Jooyeon Song is the co-founder of ManiMe at the age of 29. ManiMe sells custom fit and good quality stick on nails that the customer can purchase and apply themselves at home. Their products are cruelty free, nontoxic, and easy to use. Song first thought of her idea when she was growing up in South Korea. She loved to go and get her nails done but she found with her busy schedule she just did not have the time to go to a nail solon. It was not until she attended college at Stanford where she met the man who would become her co-founder and together, while her was still in college getting her MBA, they created ManiMe. They use 3D printing technology to create the custom fit gel nails from 2D pictures.
Song explained one of the hardest things she faced while starting ManiMe was that most the investors she pitched to were male, and they did not understand the problem she was trying to solve. I think this problem happens more often than we think. I read an article that said, “there are 114% more female entrepreneurs in the US today than 20 years ago”. Women today are entering an environment that used to be all men. They bring to the table a new perspective and Song experienced the difficulty of trying to get others to see situations from a new perspective. Male or female this is an important part of entrepreneurship. Being able to get others to see the problem you see and understand how your idea can uniquely and effectively solve that problem is the heart and soul of entrepreneurship.
Song was able to explain her perspective and her solution to the problem and was able to get her business going. I found it really intriguing to learn about Song’s journey and what part of her entrepreneurship journey she struggled with the most. I feel as though it is a great example of the success that can come from perseverance, dedication, and hard work.
Here is a short video about Jooyeon Song:
https://www.forbes.com/30-under-30/2021/art-style/?profile=manime
This is a great story! Just knowing that she struggled about finding other women in her field would be so hard to get acknowledged. She found her way through it and changed the nail industry forever since they are were all men and had no idea what women wanted. Now the nail industry is so much better since the ideas for new products are coming from women. Great topic!
I loved reading this story! I thought that it was so cool that both male and female could work together in order to solve the problem, especially since this was a struggle for Song finding a good partner to work on this with. Overall, a great topic and article!
This story of innovation was truly fascinating. I think finding her partner in someone who didn’t relate to the pain of the product but could understand and bring value and perspective to the product was really interesting! Song shows true innovation and proved that pivoting can get you to where you want to be.