Meet the Warby Parker of Men's Skincare - Mia Saini & Laura Lisowski / Co-Founders of Oars + Alps

by Colin Keeley
November 28, 2016

 

Mia Saini & Laura Lisowski are the Founders of Oars + Alps, a new e-commerce startup selling men’s skincare products for "athleisure guys on the go". Their first products are a face moisturizer, a deodorant, and a face wash in stick form. 

Mia Saini is a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School and a former reporter for Bloomberg TV. Early last year, Mia quit her job at Bloomberg and her Co-Founder Laura Lisowski quit her job at Facebook to start building Oars + Alps out of 1871.


In This Episode You Will Learn:

  • The difference between men's and women's skin care
  • How they decided to start with these products
  • Where the name comes from
  • How they met on a party boat in Thailand
  • The benefits of being an outsider in the industry
  • How they choose ingredients
  • Why you have to set the price before making product decisions
  • What men are doing wrong in their grooming
  • How they plan to cut through the noise and get the word out
  • How they position their brand
  • Another startup brand they look up to
  • The value of content and influencer marketing
  • How they landed features in Esquire and Bloomberg within months of launching and how you can to

Selected Links From The Episode:

Sponsored By:

  • Propllr: a Chicago public relations firm that helps startups and innovators build credibility and awareness for their companies, people, products and services.

This post originally appeared on Tech In Chicago. Visit Tech In Chicago to listen to more interviews with Chicago’s top startup founders and venture capitalists.

 

 

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