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Equal parts glitz, glam and celebrity, Hollywood also turns out to be a prime location for building a beauty-focused startup. In fact, the location of two-year-old seller of beauty supplies and publisher of related digital content VIOLET GREY at 8452 Melrose Place in West Hollywood is key to the company’s success, according to co-founder and vice president of product and operations Ariella Feldman.
“Being in Los Angeles is critical to our mission and it’s exciting to be authentically weaving our environment into our business model,” she said. “Our digital magazine, The Violet Files, is dedicated to documenting Hollywood beauty culture in collaboration with a large community of contributors based in LA. And the products offered for sale online and in store represent those chosen through a rigorous vetting process that we undergo with our community of Hollywood beauty experts on a regular basis.”
The original brains behind the beauty business is Cassandra Huysentruyt Grey, wife of movie studio Paramount’s chairman and CEO Brad Grey. After meeting Feldman, a financial lawyer who previously worked with the founders of startup-cum-industry-leader One Kings Lane, the two founded VIOLET GREY in 2012. One Kings Lane is a web-only flash-sales retailer of home goods and furniture. “That experience [at One Kings Lane] inspired me because I recognized that there was a lot of opportunity for innovation online if you had a distinct point of view that others are attracted to,” Feldman said.
VIOLET GREY rose out of Huysentruyt Grey's first business located just down the block, a private makeup, skin, nail and hairstyling studio where Hollywood stars and artists who would gather to seek inspiration and collaborate on style ideas for red carpets, premiers and the like. Those specialists then began curating the retailer’s line of beauty products, adhering to a set of three standards known as The Violet Code: items must be authentic, validated and coveted--or “declared necessary by influential names in the beauty and film industries.” They sell online at VioletGrey.com in “The Shelves” section and at the Melrose Place flagship store.
Today, including all of VIOLET GREY’s full-time employees, its advisors, curators, contributors and board members, about 100 people regularly apply their skills to the new face in LA’s startup scene, according to Feldman. “It takes a village to grow a successful business,” she said. “The LA tech scene has been very supportive of us and I am proud to be a part of it.”
The company is hiring additional tech, product and content developers now as it aims to build out its product collection across categories and provide more inspiration and education to consumers via The Violet Files, she said. The digital magazine launched in June 2013, with a format that mixes large, glossy images, tweetable pull-quotes, videos, text and shopping links together into one a long, vertical scroll per story. Its features include interviews with Hollywood stars like Eva Mendes and January Jones, as well as makeup tips and tutorials, lifestyle columns (“Secrets to being boss,” a letter from the editor) and local interest stories (“Hollywood hotel suites” and “Oscar beauty musts”).
“While I was in law school, I began studying digital innovation and was most fascinated with content and commerce businesses,” Feldman said. “As a busy student, I didn’t have much time to read magazines and shop so I turned to online sources that offered me inspiration and the ability to click and buy.”
As a busy executive, she still doesn’t have much time. But she does have VIOLET GREY.
