How I Started A Haircare Business From Scratch: The First 100 Days
Things can happen. You just have to do them.
I spent much of 2024 contemplating how and when to start building MAYURA. In September, an editor assigned me to spend a day at the Dreamforce conference that transforms a pocket of San Francisco into a corporate Disneyland hell. After chasing Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff down a staircase for a quote about how SF is better than Vegas (of course I agree), I realized I couldn’t spend more time running after what was no longer my dream.
The pull to start MAYURA was so strong that I was itching to leave the newsroom despite 16 years of obsession with becoming a sharper journalist. I decided to hit the gas. I went home that day and filed incorporation paperwork, kicking off a 100-day sprint to lay the foundation for my business.
Mayura is Sanskrit for peacock. To me, this name represents curly hair as something distinguishing, like a peacock’s feathers. I spent my whole life trying all the curly haircare products available and simply wanted better for myself, and for everyone else, too. Products that actually work, have quality ingredients and are nourishing, easy to use and beautiful.
And I wanted to start the conversations we will have here about what role hair plays in our culture: why so many people are secretly curly, how politicians are pressured over their strands and more. You can take me out of journalism but you can’t take the journalism out of me: my obsessions have converged. Links to Episodes 1+2 below.
Nearly every single person I have spoken with in the last year has asked how I got started. So here we go.
In those first 100 days, I was still in my dozen-year reporting career, writing stories about the tech industry, including a piece about elites fueling a religious revival in SF. I devoted myself to MAYURA from 6am to 9am and then again from 8pm to midnight or often well past, keeping a digital diary of even the smallest bullet points of daily progress. Seeing incremental movement was a helpful mental tactic while balancing both jobs.
I bought my domains, locked down social accounts, filed trademarks, spoke with designers who could help craft the visual brand design that lived in my mind, and continued interviewing potential lab partners.
Progress felt slow. I had interviewed more than two dozen contract manufacturers and hadn’t met anyone I felt I could trust. I knew I needed to visit any potential manufacturer in person before handing over cash – I’m funding MAYURA out of my limited savings account, without outside investment.
About a month in, it became obvious working on MAYURA just nights and weekends wouldn’t work longer term. My butt and wrists literally hurt. If you are like me, your energy will not give up, but your limbs will certainly hate you if you already work a desk job and then come home from the office and continue to sit at your laptop for hours on end.
It also became clear that working a full-time newsroom job would slow down the timeline to launch. You can work in the dead of the night, but you can’t interview a potential manufacturer or designer then.
I don’t believe in living in liminal states. I had to change course – and fast.
Turning on different sides of my brain for my business made me realize I could be a part-time resource to startup founders, many of whom would benefit from a journalist’s storytelling mindset. So I spoke with a handful of trusted folks I had known for many of my years in Silicon Valley – only those who wouldn’t pose a conflict of interest with my reporting – and luckily landed my first consulting client before Election Day.
My last day as a reporter was Nov. 15, closing out with a story about the insanity of being a private chef in Silicon Valley – think chicken-flavored toothpaste and tea that must be heated and cooled to exact degrees.
Two weeks later, I had the first of many calls with my now-manufacturer. I logged into the Zoom a bit demoralized, expecting him to be a flakey shyster like a lot of the others I had spoken with. Within minutes I noticed he kept answering the next question on my list before I had asked it, so I perked up. He suggested I visit their facility, based in California like me, and meet in person. Once again we were on the same page: I already had Google flights open and booked a ticket for a few days later.
References he connected me to checked out. When I sat down in the chair in front of his desk and pulled out a notebook full of questions, he laughed. Apparently this reporter behavior is not normal! But I’ve approached each business step like a journalist: researching, reporting and trying to understand the right questions to ask so I can make the best conclusions for myself.
101 days after putting my foot on the gas, we got to the contracting paperwork. And so began the real work.
More details on the process and what inspired me to start both MAYURA and We Are Spiraling in Episode 1. You’ll hear what curly hair has meant to me and my family, and how it has influenced my identity.
When I got to high school, friends with curly hair began straightening with a flat iron after each wash. Other girls at school repeatedly told me I’d look better if I straightened my hair. (I did not listen to them.) Over the course of adulthood, I’ve regularly come across people who I believed may be secretly curly.
Recently I’ve been asking them to confirm my suspicions. Episode 2 unravels why so many people are secretly curly and how their ideology may be shifting. We published episodes 1 and 2 together this week to give you a fuller sense of what We Are Spiraling is about. After this, we move to an -every-other-week pod publication schedule. The next episode will drop ahead of Thanksgiving so you can listen during your travels.
If you or someone you love is secretly curly, let me know in the comments.
Curly icon of the week
Donna Summer. I wrote this post while listening to Hot Stuff, which can get you out of anything and into the most correct brainspace. Highly recommend pairing with two cups of coffee in the morning to set the tone for your day.
Curls In The Wild
In honor of Olivia Dean’s upcoming SNL appearance, we inspire ourselves with this gorgeously retro look.
Until we spiral again,
Priya
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Came for the business insights, stayed for the incredible childhood photos!!! Who among us hasn't had our curls brushed out <3 Good luck and can't wait to follow along on this journey!