Writing A New Playbook for Raising Capital
Launched out of the prestigious Y Combinator and Stanford University startup ecosystem, Proven Skincare is known as "the Tesla of skincare" living at the intersection of technology and beauty. From Shark Tank to the upcoming new business reality series "Going Public" co-founder and CEO Ming Zhao is bypassing traditional VC and PE funding and going straight to consumers to raise capital based on the belief that "Entrepreneurs found businesses based on their passion, but only customers can make them successful." She shares why the current system is broken and how founders can write a new playbook for accessing the funds they need for growth.
Proven Skincare is an AI-driven skincare brand with a proprietary database that uses computer science to analyze the effectiveness of over 20,000 ingredients, 100,000 products, 20 million consumer data points, and thousands of scientific articles on skin to formulate personalized products.
This webinar is part of a series sponsored by NetSuite focused on the various paths beauty brands have taken to fund growth and profitability. NetSuite is the world’s leading provider of cloud-based business management software. NetSuite helps companies manage core business processes with a single, fully integrated system covering ERP/financials, CRM, eCommerce, inventory, and more.
Co-founded with Dr. Amy Yuan, a Stanford University computational physicist, PROVEN creates customized skincare systems for individuals based on more than 47 factors about them, including their gene expression, lifestyle, external environment, and skin concerns. PROVEN is the winner of MIT’s AI Technology of the Year award and has been featured on “Shark Tank” and the “Today” show. Ming was named Female Entrepreneur of the Year in 2020.
In summer 2021, Ming will appear on Entrepreneur.com’s upcoming business reality series “Going Public,” where viewers will be able to follow her journey trying to raise capital for PROVEN and – in a streaming show first – can also invest in the company themselves.
Ming holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and has lived and worked in the U.S., Austria, China, and India. Before PROVEN, Ming led the partnerships team at NerdWallet, was a private-equity investor at Bain Capital, and was a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.
