9 April 2021|Latest Posts, Meet the Successful Founder
Stacy Munro and Jennifer Armstrong have been friends for over 25 years. They created Myrror together as an app for boosting ‘no filter’ positive body image and confident treatment exploration through control and tracking.
Myrror was inspired by Stacy’s personal experience of the aesthetic market following the birth of her two children. She wanted to ensure users like her felt in control and were tracking based on their own reality, not any filtered and unrealistic expectations.
Stacy and Jennifer both realised the importance of control throughout the whole process, for any treatment. This is how Myrror came to be the first app that balances both fun treatment exploration with responsible treatment tracking equally, with a no filter needed attitude.
Can you tell us a little about your background and the company?
Jennifer and I have been friends for over 25 years. Jennifer started out as a vet and I work in financial services and software. When lockdown started in March 2020 we both found ourselves being full time parents to 2 preschoolers each. As strange as this may sound to some people we both wanted more than ‘just’ to be parents. We had been talking about the concept of Myrror for a few months and so decided that we would use lockdown as the opportunity to really throw ourselves into it and make it happen
Myrror is an app that allows you to track and control your beauty journey. The app users the ability to have fact based discussions with their experts – showing them actual photos, that are real and unfiltered, to ensure discussions about next steps are collaborative and personal to how their own body is responding and reacting to a course of treatment – think of it as your ‘aesthetic personal record’ – you have a medical and a dental record – why don’t we give our beauty journeys the same priority?
Myrror gives beauty brands a challenge – if your product is really that good then Myrror will show that to the world – if your users can demonstrate results via a timeline of photos that is clear evidence that your product is working – no filters, no fancy lighting, just your users showing real images of progress
Beauty Professionals can create personal and collaborative relationships with their customers as Myrror has the ability to share images securely with your experts. So keep the conversation and collaboration going, even during lockdown. We are also shortly launching the functionality to allow for booking with image share, further enhancing the client experience.
How did the idea come to you for the company?
As users of the beauty industry we found it difficult to keep track of whether certain (often very expensive) products and procedures were getting the required results. We found that there is not always the opportunity to really see the progress you’re making, and nowhere secure you can lock personal images away securely. We both also wanted to the opportunity to securely share images with beauty professional that wasn’t just via e mail. Ultimately we wanted a personal and secure ‘beauty record’ that was personalised to us. Allowing us to store and track images, with whatever we were choosing to do.
How did you achieve awareness?
We launched in September 2020 and have primarily focussed on growing our social channels, particularly Instagram. We also started with some paid Google advertising however as a brand new brand we didn’t feel that this was the most efficient use of our start up funding. We therefore started to work with a PR company (rkmcom.com) who are experts in this field and have given us the exposure and contacts we need to grow. With new features coming to the app in May we are now starting some paid social advertising to supplement this PR. Our website has been the go to place for telling people what Myrror is and we did a complete website refresh in February following learning more about our audience, as well as enhancing the Myrror product.
How have you been able to gain funding and grow?
We are well and truly boot strapped! We did get support from Virgin Start Up which was fantastic and allowed us to ultimately complete the app. It’s now over to us though and we were fortunate to raise the money needed to launch. We are at a growth stage at the moment so now have a delicate balance of spending to enhance the product in advance of selling the new feature. It can feel uncomfortable but we’re really keen to finance ourselves and avoid external investment if we can help it.
What are the key successes?
Number 1 was launching on lockdown, and launching an app which I don’t think either of us ever thought we could do. Second has been the interest from the industry in what we are doing. We have some really exciting partnerships coming up that again, we didn’t expect. We have allowed Myrror to evolve in response to industry reaction and that is working well fo us so far.
What were/are the challenges and how have you overcome these?
Confidence to just do it is definitely one of them. At every stage there has always been doubts and whether we know enough to keep going. We have gone forward though and it’s really exciting. The other, which will always be there, is inexperience. We are very much learning as we go, we make mistakes but we learn from them. We have managed to establish a supportive network of other new founders and that has proved very beneficial.
.jpg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280 "Meet the Successful Founders: Stacy Munro & Jennifer Armstrong Founder of Myrror")
What are your plans now/for the future?
Priority at the moment is to launch our new feature allowing users to share images as they book an appointment. From this we really want to focus on B2B growth, having Myrror as a key engagement tool to the beauty professional. We want to develop Myrror further so that beauty professionals can use it bring their customer closer by providing a remote way of tracking and collaborating with their customers. We are wanting to work with professionals now to see how we can integrate Myrror into existing salon software and booking platforms to create a truly personalised and digital experience. We also want to collaborate with brands – could Myrror be your consumers way of tracking and proving how good your product is?
What would you like to share with others to encourage them to start their own entrepreneurship journey?
You’ll never know until you try. If you believe there is a way then why not try it.
Can you share you top 5-10 tips for entrepreneurial success?
· Do your research so you know who your target consumers are
· Do your research on your competitors – what will make you better?
· Having a co founder makes things easier. Another person who can not only share the workload, but who you can turn to for emotional support too
· Find a network of other start ups. It’s a great way to share ideas and tips and also have a sounding board too. We use The Engine Room and it’s fantastic https://www.enterpriseorchard.co.uk/
· Don’t strive for perfection before launching – get your product out there on a small scale to test the market and learn so you know where to prioritise budget and time for enhancements
Who are the 5 people who inspire you the most and why?
· Michelle Mone – Michelle is not only hugely successful but is Scottish 😊 Michelle had the skill and talent to create a product that has galvanised the fashion industry, and stands the test of time.
· Karen Brady – I watched an interview with Karen about the gender pay gap and she explained that she insists on a clause in her contracts guaranteeing parity in salaries. I’m looking forward to this clause not having to be enforced in the future.
· Em Clarkson – A huge advocate of body confidence and no filter beauty. We need more people like this in the world. I have a young daughter and I don’t want her growing up somewhere where Instagram filters dictate whether she feels confident enough to share a photo.
What are your favourite inspirational /motivational quotes?
Jennifer and I have a single quote that we have used a good few times during the last year – ‘We got this’. It’s simple, but it’s true. We’re in this together, and we’re doing it.
What are your social handles and website links so our readers can connect with you?
@myrrorapp – insta & FaceBook
