We were lucky to catch up with Shante Frazier recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shante thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?

Lately we have been doing a lot of work to keep our members instead of going out to find new members. For example, we gifted our members with a month of free group training. We are all about making sure our members look and feel their best; this includes their physical fitness. All of January we have been working out with local trainers to jumpstart our year. We are also working on a loyalty program which means members will get free company merchandise after reaching certain milestones. After being a member for 3 months they will get a t shirt, and after being a member for 6 months they will get a free tumbler.
Our members mean so much to us since they are our #1 advocates. It’s only right that we make sure that we are treating them right.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am from Canton, OH but Atlanta feels like a second home to me since I am a proud graduate of Spelman College. Prior to attending business school at NYU, I served in the Ohio Army National Guard as a Military Intelligence Officer while also working full time as an analyst for Progressive Insurance. After business school I started working as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and later worked as a Senior Merchandising Manager for Wayfair. The concept for WellCapped came from my aunt who was a former cosmetologist. At the time, I was participating in a venture studio and was tasked with pitching a new business idea every week for four weeks. My aunt gave me the idea to start a rental company for weave one evening when I was on the phone, stressed out because I didn’t have time to vet out a new idea while working full time as a single parent. Initially I was not a fan of the idea but then I started to think about my own experience and how long it takes me to find hair extensions and how much money I spend annually on those hair extensions. I started to informally survey friends and colleagues and found that consumers, myself included, were spending $1800 annually on hair extensions and wigs. One wig costs an average of $600 which means consumers are only getting 3 wigs each year. The more research I conducted, the more I realized that there was a disparity between what consumers were willing to pay and what was available in the market.
I started working on WellCapped part time while maintaining my full time consulting job. Last April I decided to go all in with the company and work on WellCapped full time. Leaving my job to pursue this full time was a scary decision but one that I do not regret.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

For the initial investment, WellCapped went through a Venture Studio backed by Gener8tor. A venture studio is an early stage accelerator for people who know that they want to be entrepreneurs but may not have an idea yet. The studio will work with you over a set period of time to test out different ideas until you land on a viable one. WellCapped received $100K from the Venture studio and another $150K from angel investors and pitch competitions.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Our secret sauce has been our transparency. Each month I publish a newsletter that goes out to customers, investors, friends and family. This newsletter talks about our highs and lows and lessons that we have learned as a company. If you’re interested in keeping up with our start up journey, subscribe here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSds-25SZnpRJprBM3oSg8WHgicV82KVFXxBA3_ImWCMQzOWvQ/viewform

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wellcapped.com/
• Instagram: @wellcapped
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WellCapped/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wellcapped/
• Twitter: @getwellcapped
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcE4dBDS-5T50tPNy5AsP0w

Image Credits
Travis Geter