This document summarizes the business plan for an online skincare product discovery and recommendation platform called Apothecary. It outlines the problems in the current skincare market around confusion, cost and lack of personalized recommendations. Apothecary aims to provide personalized recommendations through a skin quiz, affordable product trials, and influencer partnerships to help users discover products that work for their unique skin needs. The business model involves affiliate commissions and dropshipping to connect users to brands. Key goals and milestones are outlined to grow the platform and build partnerships with influencers and brands.

1. data-driven product discovery that
fits your unique skincare journey.
apothecary.

2. skincare is a journey. [and not always
a linear one.]
2013.
on prescription topical
retinoid for 8 months;
on 2nd round of
accutane.
2014.
quit accutane due
to side effects.
acne flares back up —
very painful.
using harsh salicylic
cleansers + st. ives
apricot scrub (oh no).
2016.
starting to try OTC
skincare products.
completely
overwhelmed
and not sure
where to start.
2020.
3 prescriptions,
~70 skincare products,
dozens of aesthetician visits,
thousands of dollars,
hours of product research,
and a dab of bronzer later…
& i still get breakouts.
2018.
hot summers in NYC
gave rise to whiteheads
throughout T-zone.
cut out dairy and start
to actually invest in
OTC products.

3. 1.
2.
confusion
cost
~87% of women report being confused
about which products they should be using.*
the cost of just trying a skincare product
can range between $20-$200.
*Mintel
the problem.

4. your one-stop resource
for all things skin.
honest reviews,
never sponsored.
data-driven product recs
through our 2-minute skin quiz.
try before you buy with
minis (1mo trial)
instant recs
communityaffordable trials
stitchfix of skincare.

5. market opportunity.
*Forbes, Mintel, TAM calculations in appendix
ad spend,
USA 2019
skincare retail
USA, 2019
$24B $240.7B$2.07B
apothecary.

6. why now?
*Financial Times
pre-covid: beauty ecomm 12-15% penetration. post-covid, 79% buy online.
may not normalize for months, perhaps years.
*lipstick effect* people don’t turn from beauty as quickly as other categories
when spending discretionarily.
skincare is ripe for disruption and market forces are accelerating the need for
beauty discovery online.
“In ecommerce,
we achieved in 8 weeks
what it would have otherwise
taken us 3 years to do.”
[Lubomira Rochet,
L’Oréal Chief Digital Officer]*

7. how it works. [b2c]
skinfluencer go-to-market:
organic traffic from IG,
tik tok via custom link
try before you buy:
try it out with trial minis
before committing full-size
rediscovery:
add steps to your routine
or adjust to fit your lifestyle
convert to full:
buy full-size of products
that worked for you
take skin quiz:
2-minute in-take survey rec
products and skinfluencers

8. how it works. [b2b]
customer
orders
today: test with affiliate (8% cut)
at scale: drop ship (45% cut)
order is passed
to supplier
supplier fulfills order directly to customer
apothecary collects user skin + product
preference data; sells to supplier

9. curated for tried
& true favorites
personalized
recommendations
community
differentiation.
try before you buy
review
communities mass retailers
personalized
consultations
apothecary.
custom
products

10. go-to-market strategy.
launch
custom influencer
website + shop
years 1-3 years 4-7
word of mouth
paid advertising pop-up booths
custom influencer
website + shop
paid ads

11. traction.
200 beta
9.5% apothecary
5.2% average skincare retail*
conversion
42% apothecary
1.1% beauty sampling today*
full-size purchase post-trial
5.3K followers
on instagram
~500K reach
microinfluencers
*Forbes, Mintel
growingcommunity+

12. milestones.
JUNE
KPI: affiliate revenue (mostly full)
onboard 125 microinfluencers (IG)
acquire 4K users
traffic —> brand pitches
indie supplier drop ship contracts
onboard 28 brands, 216 SKUs
KPI: drop ship revenue (trial + full)
onboard 260 microinfluencers (IG + tik tok)
acquire 10K users
JULY AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
add est. supplier drop ship contracts
b2b pilots (14 brands)
- qualified sampling + product seeding
- white label reco algo
raising $750K for 18mo runway.
user acquisition (1K microinfluencers, 40K users)
brand partnership pipeline
b2b pilot

13. our team.
Jason Lee
Full Stack Engineer
Biraj Parikh
Data Science Intern
Nila Annadurai
Full Stack Engineer
Christine Hong
Founder & CEO
team make-up:
+ 10+ years of experience in tech
+ 25+ years of experience in dermatology
Dr. Kyung Hee Chang
Advisor
Board-Certified
Dermatologist

14. thank you !
sign up for our launch at
bit.ly/2zAOPd3

15. appendix

16. *avg trial ~$20; avg full-size ~$50; affiliate margins 5-8%; drop ship margins 35-45%
unit econ. [b2c]
skinfluencer go-to-market:
organic traffic from IG,
tik tok via custom link
take skin quiz:
2-minute in-take survey rec
products and skinfluencers
try before you buy:
try it out with trial minis
before committing full-size
convert to full:
buy full-size of products
that worked for you
rediscovery:
add steps to your routine
or adjust to fit your lifestyle
current skinfluencer reach:
~500K qualified users
5% take quiz:
25,000 signups
9.5% purchase a trial of
recommended products:
2375 users
42% of trial users
convert to full-size:
997 users
organic growth
CAC = initial cost to set
up skinfluencer site (—> 0)
in-take skin quiz
recs products and
recs skinfluencers
if rec from skin quiz:
2375 users * $20/prod * 3 prod/order
* 20% users = $28,500
if rec from skinfluencer:
2375 users * $20/prod * 3 prod/order
* 80% users = $114,000
997 users * $50/prod
* 2 prod/order
= $99,700
users
% from beta % from beta average conversion for beauty = 7% (ours was 6X)
average retention rate = 23% (above is based on 1.5X)
34.5% retention rate:
trial = 819 users
full = 343 users
trial:
819 users * $20/prod * 3 prod/order
3 orders/yr = $147,420
full:
343 users * $50/prod * 2 prod/order
* 3 orders/yr = $102,900
($142,500 + $99,700) + $250,320)/3,372users
= $146.06/user yearly
gross rev
= $99,700
gross rev =
$250,320
revenue
model
gross rev:
= $142,500

17. revenue streams
affiliate + dropship.
trial minis ($5-26) | full-size ($12-100)
affiliate (5-8%) | dropship (~35-45%)
1. retail
targeted sampling + product
seeding for brands.
tiered pricing:
- skinfluencer conversions
- qualified sampling
2. brand campaigns
sell user skin + product
preference data.
can be used for white label
recommendation algorithm
3. data

18. $3.2B
market opportunity.
$19B
Apothecary Est.
Market Share
*L’Oréal Finance
[next slide]
$11.3B$24B
USA Skincare Retail
2019*
USA Skincare Ecomm
2019*
[b2b2c]
$675M
$1.3B total SOM

19. $3.2B
market opportunity.
$19B
Apothecary Est.
Market Share
*Statista
$1.7B$240.7B
USA Ad Spend
2019*
USA Ad Spend (influencer)
2019*
[b2b]
$600M
$1.3B total SOM

20. TAM calculations.
*Forbes, Mintel
[b2b2c]

21. TAM calculations.
*Forbes, Mintel
[b2b]

22. KPIs & forecasts.
Q3, 2020 Q4, 2020 Q1, 2021 Q2, 2021
# usersaffiliate + drop ship revenue b2b revenue
200k
400k
800k
600k
1M
drop ship contracts;
b2b pilots
double b2b
indie pilots
pilot 1 large
conglomerate
potential for growth
driven by data and
PaaS to brands

23. insta-sites.
*linktree and milkshake have biggest
market share for insta-sites. no custom
features, pay for analytics.
milkshake linktree

24. don’t take our word for it.
influencers
“the consultation was quick
and painless, getting to try
the products before buying
them was great. the past 3
months since using apothecary
has been the best my
skin has ever felt.”
[Will, Boston]
“we’re sitting on a ton of assets.
we’ve invested tens of millions
into acquiring data on skin and
have thousands of formulations,
but we haven’t yet figured out
personalization. so yes, we need
the right team to partner with us
and connect it all.”
- Wael Safi, P&G Ventures
customers brands
“everyone’s IG feed looks pretty much
the same, but stories and DMs are how
you really get to know someone’s
personality and skincare philosophy.
we need a space for that. there are also
some gaps — i would personally really
love having my own beauty profile
to organize my collabs with brands.”
[Jay, @citizenglow]