![Grace Chiang, 25, cofounded Mani.me with while getting an MBA at Stanford. She’s still working... [+] toward her degree.](https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Famyfeldman%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F07%2FCopy-of-TheoStFrancis_ManiMeLaunchpad-15-1200x800.jpg)
At 25 years old, Grace Chiang is changing how women get manicures. Instead of a traditional salon process, which is extremely time consuming, expensive, and painful, you can have nails shipped to your doorstep.
Grace Chiang’s company, Mani.me, is a subscription service that sends 3d printed nails to members for a reasonable price compared to a traditional manicure. A consumer can purchase 2 sets of nails a month for $50, or 3 for $70. Chiang started this company as a MBA student at Stanford, and had two friends later join her.
The magic of Mani.me is how the nails are curated for each customer. The company uses an app to allow users to upload photos of their nails and create measurements to send a unique set of custom fitting nails to every subscriber. From there the customer can pick a design from the app for the color and drawing on the nails.
The nails differ from traditional acrylic nails, because they simply stick on your finger nail beds, and can be removed without any sort of painful process.
You can visit the company site at https://www.manime.co/
Hey Katherine!
What a neat idea for someone to create nails from a 3D printer. They seem really expensive for nails to me, but I wonder how long 3D printer nails would last in comparison to the glass nails or if one were to go get a manicure or something.
Such an interesting concept. I love the idea of using newly consumer-available products like a 3D printer to change how people do something to make it more efficient. Great writing!
This is a brilliant idea. It will be interesting to see how the use of 3d printing is implemented in today’s world. There is an endless number of ways that it can revolutionize the consumer experience. Grace was wise about jumping on this trend early, and catering to a need that almost all women could get on board with.
Given the rise of customizability in today’s day and age, it makes perfect sense why a service specifically designed to curate nails at just the right color, shape, and size for the client is seeing success. Having known people who make regular trips to get their nails done, I understand that this can be a very time-consuming process. This young entrepreneur created a company directly out of a need she had which is an excellent way to start a business with a lot of potential.
This is a really neat idea! Granted I do not know much about the nail market but that seems rather expensive! However, if this became a trend I would predict it would be a popular as it is not expensive in general, but appeals to a wide customer base!