Anna Harman had a problem. She wanted to get her ears pierced but the options available were, well, less than stellar. On one hand, the high-end boutiques were incredibly expensive, with one new piercing totaling more than $300, including the jewelry. On the other, there was the local tattoo shop. And although it was safe, the overall experience left her feeling out of place and a bit uncomfortable.
She believed there was a gaping hole in the market, and that is what inspired her to start Studs with her co-founder Lisa Bubbers. She and Bubbers worked together to develop a fun and vibrant brand that would really shine, especially in stores.
“While Studs has a large digital presence, both via our website and via our social channels, at the end of the day, the majority of customers experience Studs in the studios,” Harman said in an episode of the Retail Remix podcast. “The brand identity of Studs is really the studios themselves, so we spent a tremendous amount of time on the studio design and look and feel, and have iterated on that through time.”
Building a Sound Operation
But having a great brand is only one piece of a much bigger puzzle, especially if founders want their businesses to scale. Harman noted that while Bubbers thrives in marketing and branding, she is more the operationally minded executive, which means they are two critical sides of the same coin.
“We often joke that [Lisa] is the reason Studs is cool and I’m the reason Studs is functional,” Harman laughed. “We set out to build a great retail business. If you look at our original pitch decks and our original model, versus where we are today, we have really made the thing that we intended to make. That thing was an excellent retail business with excellent retail economics that customers also loved. So for us, everything about the future of Studs is about how do you continue to execute at that level in a way that proves to future investors that you have a scalable concept that will have product-market fit through time with amazing economics.”
Listen to the full interview below to get Harman’s full perspectives, including her lessons for other founders and entrepreneurs.
