Today we’d like to introduce you to Carrie Sporer.

Hi Carrie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My co-founder Meredith and I created SWAIR to deal with our own sweaty hair problems. We met training for the NYC Marathon in 2007, and while we loved the benefits of working out regularly, we hated the fact that we needed to wash our hair in the shower after every sweaty run. It was too time consuming, and it was drying out our hair and scalp. We complained about this issue for more than a decade, and finally decided to start calling labs to see if someone could bring our dream product to life. The end result was SWAIR’s hero product, Showerless Shampoo. It effectively cleans sweaty hair without suds, rinsing or residue.

Since launching in September of 2020, we have also added SweatShield Leave-In conditioner to our product assortment. Our goal is to create a full line of time-saving and multitasking hair and body products for an active person. Our mission is for people, and women in particular, to be able to work out without having to worry about the prep time that follows.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We launched during the pandemic, which was definitely a challenge! Luckily we had already found a lab we liked prior to March of 2020, but they were working at a very reduced capacity and it was hard to get samples since they were working on orders for existing customers. In addition, it was challenging to find packaging because of the rush to get plastic bottles and pumps for hand sanitizer and surface cleaners. Basically, everything was taking 2-3x longer than under normal circumstances.

Eventually we finalized the formula for Showerless Shampoo and had our first large production order ready to go. We even worked with an expensive PR firm to help secure launch day press and get our product into the hands of editors. Unfortunately we received a call 2 weeks before the launch day that there had been a contamination in the lab, and they would need to dispose of 5,000 of the 6,000 bottles we had produced. It was heart-breaking! Luckily the lab took accountability for the contamination and refunded us for the product and the cost of materials, otherwise we would have had to shut the business before it even started. I also think that without a co-founder to work through the challenge with, I would have just quit. In retrospect, it opened our eyes to the fact that things beyond your control happen all the time in business and you just need to keep going and course-correct the best you can. After that experience, I truly think we can get through anything!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
SWAIR makes time-saving haircare for people who workout, formulated with clean ingredients. Unlike dry shampoo, our hero product Showerless Shampoo is effective on very sweaty hair. In addition, it does not have the itchy residue or harsh chemicals you typically think of with a dry shampoo. You just spray a fine mist on your hair and then towel dry to remove the dirt and sweat, so you’re not just masking it with powder. We’re proud to be bringing something completely new to market and helping our customers go from sweaty to ready in 5 minutes or less.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I like to say that the secret to success is to “fail fast.” If something isn’t working after a reasonable testing period, move on. I know that I have held on to a bad idea for too long because I was afraid of change, embarrassed to admit I was wrong, or it felt like too much effort to change course. For example, at the start of SWAIR we hired an expensive digital advertising firm, but it was clear after the first three months we were not getting a worthwhile return on our investment. Instead of making a change, we stayed with them for an additional three months hoping that things would get better. Unfortunately, the results did not improve and it was a very expensive lesson. Now I try to “fail fast” and acknowledge that you can’t always be right, but you can always learn.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.swairhair.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swairhair
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swairhair
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swair/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLGW3UWlj7WAzsFNUDBPTgg