Meet Jenna Meek and Jess Hunt, the co-founders of REFY. These two young entrepreneurs came up with their business idea near the end of 2018, which initially started as a brow sculpting product. They realized a gap in the market for a product like this, being the first of its kind. They then decided to team up to market their first collection focusing on brows in just three simple but innovative products. They brought their extensive knowledge of the industry together and spent the last two years developing an unrivalled brow collection. The pair are striving to redefine the beauty world.
Jess Hunt and Jenna Meek
REFY
Being established entrepreneurs at that time, they had the resources to invest in creating this product themselves. It is a large initial cash outlay to start a product-based business. You need money to get the product designed, work on packaging, patents, manufacture the product and create a team, and so many more expenses before they even made a sale. If you are considering creating a product yourself and bringing it to market, you need to consider the cash required up front.
With an Instagram following of 1.3 million, Jess Hunt uses her brand and savvy marketing skills to bring in the hype and excitement around REFY’s products. Jenna Meek, already the founder of a very successful, viral color cosmetics and hair brand, Shrine (formerly known as The Gypsy Shrine), gave her great entrepreneurial experience to manage the business and running of the organization. Jess and Jenna are a great team as their expertise complements each other.
When the product hit the shelves in November 2020, it was such an instant success that they were completely sold out within six weeks.
The brand had a long-awaited restock on the 29th of January, with over 100k sign-ups on the waiting list. The business filled 15,000 orders in the first four hours, which is impressive. Beauty giant Sephora approached the brand after only three weeks after launch to stock REFY. The brand is in conversations with some of the world’s biggest beauty retailers to become stockists for REFY.
Success is exciting and risky simultaneously, as fast growth in a company can be challenging. The key in dealing with their success is careful management of growth. The demand for the product dictates the growth, but it can be risky for a business to grow too quickly. Meeting customer orders, dealing with stock outages, keeping up with demand, and the risk of running out of cash are some of the risks that accompany fast growth. But REFY has carefully crafted their plan to navigate through the growth phase to ensure that the business will thrive in this phase.
Jenna and Jess’s advice to you if you are considering bringing a product to market is:
1. Identify a market need
These entrepreneurs identified a need in the market that didn’t serve well. They knew that their product idea would be in demand as there was no other product at that time that solved the problem in the way that their product did.
2. Bring a new and innovative approach to solving that need
The women created a new to market product that helped resolve that need, but in a unique way that made them stand out in the cosmetic industry. The unique aspect of the product is its inclusivity. REFY is a brand made for everyone.
3. Establish a brand and following
Having an established brand and following before releasing the product was extremely valuable, as they had a warm audience to market to.
4. Create and maintain good relationships with your customers
As they created their product, they often asked their potential customers what they liked and didn’t like about the product. Always seeking out customer feedback, the women designed a product that met customers’ needs and wants.
5. Know your customer
Due to the continual contact with potential customers, they formed relationships with them and understood how they could help their client and what their customer needed. This customer experience sets REFY apart from the competition.
The bottom line is that growing a product-based business takes a lot of work. Jenna shares the advice to entrepreneurs considering taking this leap that you should go with your gut instinct. No one can create your business better than you can. Self-belief is vital to starting a successful business.
