CINCINNATI — Miami University student VaLanDria Smith-Lash developed a formula for an all-natural self-care product after her mother got diagnosed with lupus.
The autoimmune disease left her mother’s hair and skin brittle and irritated, the Chicago native said.
A then 14-year-old Smith-Lash recalled turning to doctors for recommendations to find relief for her mother. After finding a lack of available options, she decided to make her own.
Now 21, the budding entrepreneur wants to take her six-fragrance collection national to bring comfort to others in her mother’s situation. To help her do that, she’s receiving tips and feedback this summer from a team of local business experts.
Smith-Lash’s company, Coarse Culture, was one of three winners of the 2023 Launch It: Cincy Pitch Competition, hosted by Main Street Ventures.
What You Need To Know
- Three student-led companies made successful pitches to be part of the 2023 Launch It: Cincy program
- Winners receive a two-month mentorship, office space and the potential of grant funding
- The business owners can talk to experts in fields such as law, marketing and finance to help develop business plans
- Operated by Main Street Ventures, the program places a particular emphasis on minority and women-owned businesses
The winning teams from Miami University and the University of Cincinnati will spend two months working with experienced leaders in fields such as accounting, branding and law.
Each participant also receives a housing and living stipend during the eight-week program and free office space at Union Hall in Over-the-Rhine.
At the end of the program, each business will get a $10,000 Launch It: Cincy grant to support the growth of the startups.
“This is really going to help me take the next step,” Smith-Lash said of winning the competition.
The mentorship is an “amazing opportunity,” she added, but it’s not one she envisioned when she enrolled at Miami. She’s majoring in speech pathology and audiology.
“Over the years, my mom was sharing my product, and then I realized my product had the potential to help a lot more people. Then when COVID hit, it kind of re-ignited my passion because everyone was sick and I realized the importance of helping others,” she said.
Coarse Culture products provide “comfort without aggravating sensitivities” to people in situations similar to her mother, Smith-Lash said. Each item is made from raw shea butter, coconut oil, vitamin E oil, olive oil, and jojoba oil.
While Smith-Lash has a proven formula and a passion for her brand, she admitted there’s a lot of room to grow. She plans to work closely with representatives from Kao USA Inc., a consumer products business. Kao USA is the program’s sponsor for the second year in a row.
The Launch It: Cincy team has already provided her with tips in areas ranging from marketing to sustainability, Smith-Lash said. She noted wanting to make her packaging process more efficient.
Her goal is to expand into mass retail by the end of the year.
“I can’t wait to get started,” Smith-Lash said.
Lifting the next generation of Cincinnati innovators
The Launch It: Cincy Pitch Competition is open to founders working on their undergraduate degree at colleges and universities throughout the greater Cincinnati region. The selection panel narrowed this year’s field to five finalists. Each finalist presented during an event earlier this month at Kao USA’s headquarters on Spring Grove Avenue.
The judges wanted to see a well-thought-out idea that demonstrated a solid understanding of the problem they were trying to solve, according to Abby Ober, Main Street Venture’s director of community engagement and entrepreneur support.
The other two winners are:
Nosh — an app designed to allow travelers, specifically those staying in short-term rentals, to find stores that will deliver groceries and other provisions before they arrive.
Style — a virtual closet and personal styling app that provides custom outfit recommendations and the ability to try on clothes virtually.
Style was born out of founder Camryn Ellis’ frustration with what she called “a lot of lackluster fashion apps on the market.”
The app started as a passion project, Ellis said. But after the University of Cincinnati student met a friend who “loves to code,” she started to pursue the idea more seriously.
Specialized coding is a key part of what will set Style apart, Ellis said. Once complete, the app will use a combination of algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning that generate personalized style choices based on information provided by the user and what they currently have in their wardrobe.
Ellis turned to a group of fashion experts to create a list of fashion rules — such as not wearing navy and black together and to avoid most pattern-on-pattern looks — to include in the programming.
“Every time a person likes an outfit, that data will analyze and say, ‘OK, she’s consistently liking outfits with this neckline or disliking certain kinds of outfits,’” she said. “When that happens, the technology will learn their preferences to make better choices for them.”
Ellis, a third-year senior, and the other finalists each gave the panel of eight judges a five-minute proposal. They then went through a 10-minute question-and-answer session on everything from product development to revenue generations.
The Columbus native told judges she has a “pretty good idea” about how the app will generate revenue. She envisions having both a free model featuring advertisements and a premium, fee-based subscription service.
Ellis hopes to flesh out a full go-to-market strategy. She’s set to graduate in August.
“Right now, we’re so focused on making sure the app works that we’re not looking at things like how we can market it and get into the various app stores and get people to use it,” she said. “I really want to delve into that big picture planning this summer.”
The Launch It: Cincy Summer Program runs from June 1 to July 28.
The Nosh team isn’t waiting until the official start program, said Connor Paton, the company’s co-founder. He’s already reached out to Main Street Ventures with questions, such as how to safeguard their intellectual property, and for guidance on using equity to attract partners.
Paton and his business partner, Mac Hoeweler, came up with the app as part of a capstone project at Miami.
While they’ve conceptualized the ins and outs of the company, they’re still configuring the technical aspects of the app.
Having worked with companies such as Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub, Paton feels comfortable working in a startup environment, he said. But because his background is in user experience and not application development, Paton is eager to bring in technical co-founders to help build out the platform.
“This program is going to help us get some of those key things settled early on so we can move forward to market as quickly as possible,” he added.
Bringing fresh voices, ideas to Main Street
One of the best parts of this year’s Launch It: Cincy program is each company is at a different stage of getting off the ground, said Ober, who joined the Main Street Ventures team in 2021. She said she’s ready to sit down with each of the teams in the coming days and weeks to pinpoint exactly what type of resources and support they need to make their respective products a success.
Mentorship is a key part of Main Street Ventures’ mission. The OTR-based organization provides education and equity-free funding to entrepreneurs and startups. There’s a particular focus on aiding founders from demographics historically underrepresented in the startup community, namely women and minorities.
Two of the companies in this year’s Launch It: Cincy cohort are owned by women, one of whom is Black.
Main Street Ventures plans to host a public pitch event with the three winners this summer. Ober described it as a chance for the founders to present to members of the business community and potentially land some capital investment.
Neither Kao USA nor Main Street Ventures takes any investment or stake in any of the winning companies as part of this program, Ober said. But she didn’t rule out future investment opportunities.
“The talent of our local university students never ceases to amaze us,” Ober added. “We are excited to have these three talented founding teams join us this summer to work on their businesses and experience all Cincinnati and our entrepreneurial community have to offer.”