Tyra Banks to Seek Investors for Beauty Startup
October 20 2015 - 4:40PM
Dow Jones News
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.—Supermodel and talk-show host Tyra Banks
will raise funds from outside investors next year for her
self-funded cosmetics company after facing what she described as a
setback in how it generates revenue.
At the WSJDLive global technology conference here, Ms. Banks
discussed her past failures, including an ill-fated attempt to
develop an app, and steps women can take to assert themselves.
Every woman needs "eff you money" to "have to be in control of
her future, control of her present so she can make decisions," she
said.
Ms. Banks' company, Tyra Beauty, relies on independent sellers
who earn commissions much like Avon Products Inc. or Mary Kay
Cosmetics Inc.
Previously, the company got a cut of every sales kit it sold to
sellers, but now it won't get paid until customers start buying its
lipstick, mascara and other products from the sellers.
The change is "hurting us a little bit," Ms. Banks said.
Despite this recent change, the company is growing, she said.
That means she'll have to veer from her standard practice of
self-funding her ventures.
"Based on our growth, I'm not going to be able to afford to
carry it forever so we're going to be raising some money next
year," Ms. Banks said, wearing a gray shirt printed with the words
"I'm an entrepreneur, bitch."
Tyra Beauty is one of many of Ms. Banks' projects, including her
reality show "America's Next Top Model," which is slated to end
this year.
Ms. Banks reflected on her failed attempt to create an app in
2012 called "Smize Yourself." The app would tweak a user's photos
to make them look as if they were smiling with their eyes or in Ms.
Banks' parlance, "smizing."
But there were kinks in the app's facial-recognition technology
that were being tweaked 48 hours before launch. Ms. Banks described
the decision to launch an inferior product as one of her biggest
mistakes.
"I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have put that in the
marketplace," she said. "Now it's like, if it ain't working, we
don't launch."
After that experience, Ms. Banks began cold-calling prominent
executives, including Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh , who also spoke at the
WSJD conference Tuesday, for advice on how to run a company. Some
of those advisers will have a more formal role next year when Tyra
Beauty creates a "legitimate board," she said.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 20, 2015 16:25 ET (20:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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