GLOU BEAUTY SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE INAUGURAL FOUNDER FELLOWSHIP BY VHBOS
A new Boston-based, 10-week fellowship program developed in partnership between the Barr Foundation and Visible Hands, VHBOS will provide Glou Beauty with support needed for the next major milestone.
PRESS RELEASE | May 17, 2023, Boston, MA
Glou Beauty, the AI-powered beauty marketplace, today announced it has been accepted into the inaugural cohort of VHBOS, a new Boston-based 10-week fellowship program developed in partnership between the Barr Foundation and Visible Hands.
This inaugural group of 20 founders who are representative of Greater Boston’s rich racial and gender diversity will work over the next few months to take their startups to the next level in a hybrid-model fellowship program, with financial and hands-on support from the Barr Foundation and Visible Hands.
“I feel honored and super excited to be part of the inaugural VHBOS cohort. As we just migrated Glou Beauty’s MVP and re-launched our beauty marketplace on the scalable AWS platform, this fellowship program will help Glou Beauty reach our next critical milestone,” says Karen Lee, Founder and CEO of Glou Beauty.
“The recent CNN report: ‘The $500 billion beauty industry's 'green' ambitions are a patchwork at best. And they're falling short’ validates Glou Beauty’s vision to lead sustainability in the beauty industry’s ecosystem and make meaningful climate-conscious change,” said Lee.
According to McKinsey’s special report on the beauty market in 2023, beauty is on an upward trajectory across all categories. The report noted that “beauty has proven to be resilient amid global economic crises and in a turbulent macroeconomic environment. Beauty is now an industry that many people, from top-tier financiers to A-list celebrities, want to be a part of—and with good reason.”
“We at Visible Hands are thrilled to partner with the Barr Foundation on this exciting new fellowship,” said Daniel Acheampong, Co-Founder and General Partner of Visible Hands. “Together, we can empower emerging entrepreneurs and drive positive economic and social impact in their communities. This fellowship represents an incredible opportunity to cultivate the next generation of change-makers and fuel a culture of innovation and progress in Boston.”
Visible Hands is a VC firm that funds and empowers underrepresented founders launching high-growth startups. Starting on day zero, Visible Hands puts its founders first in order to help its cohort of overlooked entrepreneurs work to build their startups.
VHBOS is an extension of the Visible Hands mission to support overlooked talent, in partnership with the Barr Foundations efforts to create more inclusion in the Boston startup ecosystem.
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About Glou Beauty
Glou Beauty is empowering beauty lovers to become more conscious consumers, pushing against an industry that encourages over-consumption and creates unsustainable amounts of waste. As the first consumer-to-consumer re-commerce marketplace, Glou enables everyday consumers to easily buy and sell makeup, skincare, and beauty products. With seamless one-cart shopping, transparent pricing, and automated listing creation, Glou is designed as an extension of the beauty consumers’ journey and takes the industry one step closer to creating a circular economy. Glou Beauty is backed by AWS Impact Accelerator for Women Founders ‘22 and Techstars Detroit Powered by J.P. Morgan ‘23.