The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: StyleSeat
Quick Pitch: Find and book beauty salon appointments online.
Genius Idea: Robust marketing tools that bring salon owners and stylists onto the platform.
Like many promising startups, StyleSeat began with a problem. When Melody McCloskey — the tall, conspicuously pretty San Franciscan who cofounded StyleSeat three years ago — wanted to book a salon appointment, she struggled to find someone who was skilled at cutting curly hair within her budget. Friend recommendations only took her so far, and salon receptionists declined to make suggestions about which of their stylists would be best suited to her.
So she persuaded Dan Levine, a former colleague and VP of digital product development at EMI, to become her cofounder. The pair did their field work, interviewing salon owners, wellness experts, and hair and beauty stylists to ascertain their needs. They found that professionals book 70% of their available appointment times on average, but lack the resources, particularly online, to further grow their businesses.
StyleSeat launched in May 2011, and has since expanded to more than 20,000 professionals in 4,300 cities. Two hundred fifty thousand appointments have been booked through the service altogether.
The site is designed to make it easy for consumers to find and schedule an appointment without picking up the phone, just as OpenTable makes it possible for diners to discover and reserve tables at restaurants. Users can filter search results by location, price range, those that offer online booking and those who are running promotions. They can even see who is available for an appointment in the next few hours.
Professionals have their own profiles, with which they can introduce themselves over a few photographs and a portfolio of work (see above). Consumers can look through the list of services and prices and easily pull up a stylist's calendar to pick an appointment time (see below).
After an appointment, a stylist can prompt a customer to give feedback through StyleSeat. If the feedback is negative, it gives the stylist an opportunity to address the customer's issue. If it's positive, the stylist can post it publicly on his or her profile. As such, McCloskey says the site isn't a replacement for Yelp or other review sites, but rather complements them.
For beauty professionals, there's also a range of tools for helping them better optimize their businesses. For instance, professionals can view charts that show them the days that they are booked most and least often. StyleSeat might then suggest a stylist run a promotion on his or her quietest day to help bolster bookings. The company has also produced a number of small business guides to help professionals take advantage of online marketing platforms such as Facebook.
The site is free for both professionals and consumers. McCloskey says StyleSeat will eventually introduce an online payment option that will charge professionals a fee similar to that of a credit card. The company is also looking into premium marketing packages as revenue opportunities.
Beyond developing its business model, StyleSeat is also building apps for iPhone and Android devices, and making it easier for consumers to shop for specialty services such as prom updos and children's haircuts.
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
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