Meet Leandres Christopher and Ambra Jordan of Knot-ed in Central Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leandres Christopher and Ambra Jordan.

Leandres and Ambra, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My co-founder and I met while getting our MBAs at ASU and near the end of the program, as we were beginning to search for full-time work, we both ran into the issue of what to do with our hair for job interviews. Most styles designed to protect afro-textured hair and keep it healthy, are often considered inappropriate in the corporate environment. On top of that, any change in hairstyle usually requires a significant investment of time and effort; deciding on a style and attempting to either complete it on our own or to find a hairstylist that can do it.

The idea for Knot-ed stemmed from our personal natural hair care journeys; specifically as I was laying on the couch, complaining out loud about needing to go to the beauty supply store, but not being sure if they had the products I needed and wishing that I could just have everything delivered to me without having to think about it. I thought, “Why doesn’t this exist already?” and I immediately texted Ambra, one of the only other black girls in my MBA program, and asked her a bunch of vague questions about how she approached her hair care. We ended up spending like an hour spitballing ideas off of each other and at the end of it, we knew that we had something.

What started out as trying to find an easy fix to hair care, turned into creating and curating a monthly subscription box specifically for black women and their hair; one that doesn’t just deliver hair products each month, but focuses on taking them through the entire process of washing, styling, and caring for their hair.

A few weeks after the idea was formulated, we developed a prototype box and held focus groups and interviews to make sure we weren’t just operating from our own experiences, and we were pleased to find how well received the idea was. Our first beta Knot-Box was released in July, the second beta in November, and we had our soft launch in March where users can now purchase a monthly subscription.

Has it been a smooth road?
There’s been some great momentum since we started, but there have definitely been struggles as well. We’re still working to grow our subscriber base to a level where we can reach sustainable profits and scale from there, and though we’ve managed to secure some seed funding and our sales are growing each month, cash flow is always a concern.

Pitching to investors is also often frustrating because most of the time has to be spent explaining the problem in depth, along with why the current approaches to black hair care don’t actually solve anything. We’ve noticed that companies with concepts more relatable to the investors they talk to (mostly white males) often have an advantage.

The landscape is changing though. More female and minority angels and VCs are being established precisely to amplify the voices and ideas of those that are often overlooked, making it an exciting and inspiring time to be in this arena.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Our mission is to make quality hair care accessible to black women all across the U.S. (and eventually the world). The Knot-Box is superior to other solutions out there because it takes you through the entire process of washing, styling, and caring for your hair from the comfort of your home. We do this by sourcing products, not only from well-known brands but also from small black-owned and women-owned businesses; companies created by the same individuals who face these problems and are doing something about it. The education and tutorials we use are sourced from popular natural hair influencers, and our future boxes will be designed by up and coming Black artists. As a brand, we are most proud of the fact that when our consumers purchase a Knot-Box subscription, they’re money is being recycled and re-invested back into their own community.

What’s your outlook for the industry over the next 5-10 years?
For a majority of history, “good hair” amongst African-Americans was considered hair that conformed to European standards (silky and straight) and was often necessary for decent employment and acceptance into certain societal groups. Since Afro-textured hair doesn’t grow that way naturally, this aesthetic was achieved with hot pressing combs and later on with hair straightening chemicals called relaxers. The use of these tools has been the norm until recently when we’ve started to see an increased acceptance in our natural roots, within our own culture and within western society as a whole.

This presents an unusual problem though because there are nearly 8 million Black Millenial and early Gen Z females who are starting to ditch those relaxers at an extraordinary rate and choosing instead to embrace their natural hair but don’t really know where to start. The education on how to maintain our hair in its natural state is practically non-existent because collectively we haven’t maintained our hair in its natural state in centuries. On top of that our access to the products we need is often limited to a 6-foot area in a single retail aisle, which makes no sense because we spend 9x more on hair and beauty products than any other demographic. In 2017 Black Millennial buying power reached $162 billion and is projected to reach $196 billion by 2020.

What all of this data points to is a growing need for access to quality products and education, along with an increased desire to purchase those products from brands that not only understand their needs, but that truly resonate with them and their lifestyle.

Pricing:

• Knot-Box Monthly Subscription – $39.99 per month
• Knot-Box Quarterly Subscription – $110.99 per quarter

Contact Info:

• Website: https://knot-ed.com/
• Email: support@knot-ed.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knot_ed/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackgirlhaircarebox/

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