Wendy Slattery and her sister Tracy Levy built The Beauty Buddy, which is dedicated to helping consumers navigate the beauty and cosmetic market maze. Slattery talks about her Going for Growth journey.
In this new series we talk to women entrepreneurs who have taken part in the Going for Growth programme. Going for Growth is a six-month part-time programme, supported by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, which assists ambitious female entrepreneurs to achieve their growth aspirations. Applications are currently being sought from ambitious female entrepreneurs for the 14th cycle of the popular programme.
The inspiration for Beauty Buddy came from an issue Wendy Slattery and her sister were having when they went shopping for beauty products. They found there was too much choice and not enough genuine information on the products.
“The round table sessions allow for practical, open discussions between like-minded women who are all facing similar situations”
They wanted to find a better solution to standing in a shop and ‘Googling’ a product’s reviews in order to see if it would be suitable for them. So they set up Beauty Buddy.
Beauty Buddy comes to the consumer’s rescue
The Beauty Buddy app allows consumers to scan the barcode of a product while they are in store and it will give them honest reviews of that product, and suggestions of which skin or hair profile it will suit.
Wendy’s background in business development, corporate sales, retail and project management has assisted her in her role as CEO and in leading the team to deliver the vision of Beauty Buddy — to be the go-to app for all things Beauty and Cosmetic.
The company partners with brands and retailers to give them targeted market research and unique actionable insights. This game-changing data enables beauty brands to access relevant consumer and product interaction data, allowing them to make better informed business decisions.
As an Enterprise Ireland HPSU client, Beauty Buddy has raised a pre-seed round of €575,000. Wendy also took part in New Frontiers, NDRC Portershed, DCU Female High Fliers and Google’s Adopt a Start-up.
Wendy won an AIB Women in Enterprise Award in 2019, was a finalist in the Irish Times
Innovation Awards 2020, and won silver in the Digital Business Awards, backed by PTSB.
Wendy is part of the Going for Growth community after participating on the Starting Strong element of the programme in 2021.
In exceptional cases, entrepreneurs at an earlier stage of their business journey will be considered for Going for Growth if they are generating sales, and it is felt that the business is highly innovative, plans to have export customers and the entrepreneur has significant growth ambitions. If accepted, these participants are included in the ‘Starting Strong’ element of the programme.
“I would absolutely recommend participating in the programme, especially if your mindset is to scale your business,” says Wendy. “The round table sessions allow for practical, open discussions between like-minded women who are all facing similar situations. The group of women on my table are amazing. I look forward to continuing to support and celebrate them on their journey.”
The call is open for applications from female entrepreneurs who would welcome peer support to take their businesses to the next level by taking part in the Going for Growth programme. This is the 14th year of Going for Growth and more than 800 female entrepreneurs have so far taken part in the programme. Up to 60 places will be available for the 14th cycle of Going for Growth, which will run from January to June 2022 and the deadline for applications is Thursday December 16th 2021. There is no charge for those selected.
Anyone interested is encouraged to register on the website goingforgrowth.com and a link to the application form will be sent to them.
