Exclusive: Founder backed by Naomi Osaka and Howard Schultz raises $3.1 million to build a Drybar-like blowout chain for textured hair
March 1, 2024
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Nita Ambani will become chairperson of the media company resulting from the Reliance Industries-Disney deal, Rep. Katie Porter (D–Calif.) faces a stark political future, and a founder builds a blowout chain for textured hair. Have a restful weekend.
– Salon experience. While Piersten Gaines was attending Harvard Business School, she started thinking about blowout bars like Drybar that promised a standardized level of service at any location. As a Black woman with textured hair, she hadn’t often had that experience. “I had a lot of really terrible salon experiences throughout my life,” she remembers. “When I learned about these blowout bars where people could just walk in and trust that no matter whose chair they sat in, they were in good hands—I had never had any experience like that.”
