different factory and you have to assemble the different pieces together.” Their products are named after each customer persona such as a Wild Child, Secret Genius, and Pillowtalk Poet and can be found at Sephora, QVC and on their website.

“There is no one to give you a stamp of approval before moving on to the next phase.”

When it comes to challenges in the fragrance category, Erika expressed concern around the lack of education when it comes to ingredients. Right now the term “fragrance” can contain multiple ingredients that corporations do not need to legally disclose as this includes top secret recipes. As a result, it is highly scrutinized. Erika also mentioned that “if you ask a scientist, they would tell you that it’s better to extract a natural ingredient and reproduce it synthetically due to allergies and the destruction of scarce natural resources. It is also very important to make sure that your ingredients are being harvested without displacing people and trees.”

The Advice

“Founding a company comes with a lot of emotional tolls, responsibilities, and pressure. I love being in the hot seat, and in the limelight. It only pushes me forward.” Erika believes that if you are looking to venture out on your own you should be self-aware about what your capabilities are and hire individuals for the ones you lack.

Here are some of her key takeaways:

You have to be an optimist!
Design for your customer, prototype, and iterate.
Don’t let the fear of failure guide you.
Take your distribution slow the first year, but implement fast feedback from customers.
Instead of spending a fortune acquiring customers online, look towards retail to build out a sales funnel.

Priced between $24 - $65, Pinrose can be bought here. Fun fact: Vanilla is one of the few scents that is widely loved across all cultures and is known to lower your heart rate (that lavender scent ain’t got nothing on these beans). However, if you are looking to hit the books or work on your latest venture, a rose scent is known for helping with memory and concentration.

Interested in meeting Erika or collaborating on a project? Email us and we’ll put you in touch.

Photo courtesy of Pinrose.