My Husband and I Bootstrapped a SaaS Start-up and it Failed. Here is what I learned. (Part 4)
New Startup Idea - GlamAfric.com
I had gotten into a rhythm with the job board nurseryjobs.ng. With Childminder gone, Chika once again started brainstorming new ideas. Most founders get ideas from their daily lives and ours was no different.
It is a well known fact that finding decent hair braiders in the UK is difficult, especially if you do not live in London. We did not live in London so finding good hair stylist tricky for me. At this point I had natural hair and hadn’t relaxed my hair in over 3 year. I had painstakingly grown and cared for my hair myself and it thrived beautifully.
Mid 2018, tapered cut natural hair was all the rage and I wanted in on that hair style, trouble was, it wasn’t something I could do myself. I needed an expert hair stylist. In the black community, there are a lot of people who can do make a decent braid, but actual hair care is a different ball game, you really need to search for those who know what they are doing. I researched and found a decent salon in the town we lived in run by a Caribbean woman. When I called to make an appointment, I explained what I was trying to achieve, she assured me that she was an expert in styling natural afro hair.
On the day of my appointment, I got there on time, it was a lovely space, I was even offered coffee which was much appreciated. The way she handled my hair while washing and blowing drying inspired confidence. When she started cutting my hair, I held my breath praying that she would get it right. Sadly that was not to be, I didn’t get the exact shape I was hoping for, which made it not worth cutting my natural hair that had taken me three whole years to grow. That was the longest my hair had ever been in my whole life.
When I got home and Chika met me at the door, I burst into tears, wailing into his arms that she had ruined my hair. My darling husband comforted me and assured me that my hair was nice. Although not what I may have wanted, but it still looked ok. He asked me who referred the lady to me, I explained that I found her through a google search. He went on to ask if her business listings had reviews and pictures of her work. She had a hand full of google reviews but no pictures that I saw.
A few days later, Chika, breaming with excitement, let me in on the idea that would be our 3rd startup. The idea was simple, an online beauty appointment booking platform for Afro hair, where hair stylists could create a business profile, upload pictures of their work, and set up a calendar so that prospective clients who liked their work could book them. There were similar existing platforms on the market in the UK, sadly at the time, they barely had afro hair specialists on their platform. After much research into the viability of this idea, we were convinced that it would work and with that - glamafric.com was born, a beauty appointment booking platform for the Afro-Caribbean community.
