Lightsaver, Lion Pose and Miss Rizos have been selected for the second 2024 cohort of Bridge Mentorship, a program created by True Beauty Ventures with Beauty Independent to ready emerging brands for fundraising.
In evaluating candidates for Bridge Mentorship, Cristina Nuñez, general partner and co-founder of TBV, an early-stage beauty and wellness investment firm with Crown Affair, K18, Maude, Kinship, Moon Juice, Cay Skin and Youthforia, a Bridge Mentorship graduate, in its portfolio, was drawn to brands with the fundamentals to support long-lasting businesses such as authentic founders with credibility to build products in the categories their companies are in, merchandise filling white spaces and organic communities that emotionally connect with their stories.
Launched by Stanford University-trained dermatologist David Kim, Lightsaver’s Activated Mineral Sunscreen is infused with a proprietary repair complex designed to provide UVA/UVB protection along with ingredients like niacinamide and squalane to brighten, hydrate and restore the skin. Nuñez notes the clinically backed skincare segment is increasingly crowded, but says Kim’s authority in the sun care space situates the brand well in the category at Sephora, where it launched in June as the first dermatologist-founded sun care brand. She adds the brand should be able to capitalize on consumer preferences for hybrid products and streamlined skincare routines.
During the six-month Bridge Mentorship program, Kim wants Nuñez and TBV co-founder and managing partner Rich Gersten to assess Lightsaver’s brand positioning and help pin down distribution expansion strategies. The brand has two products available on Sephora’s website. Kim says, “We are thrilled to learn from industry experts about how to best approach our growth without compromising on the quality or authenticity of our brand.”
Lion Pose’s clinically backed formulations were crafted by Harvard University-trained dermatologists to be universally accessible to consumers no matter their skin tone or texture. The brand sells two individual products at Sephora: Unspotted 4X Dark Spot + Hyperpigmentation AHA Serum and Ghost-Buster 100% Mineral Sunscreen SPF 42 with Super Zinc for No White-Cast.
Lion Pose co-founder and CEO Madhu Punjabi, a veteran of the technology industry with stints at Google, Facebook and Pinterest on her resume, says, “Most skincare isn’t tested on all skin tones, and we worked hard to create products that actually work for skin tones that haven’t been represented.”
Nuñez says, “The brand has truly raised the bar for clinical skincare, launching differentiated and highly efficacious products for a more diverse range of skin types and textures. Lion Pose has brought its category-disrupting approach to Sephora, where it launched last year, which also creates a strong opportunity for growth.”
Lion Pose raised $3 million in funding in 2022. It was part of the Sephora Accelerate program the same year and the Y Combinator accelerator in 2021. Actress Mindy Kaling is a brand ambassador and investor. Punjabi aspires to walk away from Bridge Mentorship with a better understanding of financial modeling, additional fundraising timelines and the proper deployment of capital.
Miss Rizos’ prestige haircare products are made with nourishing ingredients from the Dominican Republic like sapote fruit and murumuru. They’re formulated for all hair types. Among its products are Fresh Mintality Sulfate-Free Shampoo, Rise & Shine Radiance Oil, Deeply Healing Treatment and Me, Unconditionally Hydrating Conditioner. Miss Rizos has two salons, one in New York and one in Santo Domingo.
At Bridge Mentorship, founder Carolina Contreras, who was born in the Dominican Republic, hopes to prepare Miss Rizos for investment to support retail. “Afro-Latinas and Spanish speakers are an underrepresented and underserved group in the beauty industry, especially in prestige beauty and in the curly hair category,” she says. “We’re already advancing the category by creating more inclusion, building bridges and affirming women of all curl types.”
Nuñez says, “We were truly impressed by Carolina’s ability to foster and scale a highly engaged community and the strong credibility she built through her blog and hair salons.”
Since its 2022 debut, 15 beauty and wellness brands have participated in Bridge Mentorship. They include Nopalera, Nette, Nature of Things, Plantkos, World of Chris Collins, Squigs Beauty, Rose Ingleton MD Skin, Lendava Skincare, DAMDAM Tokyo, Viktor Michael, Salwa Petersen, Sofie Pavitt Face, Dr. Idriss and Prakti.
Each participating founder is instructed to come the program with questions unique to their brands, whether they involve distribution, talent or marketing. The brands leave with comprehensive diagnostic and action plans for professional development to put them on course to take on institutional funding at the right moment.
“What all these brands ask us is where they should focus,” says Gersten. “Even with all their questions answered, these brands have limited time, capital and team resources to successfully execute on everything they may wish to. To be funding ready, you have to have a good business. You have to be retail ready, have a clearly defined brand proposition and a margin structure that investors will find attractive. As a result, we spend a lot of time with founders on their retail strategy, refining their brand message and improving their COGS to achieve industry standard gross margin profiles.”
The program for the second cohort of 2024 extends from July to December. On Nov. 20, Bridge Mentorship mentees and TBV mentors will be featured on a special episode of Beauty Independent’s In Conversation webinar series to review learnings from it. Applications for the first cohort of 2025 will open in December.
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