Founders Everywhere: Gina Farran
Gina Farran is the co-founder and CEO of Glaize, a UK D2C beauty brand reinventing nail care through technology.
Welcome to Founders Everywhere, where we highlight the incredible people behind the companies we’ve backed at Everywhere Ventures, a global pre-seed fund supported by a community of 500 founders and operators.
Nail care is a $45B industry, yet the process of doing nails hasn’t evolved in over a century; polish comes in a glass jar, with a black top, and the same ol’ brush. Luckily for nail enthusiasts, Glaize co-founder Gina Farran is stepping in with computer vision technology to reinvent nail care. They provide toxin-free, made-to-measure, gel nails that are delivered to your door. It’s as easy as submitting a few pictures of your hands and Glaize produces a 3D model that customizes your gel nails. They last 10-14 days, chip free, which is the goal of a manicure, but rarely a reality.
Nails have always been a big part of Gina’s life and her self-care routine. Growing up in Lebanon, she was surrounded by women who always had perfect nails. With a corporate background in investment banking, she seldom had time to get to the salon. She decided to give up her banking job to pursue Glaize. Her co-founder Chris Mosedale has a background in biotech and the two are not only focused on providing a quality product, but also a sustainable one. They are reformulating the ingredients to remove toxins and will eventually provide a fully plant based version. We can all give a hand to this beauty brand! Glaize you’ve nailed it!
Tell us about a recent milestone Glaize crushed.
We closed our 2nd funding round at around £375,000 without a final product, which makes me happy because I feel like people believe in the business and the founding team.
Why is Glaize going to win?
I think it's because I'm not a beauty insider; I’m someone who really loves nail care! For me to put a product out there means it will be good, not just as a founder, but as a consumer. The fact my co-founder and I come from non-beauty backgrounds allows us to think outside the box. We are committed to sustainability and we’ve already managed to replace 20-30% of the ingredients with bio-based ingredients without compromising the integrity of the product and are working on increasing that percentage. We’ve approached product development differently and hopefully that will allow us to win.
Where is Glaize focusing its efforts at the moment?
So right now we've been testing. We’re focusing on perfecting the product and should be launching in the UK within the next 2 months. As we grow it will be geographic expansion and then we're already exploring a couple of other untapped verticals within the beauty industry.
Where can we buy your product?
For now you can join the waitlist on our website, which is currently at >1,000 and growing with minimal marketing efforts.
What makes you a non-obvious founder?
I think the fact that I come from a very corporate background and probably the fact that I'm Arab. My parents freaked out when I told them I was quitting my stable cushy job, especially when the country I’m from is literally melting down as we speak. I was leaving a secure nest and that decision was difficult for my entourage to understand in the early days.
If you weren’t building Glaize, what would you be doing?
Definitely building another female focused consumer brand. I think I’ve found my calling in life.