Candace Mitchell, CEO of hair platform Myavana, says the hair care recommendation platform raised $5.9 million from investors and is now valued at $50 million. Mitchell joined Forbes at the Nasdaq MarketSite to discuss her early-stage tech startup.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00She calls it the Amazon of the hair care industry and is used by major players like Nordstrom and
00:05Ulta Beauty. Introducing you to the entrepreneur who built the software company that investors
00:10are raving about behind the scenes right now at the Nasdaq. Hello everyone, this is Jabari Young,
00:17senior writer at Forbes here at the Nasdaq market site and I am joined by Candice Mitchell. She is
00:23the CEO of Atlanta-based software company MyAvana. Now this is a software company,
00:29just came off of a capital raise, and it recommends the best hair care products using
00:34its internal algorithms and machine learning based off of real life hair strands. Candice,
00:40welcome to the Nasdaq. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, now listen, we're at the Stock Exchange,
00:44you got to give me a stock that you might want to buy that you may own already that's done well by
00:49you or that you're curious about. What's the stock? I think it's going to be MyAvana soon.
00:52MyAvana soon, I like that. See, I thought you were going to say Ulta Beauty traded right here
00:57at the Nasdaq. And Ulta, exactly. Of course, we've enjoyed partnering with them so much. They
01:01are leaders in digital innovation within beauty, so we align so well together and I'm so excited
01:06to partner with them. Yeah, absolutely, and you're coming at a time where we are celebrating Black
01:10Business Month, right, in August, and Forbes BOK, we have this journalism series, you call it Road
01:14to Economic Empowerment, right? When you think of small businesses, everybody wants to be big,
01:19and so these conversations talking about impacting small businesses and the things that entrepreneurs
01:25can teach us about how they jump-started their enterprise, and that's why I'm glad to talk to
01:29you, right, because again, behind the scenes, your investors are raving about your software product,
01:34but before we get into that, right, again, Black Business Month, give me that figure in the black
01:39community that, you know, really stood out from a business lens that, you know, again, had an
01:44impact on you, and it doesn't have to be a celebrity. Yes, well, definitely for me, it was
01:48Madam CJ Walker. Being a pioneer in the hair care industry for hair care products, I really identify
01:55with that as a technologist, but building next generation technology that could really help us
02:00with the unique compositions of our hair. As women of color, women of all ethnicities, your hair is as
02:06unique as your fingerprint, so seeing how she paved the way for the products that we needed at that
02:12time, I think for this generation and the future of hair care, Mayavana is really standing on her
02:19shoulders and building the technology for the future, and I also think about my grandparents.
02:25My grandfather, he was such a legacy for his community. Recently mentioned in a book, Ascension,
02:32he said that, I may not leave you a lot of money, but I'll leave you a good name,
02:36and it really taught me the importance of what you're building in the name of your family,
02:41your legacy, and how that passes on to generations as well. I think that's a pillar for
02:46our community. Yeah, love to hear it, love to hear it. Well listen, let's get into Mayavana, right? The news is
02:51you recently closed on a 5.9 million raise, right? Yes. Ulta Beauty being an investor, HL Ventures, another
02:57investor, had a chance to talk to Oliver Liberty, managing partner over there. Phenomenal guy, yeah,
03:02telling me about the company, and so that's a 6.2 million that you've raised so far since starting
03:07the company around 2012. That's right. Yes. Phenomenal. So listen, this is up from 20 million valuation in
03:13May 2021, according to PitchBook. So take me inside the raise. What are you going to do with the funds,
03:17and how is it going to expand Mayavana? Yes, well first of all, I must say that it's been a journey to get
03:22here. It was not easy for me to raise venture capital in the beginning because no one really
03:27understood our market, and we were really 10 years ahead of the industry, but over the years, the right
03:33investors have come to the table. A lot of them started out as our own friends and family who
03:38became angel investors in the business, and recently the venture funds that actually really
03:43solidified our technology in the B2B space, and so a lot of that capital really went into building
03:49our own proprietary systems technology that we now license to enterprise companies globally,
03:55and really establishing the digital infrastructure for the hair industry so that everyone could now
03:59have a digital hair profile, okay, and know exactly which products are best to use, and that has taken
04:05so much research and development, training our own AI systems with our own microscopic hair images.
04:12I mean, we've been in the lab for a very long time, and our investors have helped make that possible,
04:17especially when a lot of people didn't really understand how important this is for our culture.
04:21Well, take me inside of the technology, right? What is the software? Because I mean, talking to you
04:25on the phone last week, and you were saying this, you can take your hair strand, and because the
04:30lenses on iPhones, right, have become so accurate, we'll get into that in a minute, but this technology
04:35can actually look at your hair to determine what products are the best, right, and you don't have
04:41products, which is a little, that's why it's trustworthy, right, because you're actually
04:45steering these people to products which is going to best fit their hair, like what is that software?
04:49How is it determining what's best? Yes, when I was going natural in college, and really having a hard
04:54time figuring out, like, why is this cream drying my hair out, and asking my friends and my sisters, you
05:00know, I thought to myself, there must be a science to this, because I'm a computer scientist,
05:05and to me, I felt like there were a lot more variables involved than what this label is telling
05:10me, and so I knocked on professors' doors, got some lab space, and I literally started looking at hair
05:16strands under the microscope, just reading these cosmetic journals. I mean, that's how we had to
05:21get to the root of the matter, no pun intended, but what I saw was so intriguing to me, and the fact
05:29that we all have unique compositions of texture, type, and condition, so you're more than a 4C,
05:36you're more than just wavy hair, there's so many other variables involved, as well as external
05:41variables, like the weather, like seasonal changes, even hormonal changes, your mood that day, you know,
05:48there's so many things that affect how we express ourselves, but also how our hair is, like, reacting
05:53to the environment, and so, to me, the light bulb went off. I was like, okay, well, I can just write an
05:59algorithm that matches the variables in your hair strands to the variables and products that will
06:03work best for your hair, and that eliminates the trial and error, and that became my baby at the
06:08time. I entered my first pitch competition, and it was so funny, because when I pitched my heart out,
06:14I looked at the judges, everyone was white-balled men, and then I had to explain the whole natural
06:19hair movement, and the fact that now there's so many women rediscovering their hair, we're
06:25rediscovering who we are at the same time, our identity is so connected to our hair, and now,
06:32all these beautiful textures and curl patterns are all showing up, and we were all figuring it
06:37out a lot of time on YouTube, but now we have something that's scientifically based and proven
06:43to match you to the best products for your hair. And this is all women, right? That's what's unique
06:47about it, because originally, I'm thinking, okay, well, it was only black women that caused the
06:50issue, but you can, this is all women that can determine the product. Yes, even men, too.
06:58Right, we have, I'll let you know when we get there. Oh, yeah, please do that. For now, I mean,
07:01a lot of guys are growing out their hair, wearing curlier hair, and we just evolved as our customer
07:08base evolved, right? Obviously, at first, we were solving our own problems as black women,
07:13we have the greatest texture variety out of any ethnicity in the world, but as our customer base
07:19grew, we saw people of all ethnicities, people from other countries, and so we realized that
07:25we really just want to focus on hair, global textures, because that's what's really amazing,
07:29too, is seeing the unique hair IDs of different cultures around the world, what products they
07:35need, what products are distributed there, which products need to be there. Now, our recommendation
07:40system can tell us all of these things, and so the data about hair is the most intriguing thing
07:46to us across all ethnicities, genders, and just mastering healthy hair care. Yeah,
07:51the way it makes money, it's a software as a service company, right? It's a software service,
07:55again, so you're making money through licensing fees, you have about 50,000 subscribers for the
07:59actual app and the programs you offer through that, the tiers, right? And so, again, you also
08:05have that data that you're able to leverage, and the health benefits that can be unlocked from that,
08:10you know, getting to that in one minute again, but in talking to one of your investors, I said,
08:15hey, if you could describe the company in one word, he said, we'll give you two. Unexpected, right,
08:19because it's a beauty company that appears, it's like a beauty company you think, but it's a
08:23technology company behind the scenes, and then he also said foundational, because of, again, those
08:28layers of data that you're sitting on. You agree with those terms? Yes, absolutely. I love those
08:33terms because we are a new innovation in the industry that really was born out of a problem,
08:40a necessity, but it's unexpected because we've been building behind the scenes for so long
08:46and really gathering the data, analyzing the hair ourselves, building our own, you know, libraries
08:52of hair images, you know, that was very important to us because we wanted to master the art of what
08:58we're bringing to the industry that's very unique, which is the first hair product recommendation
09:03system. It's brand agnostic. We're neutral. We recommend all brands on the market, and that's
09:09how we really build that trust, but then understanding how your hair transforms over
09:13time, what products are needed next. We really wanted to perfect that. We built our own master
09:19product database. I mean, everything is really built from the ground up, and it's really first
09:24of its kind. It's very unique, and I think that it's also what we've been waiting for
09:31because technology did have to mature, you know, going back to the smartphone cameras. You know,
09:35we knew that was going to be our key way to automate this, and so now you can subscribe
09:40to Myovana through our app, and you get constant recommendations throughout your hair journey, so
09:44we wanted to get to that, but now that we have all this data, it is so valuable, especially to all of
09:50our partners that we work with because we want everyone to plug into Myovana, and that's what we
09:55call powered by Myovana. Yeah, you want to explain again how you came up with that term Myovana. It's
09:59my hair nirvana. Yes, exactly. Yes, so Myovana means my nirvana, and it really is that place
10:06where you love your hair, you love yourself, you feel confident, you're at peace, and we realize
10:12that that's ultimately what people are striving for, you know, because natural hair has often
10:17been referred to as a struggle, right? Like, all the forums, all the blogs, all the chats is, you know,
10:22we're just struggling, struggling, struggling, and I'm like, okay, don't you want to liberate
10:26and break free at some point and actually love your hair, but most importantly, love yourself
10:31because Myovana is also about helping people become their best self. Yeah. Because, you know,
10:36once you look in the mirror, you love who you are, your hair is popping, you feel great. Like, that's
10:41a very special moment. We call that nirvana, and it's my nirvana because it's personalized to you,
10:47and that is the difference, the transformation that we're bringing to market. I had to discover
10:51a new nirvana, life without hair, but what's it like being CEO of a company, especially one that
10:57you're, again, trying to build, trying to convince investors, again, you landed Ulta Beauty, that's a
11:01major investor right there. Yes. But what's it like to be CEO of a company like this? Well, it is a hard
11:07task. I'm not even going to try to dumb that down at all. It's a lot of hard work, it's a lot of
11:13responsibility. You know, it could be lonely at times too because I was really pioneering at the
11:19same time. And so, having people constantly not understand what you're talking about, it kind of
11:25challenging your belief, challenging your faith, you know, that was a daily walk. So, I had to
11:30really tap into my spiritual side to really endure and stay resilient because it takes a lot of
11:36resilience to be a CEO, especially of a tech company that's changing an industry. And being
11:43so far ahead for so many years, you really feel alone because you're like, hey, the industry's
11:49headed this way and everyone's still back here. So, you know, that takes out of your comfort zone,
11:56right? So, but I always feel that, you know, everyone needs to break free from their comfort
12:03zone at some point in time in your life, right? And I just decided, you know, my opportunity to
12:08do that was to be, to start this company and really believe in a dream that I've had, a God-given dream
12:15that, you know, I can endure and bring something like this to life. Yeah, well, that's a perfect
12:20flashback where we can take you back to your original dream, right? You grew up in Atlanta,
12:23right? Stone Mountain, Georgia, right outside there. And so, what was that like? You're the
12:28oldest of three, have sisters, and what was that like growing up in Stone Mountain? And what do
12:33you like about being the oldest? I'm the oldest, I hate it. Really? I honestly love it. It was very fun
12:40in our neighborhood because I think that one thing, you know, about being in Atlanta is
12:46we have our own vibe, our own scene, and we are not afraid to express our creativity. However,
12:53that comes out through music, through film, through arts, through sports. I mean, we have
12:58so much that we can go into. And I went to Stevenson High School, so we were really kind of
13:03best at class at everything. And I just, you know, just happened to want to focus on technology
13:09because I felt like there was something there, you know, when we got our first computer and I
13:13dived into the world of Microsoft. And that was kind of my world, but you can really find your
13:18world in Atlanta, and that's what I love. And pioneering the tech scene there as well. Atlanta
13:23as an ecosystem that's now growing significantly and being at the forefront of that. I feel like,
13:30you know, how they say Atlanta influences everything. It's very real, but it's because
13:34we bring our uniqueness to a lot of genres, a lot of fields, and I love that about us. Absolutely.
13:39And so, you grow up down that way, and then you wanted to go to Georgia Institution of Technology,
13:42Georgia Tech, and you eventually land there. What was your major? Yes, I majored in computer science.
13:47Well, what did you want to be at that point, right? At that point, I wanted to be the next Bill Gates.
13:53Because at age 10, you put together your family's computer by just following directions,
13:57but you wanted to be the next Bill Gates. You don't really think about that at age 10. You
14:02want to be a firefighter or something. I know, right? Yeah, everyone, you know, kind of mentioned
14:05the traditional fields, but I knew that there was something behind this path of technology
14:12and entrepreneurship, because the thing about Microsoft was that it was the first-of-its-kind
14:17type of company in that software era, and how they all went to market differently and established
14:23their lanes in different ways. And, you know, it just happened to be Microsoft had all the software
14:29applications that were running on our computers, and so I thought to myself, well, I want to build
14:33something that's running on, you know, multiple computers and not knowing that it would be
14:37phones by the time that we're, you know, in the industry. And now, you know, having my
14:42Ivana right at your fingertips, you kind of really understand how technology paves the way for the
14:48future. So, I really felt like, okay, I want to think of something that could really solve like
14:52a future need or problem, and it wasn't until I connected it to my own problem in this own
14:57market that we have, I'm like, okay, this is it. So, yeah, that was just my path.
15:02When you go through those stages of, again, you don't just come out because you work at Pepsi for
15:06a little bit before you find your entrepreneurial journey and IT, right? What was that journey like
15:12working at Pepsi? Well, first, everyone thought I was a traitor, right, because Atlanta is the
15:16world of Coke, and I fully acknowledge that. I fully acknowledge that, but I was deeply inspired
15:21by the CEO of Pepsi at the time, Indra Nooyi, one of the only minority women to lead a Fortune 500
15:28company at the time. I believe there were only two at the time, and I just love this mantra about
15:33performance with purpose, and that we can bring our purpose into business, because then we make
15:40it more about just making money. You know, we can build wealth that also makes an impact as well,
15:46and so I really gravitated to that, and I wanted to learn, you know, what it was like to, you know,
15:51be a part of a multi-billion dollar, you know, company like that, and it wasn't until I was
16:00recruiting and kind of getting back to my love, you know, going back to tech and kind of, you know,
16:06thinking about this hair idea again that I felt like, okay, maybe the journey for me could be
16:12into entrepreneurship at some point. I just think it would be that soon into my career. Well, I mean,
16:17listen, that's why, you know, I love your journey, right? I mean, you really took your time, and
16:22that's what your investors love about you. They say, listen, you look at it on the surface, it's
16:25a 50 million dollar company. Most people say, oh, that's not, but she took her time to build it,
16:30right, and you were ahead of the curve because you studied how humans would interact with machines,
16:35and here we are, interacting with machines probably more intimately than ever because of
16:40generator AI, but, you know, you put your company through Flashpoint, right, and that was starting
16:45from startup for engineering and things of that nature, but one of the things that on that journey
16:49as you put your, you know, my vine through that, they made you test your hypothesis. They made you
16:55say, go improve that this is going to work. How did that help you, and then you also got $35,000
17:00to jump start. How did Flashpoint, that program, how did that really help you? Yes, that was our
17:04first seed investment, and I just have so much gratitude for my professor at the time, Merrick
17:09Furst, who started Flashpoint and really challenged us to find authentic demand, and it was challenging
17:16because when you start, you think that your idea is the best thing ever, like, but it really forced
17:22us to really talk to our customers first and really understand their problems, and so we actually
17:28interviewed over a thousand women about their hair during that program, and what we discovered was so
17:34much greater than hair products. We really discovered, you know, this really internal
17:40engine that's driving these journeys that customers are on, and we see that through our hair, but
17:47there's something amazing about the journey of the person and how that changes over time,
17:52which impacts our recommendations and kind of building that into my Havana, and so it was very,
17:59very tough to get there, but once we got to that point, it's like, okay, now we know the why
18:06of our business, right? We know why we are called to serve this market in particular, and now we can
18:14again carry that purpose through all the changes and the ups and downs because, yeah, I took my time
18:20because a lot of times things were slow, and I had, I could do nothing but, you know, just trust the
18:28process, and even with waiting for technology to advance because we analyze hair strands manually
18:35for many years in the lab, you know, before we could get to a process where we could automate that and
18:40then scale the business, so there are a lot of tough periods, but again, I always felt like, okay,
18:46there's some lesson in this that will allow us to get to the next level or in some cases pivot.
18:54We've pivoted several times. I think a lot of people can attest to that because, again, we had
19:01to find out what people really wanted, needed, their perception of everything, and again, really
19:10understand our customer and how to design technology that could perform in a way that
19:18meets all the needs that, again, it allows us to build that vision that we really see, but put it
19:24in the customer's hands and allow them to walk with us through that product experience. Yeah, I mean,
19:29listen, there's no secret that, you know, attracting capital, especially when you're a black woman, is
19:33very tough. You know, less than two percent goes, venture capital goes to people of color, women as
19:39well. If you had to talk to that entrepreneur sitting in front of your face right now about
19:43what barriers of entry they can expect, especially going into a software, you know, industry, what
19:48would you kind of tell them? Yeah, I would say you really need to discover your secret sauce and own
19:54it. IP is everything in terms of what really sets products apart and also what your product
20:00roadmap and your strategy is, so we focus a lot on IP for a while so that we can really nail down
20:09what we're inventing. We can document it because now we're licensing it to major companies,
20:15and, you know, when our council looks at, you know, all these major corporations
20:21that I'm now bringing these, you know, agreements to review and commercialization, you know, agreements,
20:27and our IP has to be strong, you know, in order to be a part of our licensing strategy, and so
20:33that was very interesting in terms of seeing what other companies were claiming
20:42and understanding what is our unique mark that we're making that could compete against
20:48a L'Oreal or P&G or whatever the case may be, and it just so happened to be that our partnership
20:54model really allowed us to have the right model and strategy to work with everyone, but also have
21:01our unique thing that we own in terms of licensing my Havana, how that now allows you to bring
21:08personalization into your customer experience. Powerful platform. You do not land a customer like,
21:14you know, Nordstrom's or a client like that unless your tech is really that good. Hey, listen, get you
21:19out of here. A couple things because you're a CEO. You got to get back to it in Atlanta, right?
21:24Listen, the next 10 years for my Havana, if you had to just give me one word to describe what that's
21:28going to be, what that's going to look like, what would that be? Somebody said to me, my Havana health.
21:32Watch out for it. It could be coming. They have all of this data. It can very well lead to health.
21:38That's very much true. I would definitely say transformation. Transformation. That is the impact
21:45of my Havana in terms of our technology transforming the industry, but also transforming the person.
21:52So we're starting with hair, but there's a lot that you can learn about your health from your hair as
21:57well, and when we look at the hair challenges people are reporting, you know, there's a lot of
22:01health factors that contribute that we really want to be able to impact our customers in a
22:07very meaningful way as well, and there's so many other categories that, you know, again, focusing on
22:14the person, how their journey evolves, you know, what does skin care look like, what does fashion
22:19look like, what does beauty look like, and we're really doing that through our partnerships and
22:24our hair and beauty network, and I think that, you know, 10 years from now, we will see the
22:28transformation that my Havana is bringing to the world. Generative AI, when you hear the word, right,
22:33it's a buzzword, right? What would you tell small businesses to prepare for when they hear that
22:37you're a computer scientist? Absolutely, absolutely. A small business should be scared of it, what should it be prepared for?
22:43I would say, I told y'all it was coming, I would say think about it as your co-pilot, you know, we're in
22:49again a world where we need to partner with technology to make our lives easier, so that's
22:55the good side of AI that I still believe in, because AI is meant to automate our lives in ways
23:01where we can spend our time doing the things that we're really called to do, not the manual task,
23:05right, not the searching, the repetitive things, so figure out how to use it as a tool, as a part of,
23:13you know, your daily experience that can make your life easier, but also fight for the things that
23:18are not so great, and there's a lot of policy work happening that I think is very valid and very
23:24necessary, but figure out how you'll coexist and really be a part of what I call like the good AI
23:31army. Absolutely, listen, you are a CEO, U.S. presidential race, without choosing sides, you're paying
23:36attention to anything, economic policy, what do you want to hear from the candidates? Oh yeah, absolutely, I
23:41think, you know, economic liberty is something that is very, very necessary, there are a lot of ways
23:49and a lot of areas where communities have been oppressed, you know, financially for many years, and
23:54so I think economic justice has to be a part of every policy, and I think that we need to just,
24:01again, bring our moral compass back into things, right, a lot of people are fighting for different
24:06rights, but morally, you know, what is the best way, you know, to govern people, you know,
24:12what is the best way to really make sure that people do live in a fair, just world, and really
24:19keep that at the forefront. Absolutely, get you out of here on this, right, Good to Great, Jim Collins'
24:23book, right, one of my favorite business books, Good to Great, what is the difference between a good
24:28software company and a great one? Oh, that's a good one, I would say a great one is really centered on
24:35purpose. Centered on purpose. Yes, a good one, you know, may make a lot of money, it may, you know, have a lot
24:41of customers, but a great one is really operating in purpose, and it's also making the world better
24:47by how it exists. Absolutely, Candace Mitchell, we appreciate the time, thank you so much,
24:51Maya Vonna, right, a company to look out for. Absolutely. Happy Black Business Month as well.
24:55Happy Black Business Month, let's get it. Absolutely, hope to have you back at the NASDAQ for your, for
25:00your IPO. Listen, that's when I'll be back, okay. Appreciate it, Candace Mitchell, Maya Vonna,
25:06Jabari Young, thank you so much for watching.
25:17you