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Looking for a Cosmetic Chemist to be my cofounder
A technology exec, with a background as a makeup artist, formally trained, looking to start a new type of makeup company. I need a forward thinking, cosmetic chemist to be my cofounder, to help with the development and formulation of a lipstick that “responds” to environmental cues.
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6 Replies
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Does cofounder mean lots of work for no pay?
Why not hire a formulator? pay a fraction of what equity in the company would be worth when you’ve reached your first million in sales and were featured on Vogue magazine, then pocket all of the profits of an industry disrupting idea, instead of giving that away to save some money on the initial R&D costs?
I think that makes more business sense.
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@letsalcido there’s no like button here so have to tag you <LIKE>
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@ngarayeva001 as someone that works in the tech industry (engineer by trade), this is everyday life. Non-technical people that have “the best ideas” are quite abundant and want you to work for free. I would say 1% of them are ideas worth considering.
Back in college I had an experience like this where I did join a group of three other guys. The founder was technical and the idea was solid. It was one electrical engineer (founder), two non-technical (business) and I (software). I decided to part ways for something more stable given my personal situation, but soon after, they got their first couple-hundred-thousand-dollar investment to continue to work on the product.
Again, some are legit ideas… but usually it’s easier to get someone on board when you have something going already, even a prototype and enough market research to support your idea. And all that would need to be included in the pitch to be taken seriously, in my opinion.
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@letsalcido - These days, you don’t even need a product. You just need a description of the product benefits and maybe a cool video to demonstrate the prototype. You post it on Kickstarter and if you can raise enough money with your marketing, it would be a simple matter to hire a chemist to make your product (if it is something that is possible to create).
I think the biggest problem in the cosmetic industry is that there aren’t any new ideas. If you think of an idea for a product and you see that it isn’t already on the market, there are one of two reasons for this.
1. Someone already tried the idea and consumers didn’t buy it.
2. The technology doesn’t exist to make the idea work. -
@Perry makes absolute sense. The power of marketing is incredible.
I did see recently a couple companies with kickstarters for new cosmetic products. Nothing innovative. One was simple castile soap, in a common aluminum bottle but with some cool abstract animal illustrations. Almost $50k in funding from kickstarter. I was amazed. You just have to find the right marketing story and some “unique” packaging, just as you say. Which makes me think, the cosmetic industry is not for chemists, it’s for marketers. -
I can’t stop getting surprised how huge is effect of marketing. I make a simple hair serum and I gave it to a friend to try. Nothing unique but I selected good materials I believe: dimethiconol in D5 (Dow’s ingredient), phenyl trimethicone, some fragrance etc. The friend wasn’t very impressed, which is fine, everyone has different taste. She sent me a link to ‘the most fantastic hair serum she had ever tried and her hair dresser raves about it too’. Product by Kerastase. I opened the LOI: Cyclopantasiloxane, dimethiconol…… I went to a drugstore to try it (because who knows, % makes difference). Very similar to mine. But mine didn’t say Kerastase.
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