Having daintily well manicured nails is a sign of well-grooming. After all who likes to have dirty and crooked nails or a chipped nail paint look? Eww… the thought of such a sight did make us squirm! However, in today’s busy lifestyle taking couple of hours off to hit the nail salon every fortnight or every week can be the sole cause of your stress.
Well ladies and gentleman, we are happy to be the bearer of good news! You shall no longer be victims to ‘bad nail days’ as there is a new app in town called GlossPod that brings the nail bar right to your doorstep.
Meet the People Who Started It All!
Robinson Blanckaert was working in investment banking. From observing his female colleagues trying to book last minute appointment in nail bars and rushing out to them during lunch time or after work, he realized how obsolete the current offer was. What further urged him was difficulty in booking last minute appointment and inflexibility of nail bars.
He approached Sarunas Savicianskas, a web developer for the past 10 years, with the idea of GlossPod. A couple of weeks later, they started GlossPod. Then they approached Shimol Kanuga who was running a very successful beauty salon in the Shoreditch area of London. Shimol quickly got on-board as the concept was absolutely flawless to resist.
Know More about GlossPod
This app is a marketplace dedicated to nail services. By using GlossPod, customers can enjoy professional manicure services anytime and anywhere in London. This app is your savior from inflexible and time consuming nail bars.
GlossPod aims at making manicure a pleasurable experience by accommodating last minute appointments. It practically comes to your home, office or hotel room thus saving your valuable time. They also carefully handpick their professionals as compromise on quality is not an option for them.
In addition, GlossPod works exclusively with the brands ESSIE & CND (+40 colors palette). Lastly, the cherry on the cake is the fact that they are oh-so affordable. Price range at GlossPod ranges from £15 to £45.
On Hurdles Faced
“Knowing that our recruitment process is very rigorous and that less than 5% of applicants get an offer from us, the main challenge we had at the beginning was to get enough nail professionals to cover all London from 7am to 10pm”, says Robinson.
On Competitors, Targeted Audience and Expansion Plan
“We believe that our competitors are still traditional nail bars. We don’t think that beauty marketplaces such as Bizzby are competitors. The reason is that unlike them, we are focused on nail services only”, says Robinson on competitors.
The app’s main audience is urban customers. This is because their lifestyle usually doesn’t allow them much time apart from work and family. Further, the app follows a monetizing policy of keeping a fee on each service.
GlossPod, considering they already have a fully operational model in London, wants to make its presence felt in almost all major European cities. Their first baby step towards this future is venturing into Paris which also happens to be Robinson’s hometown. They are currently setting up an office there and services will be available from January 2015.
Oh wait! We are not done yet. Christmas surely came in early as GlossPod was kind enough to offer our readers an exciting offer.
For all you pretty and handsome people out there, use the voucher code “startupdope” and receive 10% off on your first manicure service. Remember, it is available only till the end of 2014.
For more information on GlossPod do visit: http://www.glosspod.com/
