- 7 hours ago
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00All right, Cora, we are ready and waiting to hear more about Young King Hair Care.
00:16Whenever you're prepared, go ahead with your pitch.
00:20Great, thank you.
00:22Hi, I'm Cora, co-founder and CEO of Young King Hair Care.
00:27But before I go any further, I have to tell you about the toughest boss I've ever met, my son and Chief Inspiration Officer, Cade.
00:35Cade was born with a head full of hair, and my husband and I realized we needed help styling his hair, but discovered there were no products explicitly created for boys with textured hair.
00:44So leveraging our combined 20-plus years of corporate experience across marketing and development, in December 2019, we launched Young King Hair Care, a plant-based, natural hair care line intentionally crafted for multicultural boys that will soon be available across two national retailers.
01:03So if I were to ask you who runs the world, say girls, and you would be 100% correct.
01:11The beauty industry is female-dominated, from the packaging at shelf to the marketing and the scents.
01:17And while we have seen emerging brands start to have adult male grooming needs, there is still virtually zero representation at shelf for young boys in the multicultural segment.
01:29We have the unique opportunity to create a tailored offering for young multicultural males that's fueled by a total addressable market of $24 billion in kids' personal care, with a $3 billion opportunity to address multicultural boys' care.
01:46Recognizing this, we created Young King Hair Care as the first and only brand that represents black and brown boys within the beauty industry.
01:56Our current portfolio includes three hair styling products to create a daily regimen set, featuring our conditioner, essential oils, and curling cream, making it easy for both parents and their sons to care for their hair.
02:11And in fact, 82% of our customers purchase our $38 set.
02:17Since launching as a DTC brand, we've achieved notable success within our first year.
02:23Garnered over 200-plus five-star reviews.
02:26We're currently tracking to deliver over half a million dollars in revenue.
02:30And we've secured multiple national retail partnerships that will launch in 2021.
02:36By 2023, we're projecting to achieve $18 million in revenue, fueled by our multi-channel business strategy, as well as our expansion into other personal care product offerings.
02:50But even beyond this, what Young King represents is bigger than hair care.
02:54It's about celebrating and elevating boys who look like our son, especially in today's environment.
02:59With this investment, we will be able to impact the lives of even more black and brown boys by helping to fuel our national expansion, as well as our marketing activities.
03:09So if you believe multicultural boys deserve high-quality products really tailored for their needs, please join us on the journey as we are ready to find male growth for the next generation.
03:20We are Young King Hair Care.
03:22Thank you, Cora.
03:24Thank you so much.
03:25I will say I have a nephew who is about to turn three literally next week, and he actually, his mom actually uses Young King Hair Care.
03:37So I already know that your brand throughout the multicultural world.
03:44So great job and great job creating a product that's actually really needed and fills a white space.
03:51Now, we're going to do an A portion now, and what I would like to know more about is you mentioned expanding into personal care and some other areas.
04:03Can you give us more of a sneak peek behind how you intend for this brand to kind of grow and scale, specifically when it comes to the products that you want to offer in the future?
04:15Absolutely.
04:16Absolutely.
04:17We know that the category for boys, particularly personal care products, is ripe for innovation.
04:23If you actually think about it, the last great innovation for just boys products is Axe.
04:28And, you know, how old is Axe, right?
04:31And so we recognize that in addition to hair care, we have an opportunity to move not only into face and talking about skin care, but actually body.
04:41So looking at lotions and deodorants, we really want to create an offering that's really good for young males to really help them in their male grooming journeys before they get to that first shave.
04:52That's awesome.
04:54That's awesome.
04:55I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum.
04:57My brother has three daughters, so he's a girl dad and I am a girl aunt.
05:02So I don't have any boys, but we talk about this all the time that there are millions of options out there for young girls, to your point, even with the body lotions and the glitters and all the things they have in justice.
05:13But there's nothing that is the equivalent for little boys.
05:17So when I do have friends that I want to give something to, I have nothing to give them that is specific for their son.
05:23So this is great.
05:24My question is around where you're currently sourcing your materials and manufacturing and bottling your product.
05:31What does that look like now?
05:33Yeah, so we work with a manufacturing partner in the Midwest.
05:37They do everything from helping us formulate our products.
05:39So we worked hand in hand during the R&D process with them.
05:43I wanted to make sure we had very specific ingredients and the scent was just right feedback that we heard from boys and their parents.
05:52They also help us to source our packaging.
05:55So they're kind of our partner, really, when it comes to developing these products and preparing them for our DTC channels as well as our retail launches.
06:04And in that relationship, do you fully own all of the formulas?
06:08So right now we're working on the path to formula ownership, obviously starting small and kind of bootstrapping our business.
06:16We weren't able to fully outright, but we are on that path to be able to do that within the network.
06:23Okay.
06:25Of course.
06:26So, um, I have a 12 year old son and his hair has been literally, uh, the first or second thing we talk about at the dinner table every night since COVID started, uh, because he is, he is not wanted to, he has not wanted to cut his hair and I don't have hair.
06:45So like how I've tried to figure it out has been extraordinarily complicated and the contrast is I have a 15 year old daughter and, you know, she, she's on YouTube all the time, you know, trying this, trying that, trying this, trying that.
07:01And she's got endless options.
07:01And so when I, uh, when I, when I heard about what you're building earlier this week, cause I was getting prepared for this, I was really, I was really excited, excited and ecstatic as a father because, uh, something does have to be created for our boys intentionally.
07:16And I think, um, beyond the product, I think one of the, one of the big opportunities you have is to actually create content so that boys can engage with it.
07:27Because I think I didn't realize how much my daughter was learning from 12, 13, 14, 15 on YouTube about her hair from rice water to all sorts of stuff.
07:36Um, and, and, and, and so my, I guess my question is,
07:46is, you know, based on your own experience with your son and just based on, you know, look, the, the hard thing about hair care is once, once people figure out you've got something, everybody's going to rush to it.
07:57Right.
07:57And so you are going to have to spend a considerable amount of money, very, very thoughtfully intact and tactically on brand building and marketing.
08:06So, uh, so, so tell me how you think sort of three years out, I know you're knee deep building this business right now, but three years out, how you, uh, you know, so how do you get to a place where you truly are the market leader?
08:16Yeah, absolutely.
08:17I think, and to your point, you know, building that education piece first and foremost, and building that content, that is exactly what we're, we're doing right now, really partnering with strategic bloggers and other partners to help us kind of create that content to show how easy it is to take care of your son's hair and help establish that kind of regimen.
08:38And then in terms of kind of marketing approach and plan, we definitely see kind of a multi tiered approach, um, which is going to be inclusive of, you know, our digital advertising and marketing strategy.
08:49We're just now dabbling that.
08:51So there's a vast opportunity for us to go even deeper when you think about paid social and Google and all of that.
08:58There are certainly opportunities for us to do more strategic partners and really align with other kid brands as well as hair brands to kind of juxtaposition ourselves to not only, you know, support kind of girls, but also boys at the same time.
09:12So we think that that's the right area for us.
09:14Yeah.
09:15We also think about, again, who are those other kind of big key influencers that can help kind of spread our brand message.
09:22I mean, there are so many, um, kind of celebrity type with little boys that are young kings.
09:29So who can be those brand ambassadors for us, um, to really help, help kind of drive and increase visibility, um, for young king hair care.
09:37So I definitely think there's, there's a ton of, of opportunity to really grow and build out our marketing approach and plan.
09:44Um, so hopefully with some investment and able to actually do that, you know, I, I also think there's, there's an opportunity to really plant the flag around hair care and be, uh, and, and, and, and build a brand around that, that, uh, that, as I indicated before is, is really protected by a moat.
10:03Um, once you push into personal care, I mean, it's, you know, largely a lot of the same sort of muscles and intuition, but it's just, you know, it can be a different business with a different set of competitors.
10:13Um, because I think, you know, hair is different than deodorant.
10:16Although me and my son have the same conversation about deodorant all the time, but, uh, you know, that, you know, you know, that would seem to be sort of less distinguishable, uh, than hair care.
10:27So like, how do you think about, how do you think about prioritization?
10:32Well, definitely prioritization.
10:33We wanted to first and foremost, start in with hair care.
10:36I think to your point, we understand that there's completely a white space in that segment.
10:41Um, and so we were very intentional with starting there.
10:44And again, obviously based on my own personal experience with my son and wanting himself to be represented in that aisle, you know, that was very important to just kind of start on the hair care journey.
10:55We want to build out that portfolio.
10:58Um, so starting with styling products, adding on kind of our new innovations coming up, a shampoo and conditioner and other products to really help kind of holistically support, um, hair care.
11:09Um, that's kind of where we're going to be focused on for the next two years.
11:13But I think there is a nice opportunity in the personal care space.
11:17Again, when you look in the aisle in terms of even face, you know, you have your clean and clears, you have your neutrogenas that are still very kind of, you know,
11:24yellow and pink and still very much to speak to a female audience.
11:29So it's just expanding into those other categories.
11:32And there's those other segments where representation can be reflected for boys.
11:37You know, obviously we're talking to multicultural boys, but there's a broad opportunity there for boys in general.
11:42When you start to move into some of those other categories.
11:45I'll just say, I love that.
11:47And I'm sure as you continue to grow and build that, that out, that roadmap, looking at, especially, you know, being on the buying side, looking at need states and the unique needs and problems that melanated skin faces, whether it's dark spots and grown hairs, all of those things.
12:06I actually think you have a really great kind of seed that can grow into something meaningful.
12:14So love it.
12:17I appreciate you guys.
12:19Totally agree.
12:21So, look, congratulations on your success to date.
12:25Congratulations on solving a problem that clearly all of us are trying to solve in our own lives.
12:30And, and, and millions of parents, aunts, uncles, cousins are, are, are also trying to figure out if, you know, I recall from my childhood, like, you know, my cousins taught me how to brush my waves.
12:42And that was like the only lesson I learned about, about, about, about, about haircare.
12:46My husband said the same thing.
12:48He literally said the same thing.
12:50Yeah.
12:51Yeah.
12:52So, uh, so, uh, look, there's, this is, uh, this is, um, somebody's got the opportunity to plan a big,
12:59a big, uh, a big flag, um, with the, uh, with the constituency that has long been deprived of something built for them.
13:06So, uh, I commend your success and wish you nothing but the best.
13:09Good luck.
13:10Thank you so much.
13:11I really appreciate that.
13:12Thank you all.
13:13Awesome.
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