January 8, 2017

Meet Jovan Johnson

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jovan Johnson.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jovan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I came up with the idea for Braidly because I was tired of traveling at 5am, for an hour, so my wife could get her hair braided by our favorite stylists. I quickly noticed that there were two things that were missing, convenience and ease of finding a vetted hair braider no matter where you’re located. I began to research the idea to see just how hard it was to find a professional hair stylist and after a few hours I quit. There was something broken and I wanted to fix it by using technology. After many interviews with my wife and hairstylists, I soon realized that hairstylists hated the process of marketing themselves and clients hated searching for them. After many internal debates, I went ahead and came up with the name and created a landing page in a few days.

To test if anyone would be interested in a mobile hair braiding service, I put an ad on Facebook to attract hairstylists and potential customers, and the results were shocking. After getting over 100 applicants within 48 hours and over 80 people signing up interested in the service, I knew I was on to something and had to move forward. This led to the creation of Braidly’s beta website and now the upcoming launch of our application that will allow anyone to book a hair braider in Los Angeles with just a few taps. With the launch of our application, we will also be growing our offered braiding styles from 6 to over 13 with the option for custom work. We are growing fast and it’s exciting to see the idea come to life.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My lack of knowledge in the beginning was my biggest obstacle because of my background in Marketing and not in anything related to hair. I could barely manage my own hair, and the idea of starting a company that took care of someone’s hair scared the hell out of me. Until my co-founder, celebrity hairstylist Porshawna Mosley came on board, there were many nights of studying haircare, braiding styles and do’s and donts. Outside of reading, to improve my knowledge further I consulted industry professionals in helping me improve my understanding. They also helped me with vetting hair stylists to ensure that applicants were capable of performing each of the styles we offered. Reaching out to industry leading hair experts was the best move for me and has led to not only the company’s growth but also the growth of my hair knowledge. There was a lot of doubt present in the early days and I remember many of those nights telling myself, “You know nothing about hair, just leave this idea alone.” The learning curve was the toughest initially, but with determination and a willingness to learn everything I could, I eventually was able to learn a quite a bit and it has helped to grow the business. There’s always challenges that arise with being a tech company but I always say, “If I can learn hair care, there is nothing I can’t learn.”

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Braidly story. Tell us more about the business.
Braidly is a platform that allows women and men to easily book vetted mobile hair braiders with just a few clicks in Los Angeles. Our professional hair stylists are able to perform a wide range of braiding styles from a braided updo’s to for a special event to Box Braids for any occasion. Currently, users are able to go to our website, pick their favorite braiding style, get instant pricing and choose a date for a hairstylist to come out. To ensure every customer has a great experience, all of our hairstylists are 100% vetted through background checks, 2 interviews and are tested on all of the braiding styles that we offer in person.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
The more work I put in building Braidly the more things fell into place. I was hitting a point where the amount of applicants was increasing and being a sole founder was taking its toll on me. I knew I had to figure something out and get a cofounder to help out with the day to day and haircare side. Luckily for me, Porshawna reached out to me with an interest in being a part of the team and we hit it off right away. After working with her on multiple projects for the business, her hard work, humor and knowledge of the industry were exactly what the business needed in order to grow and we have developed a great friendship outside of the business.

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