Exploring Life & Business with Shante Frazier of WellCapped

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shante Frazier.

Hi Shante, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am from Ohio but left my hometown to attend Spelman College, in Atlanta, GA. After graduating, I served in the Army National Guard as a Military Intelligence Officer while also working full-time as an analyst for Progressive Insurance. I later attended business school at NYU, and after graduating, I worked 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 Gener8tor backed 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 consumer journey and how long it takes me to find hair and also how much money I spend annually on hair extensions. I started to survey friends and colleagues and found that people, myself included, were spending $1800 annually on hair extensions and wigs. One wig costs an average of $600 which means consumers are only getting three 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. This April, I decided to go all in with the company and left my salary to work on WellCapped full-time.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Nothing about starting a new business is easy. Especially when you’re building in uncharted territory. Prior to WellCapped, no one had ever heard of renting wigs. We are the first company to build out this model which means we have to spend a lot of time and resources on educating the masses and letting them know about our sanitization process and how we make sure this is safe. This journey has been full of sacrifices but I am learning to embrace change and to surrender to the lessons that change teaches us.

Last Spring, my Aunt who gave me the idea was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Breast Cancer. Watching her journey of discovering a new normal has inspired me in so many ways. I am learning how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Endurance is built in the discomfort zone.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We noticed that there was a shift happening where people no longer wanted to wear the same hairstyle all year round. The girls wanted 30 inches of jet-black hair on Friday and the next week, they wanted to be prancing around in a blonde bob. WellCapped caters to these trendsetters by allowing them to switch up their hair in an affordable and sustainable way. Our members pay a monthly fee to access an inventory of wigs and Uparts (for the girls, like me, who prefer a good sew-in) that has been cleansed and sanitized and arrives to the member looking brand new. Our wigs are currently one size fits all but we are moving to a business model that allows us to offer custom sizes to our members.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Entrepreneurship is full of twists and turns. Surrender to the lessons that you are learning from any deviation to your plan. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Pricing:

• $100 per month for our base tier
• $200 per month for our luxe tier

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wellcapped.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellcapped/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=wellcapped