Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do
I interviewed Danielle Cohen-Shohet (Princeton ‘12), founder and CEO of GlossGenius — an all-in-one software platform that helps beauty professionals build loyalty, stay fully booked, and focus on analytics to improve customer satisfaction. The goal of my interview was to figure out how entrepreneurs come up with an idea and implement them, how their experiences at college shape them, what makes a successful entrepreneur, what makes a company worth investing time and energy on, and what mantra an aspiring entrepreneur should live by.
Solve Problems That Bug You: Danielle and her co-founder tried to run part-time makeup businesses of their own, only to realize how complicated it was to interact with clients, keep them loyal, and fulfill their needs. “When my co-founder and I were looking to run part-time businesses of our own (mine in makeup artistry), we found out that the tools to run such a business and manage clients were clunky, costly, complex and would have never met our needs, ” said Danielle emphasizing how she and her co-founder encountered problems with running beauty business.
Because they struggled with these problems and didn’t find a satisfactory solution, they could relate with clients having similar problems: this is what made GlossGenius a success. So successful entrepreneurs don’t solve a random problem out of the blue; they solve problems that have bugged them and that didn’t have a good existing solution.
Have Technical Background: Danielle and her co-founder faced problems starting makeup businesses, which inspired them to look for solutions. Having found none, they decided to start their own company only because they had the right technical background: “That [referring to problems with running business as a beauty professional], combined with the fact that we both had technical knowledge, inspired us to start a company to solve this problem,” said Danielle implying how important it is to have technical knowledge. She further emphasized the importance of having technical skills when asked if and how being a technical founder helped her: “That [i.e. being a technical founder] was a deep advantage — and still is. It helped me abstract every aspect of the business — whether product design, code, marketing, accounting and more, and understand it in ways that non-technical founders may not have been able to.” So for college students out there, build your technical skills: take some computer-science classes!
Change the Way You View Problems: When I asked Danielle about if Princeton’s lack of focus on entrepreneur negatively impacted her, she shared with me how she viewed the limitations as a motivation to forge her own path: “While the number of classes and resources focused on entrepreneurship were drastically more limited during my time, I think the very fact they were limited compelled me to take on an attitude to make the most of what I had and forge my own path and learnings — which is what you have to do as an entrepreneur. You’ve got to figure out how to make the most of what you’ve got, at every stage.” So instead of complaining about what you don’t have around you, take a positive outlook on life and think of problems around you as opportunities to adapt and persevere as an entrepreneur. Who knows if you end up creating a unicorn startup to solve those very problems!
College Years — Explore Different Subjects and Take on Big Challenges to Serve Others: I asked Danielle how her college years shaped her entrepreneurial career. She responded by sharing her curiosity for interdisciplinary study: “From the beginning of my time there as a freshman until the day I turned in my senior thesis, I was always cross-pollinating knowledge and disciplines from disparate courses to make a stronger finished product. As an entrepreneur, you must be interdisciplinary (especially in the early days) — bringing together knowledge of data, science, design, human needs and more to build an incredible product.” In essence, solving problems as an entrepreneur requires you to think in multiple dimensions: data, science, people, and product. The better you are at bringing together your knowledge of such subjects as you solve problems, the more successful you will be as an entrepreneur.
Moreover, successful entrepreneurs take on big challenges to solve people’s problems; Danielle shared, “Princeton’s motto at the time — ‘in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations’ — shaped the way I thought about my contribution to those around me and how I want to spend my time. It encouraged me to only pursue entrepreneurial journeys that were high-value add.” In essence, Princeton’s mission about service influenced the way Danielle saw the world around her and how she decided to invest her energy: only doing things that mattered to others around her.
In addition, Danielle also learned to embrace challenge in her college years — shaping the steps she took as an entrepreneur: “Princeton was a place where challenge was encouraged — how I view the world, history, people — and the ability to do that in my entrepreneurial journey with new initiatives, strategy, etc has been foundational.” So to fellow students out there, always be willing to take on initiatives and accept challenges to make the world around you a better place!
Listen to Customers: You’ll know if your company is worth investing time on when you start getting messages of appreciation from your customers. Danielle shared, “I knew GlossGenius was worth sacrificing my time when I received a message from an early adopter. She shared how proud she was of what GlossGenius helped her accomplish with her small business in the past week. As more businesses experienced the product, this grew. One of my personal mantras is to ‘make others successful;’ when I could make that happen, I knew I’d be in for the rest.” In essence, hearing from the customers about how much GlossGenius helped them and seeing that GlossGenius was making an impact in their lives — in accordance with the values of service Princeton instilled on Danielle — inspired Danielle to keep moving forward with GlossGenius.
Be Tough and Anticipate Challenges Every Day: Danielle’s words — when asked about advice to aspiring entrepreneurs — are so powerful that I feel it wouldn’t be fair for me to describe them: “If I could write a book about all of the unforeseen challenges, it would never get published: every day brings a different challenge. Robert Schuller said it best: ‘tough times never last but tough people do.’ For aspiring entrepreneurs, that means that what lies before you and what lies behind you pale in comparison to what lies within you.”
In conclusion, entrepreneurs solve problems that bug them, usually using technical skills they have built over the years, and reflect on the values that have been instilled on them throughout their life — especially at college — to make their decisions about career-path. They get feedback from their customers to evaluate how influential their products are and live by the mantra: “tough times never last but tough people do.”
And that’s it for this issue! Feel free to reach out to me for any questions or comments.
Find out more about GlossGenius here.
For more interviews of other leading founders/VCs go here!
