Monique tells us about her entrepreneurial adventure with Blushup

Right after college, Monique began her career in investment banking. “I was on the other side,” including VC firms in New York and back home in Brazil. Prior to Blushup she also worked at Techstars. “I spent some time with very early stage startups in the Techstars’ program in Boston in 2016.”

She has, thus, been involved with startups and entrepreneurs prior to Blushup for 5-6 years. Hence, she was always aware of the challenges faced by any founder. “I never imagined that I would have the courage to become an entrepreneur, but here I am now, and it has been 3 great years with Blushup.”

Talking about how she reimagined the way one books online appointments with store services – Monique literally delved into her own past to talk about what eventually led her to start her venture. “I am a big fan of getting services done at stores, rather than salons.” Her personal experience trying to book a makeup appointment at Sephora and Mac Cosmetics, for an event one night – hassle free – wasn’t really a walk in the “salon”. With no reviews or photos to give her an idea of what to expect at the store she eventually walked into, led to subpar service and a ruined night. Whether it was scheduling the appointment or getting her makeup done – nothing went her way at that time. All because store services had no online booking, or photos or even reviews available; which led her thinking of the possibility of others facing the exact same problem as her.

There on she went to a lot of beauty counters to research their challenges and learning that many of them had no online presence and/or booking service. This is when Monique decided to take a step. Her background gave her an edge over other first time founders. Where the latter need to do more research, Monique simply tapped into her own network to get her started in the tech world.

Speaking to Gaper, she mentioned that according to her remote employment is the norm – especially with early stage startups. Monique herself works with distributed teams from around the world. “As long as you manage them carefully, things can go really well.” She also suggested, “It is always very important, especially if you are not a tech founder, you have to make sure that you have someone that’s leading the engineers abroad.” So you need a VP of engineering or CTO that can manage the remote team. She also stresses on the fact that there needs to be a streamlined contract; where sometimes a monthly payout is better than a weekly payout, especially where deliverables are concerned. Things are, therefore, more structured and software engineers are more committed to the product – instead of leaving midway.

Blushup is on the brink of expansion to more locales and stores, not only nationwide but abroad as well. Look out for more Blushup partnerships in your area and get booking your next online appointment at your favorite makeup store.

Monique’s journey with Blushup is more reason to understand that need is indeed the mother of all invention and here’s to wishing her luck with expanding and spreading joy in the makeup world! Hear on to her sage advice to budding entrepreneurs looking to break into the startup world!