When Erika Wasser needed to look camera-ready last minute (or at least put together) after a grueling workout at the gym, she came up with her greatest business idea. She launched Glam & Go last year, and it’s one of the fastest growing express styling businesses in metropolitan cities. As an entrepreneur, television host, and standup comedian, Erika knows a thing or two about living a busy lifestyle and finding ways to be more productive with her time.
For this edition of Member Spotlight, a series where we showcase entrepreneurs of emerging companies, we chatted with Erika to discuss a range of issues, from her experience on launching a business in 45 days to her thoughts on the similarities between standup and entrepreneurship.
I’ve been a stand up comic and writer since college. Right before starting Glam & Go I was hosting a home & design web-channel called SpacesTV where I was building my on-air skills and building my reel. When Spaces went on a hiatus last summer, I had a years worth of work behind me, and I started getting calls from bigger television networks. I’d walk into casting meetings where I’d have to squint to see my counterparts and I realized, ‘I need to go to the gym’.
I would go work out, but I usually had to run to meetings or auditions afterwards. After being familiar with green room [backstage] express styling, I thought it would be great to recreate this experience at the gym. I believe that the ladies locker room really is every woman’s green room and so Glam & Go was born.
I started my company out of a selfish need. I have frizzy hair, and I inherited a less than stellar metabolism. I also work in the on-air entertainment industry where showing up is everything, and it’s not worth coming into work if you don’t look great. When I was trying to get into shape, I was consistently stuck between compromising either my workout or my hair. Once I started Glam & Go, the response was so overwhelming. It was clear to me that I wasn’t the only woman caught between the treadmill and my tresses, and the vision expanded. We’ve expanded to over 10 locations with press and goodwill behind us and formed a partnership with Paul Mitchell.
For me, a productive day is walking into our Exhale Upper East Side location where we first started our business and seeing our first customers still using our services. I also love hearing guests compliment the level of service they’re receiving and referring us to their friends. Throw in a glass of Chardonnay somewhere in there, and that’s a productive day.
My experience in standup comedy has absolutely helped me as an entrepreneur. Standup is about presenting yourself with confidence and knowing your audience. It’s also a conversation and it’s the job of a comic to guide that conversation, so in business meetings, it definitely helps. In both fields, you learn to trust yourself, make decisions, execute, and gauge reactions.
Our biggest screw up was trying to enter the Baltimore market. We should have evaluated the opportunity and not just grow for growth’s sake. Then we would have seen that this city was just not our demo. After spending a lot of time, money, and operational resources, we pulled out of the location 90 days later. We loved the partner we had there, but we learned a lot about how we want to expand our business. We’re now focusing solely on top tier cities and spending a week or so on site before we sign paperwork.
My startup has been a risk, but I took my biggest risk when I took my first business meeting. I had nothing except a concept deck on PowerPoint. I didn’t have a clue on how I was going to execute this, no hair partner, no staff, no LLC. But I closed our first two locations with our now largest partner that day. When they asked if I could open shop in 30 days, I just said “yes”. I happened to be on Facebook that day and connected with Doug DiCanio, my former hairstylist and now creative director at Glam & Go. It took us 45 days to open that first location, but it’s still our flagship that we’re very proud of. We’re looking forward to celebrating our one-year anniversary on November 18.
Our vision is to become every woman’s personal stylist so that she can be busy and live glamorously. We have a gorgeous app coming out through a connection made through WeWork. Also, we’re constantly growing and opening three to five more locations by the end of this year.
Photographs by Lauren Kallen