Paige Malcolm With SkinCentric LLC

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by on pay. Atlanta’s New standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is a special edition, GSU Ini radio episode where we are spotlighting some of the folks going through the Main Street Entrepreneurship Seed Fund program. And today’s guest is Paige Malcolm with Skin Centric. Welcome, Paige.

Paige Malcolm: [00:00:44] Hi, Lee. Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about skin centric.

Paige Malcolm: [00:00:51] Yeah, So skin centric is a beauty tech startup that’s focused on sustainability, education and usability for our customers. And we’re currently developing a skincare device that you can use to store all of your skincare products while reducing plastic waste and just getting more education about your skincare routine and helping you to develop a better skincare routine.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:15] So is your background in cosmetics or is it in technology? Like where does your expertise lie?

Paige Malcolm: [00:01:22] Yeah, so both. I am in college as a computer science major and I have been in college since fall of 2021 for computer science, and I’ve always been in the beauty industry ever since I was in high school. So at 16 I became a hairstylist and I was doing hair up until about fall of last year. Not not necessarily cosmetics, but definitely in the beauty industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:51] So what was the genesis of the idea? Where did you when did you realize that there was a problem that you could solve?

Paige Malcolm: [00:01:57] Yes. So as someone who has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and was always, you know, basically looking for like problems, earlier this year, I joined the L’Oreal Brainstorm competition and they basically set the guidelines for us. They wanted us to come up with an idea that was sustainable, innovative, and that was tech centered. And so when I heard that, the first thing that came to my mind was a device that you can use to store all of your skincare products, because I know that’s something that I would use. And I just feel like, you know, that’s really important. And it was really important to L’oreal’s mission as well. So that’s where the idea came from. And, you know, we didn’t make the L’Oreal Brandstorm competition, so we just decided, me and my team and I, we decided to just continue pursuing this business.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:48] So if people aren’t using your device, what are they doing instead?

Paige Malcolm: [00:02:54] Yeah. So a lot of people who would like to reduce their plastic waste, they’re opting for glass products, but there’s not a lot of that on the market or they probably make their own skincare at home naturally. And then for education, I know YouTube is a big thing. That’s why I used to watch growing up. So a lot of people probably get their skincare from YouTube or friends and family. Tiktok is a big thing right now, so definitely using social media to get that information.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:27] So they’re getting the information and they’re kind of making their own stuff. And then this is a place where they can put all the stuff in one place that when they finish it up, then they can just add more to it in the same container. So you don’t have that waste in the plastics.

Paige Malcolm: [00:03:42] Yeah. So the idea here is that they can keep purchasing from the beauty retailers that they already use and we aim to partner with a lot of like big beauty brands so they can, you know, keep the same like companies that they shop with just go through us as like a third party. And of course there’s different packaging, no plastic use, and then they can order the products from us and, you know, put them in the machine. Yes. When they finish using them, they’re able to refill the same container with that product or something different if they want. And then, you know, put it in the machine again and reuse it.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:25] So have you been talking to any of the the larger manufacturers? Is this something they’re interested in?

Paige Malcolm: [00:04:33] Yes. So one of my mentors through the Main Street program is actually the vice president of finance at Charlotte Tilbury, which is a very big makeup brand. And she was very interested in our business. But we have not been doing a lot of customer discovery with businesses. We’ve more so been talking to our end customers, but we do plan to do more customer discovery on the business side to see if it’s something that they’re interested in.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:03] So was it difficult for you to build your team?

Paige Malcolm: [00:05:08] So it kind of came naturally in the beginning when we were going through the L’Oreal Brandstorm, we met online and we just started working. And my team consists of two other people. We were working for like four months, but since then, like a lot has changed and my team now is comprised of friends and family who have like expertise in engineering particularly. So everything pretty, everything pretty much came naturally. So no, it wasn’t hard.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:40] So any advice for other founders out there on? Building a team. What are some of the things that you look for in a team member and what are some of the maybe red flags that you don’t want them to have?

Paige Malcolm: [00:05:52] Yeah. So when looking for a team member, I would say make sure that you guys have the same viewpoints on work and you know how things need to get done because that’s like one of the fundamental issues I’ve found with co-founder or just, you know, partnership relationships is that if you guys aren’t on the same page about certain things, then it just won’t work out, especially in the long term. So just make sure that there’s an agreement about, you know, how things will get done. What are your work styles and find someone that has like complementary like skill sets to what you bring to the table. So if you’re in technology and you’re an engineer, you might want to find someone who’s in sales, you know, so that you guys can bring both of those skill sets to the table instead of, you know, you finding another technical person and then having to like fill the gaps in, you know, elsewhere with, you know, those other requirements. And I would say as far as like red flags is honestly, you know, like the person’s work ethic, that’s the biggest thing for me. Um, you know, having gone through like a co-founder situation myself recently, I would definitely say make sure that you guys have like an agreement about work styles and how things will get done right.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:19] There’s a lot of people out there that like to be an entrepreneur, but they don’t realize the amount of work and effort it takes to really be successful in this.

Paige Malcolm: [00:07:26] Yes. Yeah, it’s very like it sounds good on paper, but you know, when you’re actually in it and you see how hard things are and how long it will take to create something, it can be very like discouraging to a lot of people. I agree.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:41] And it’s one of those things where there’s no people to delegate to. You have to do the work. At some point the work has to be done and if your team is small, it’s going to be one of you. There’s no other person.

Paige Malcolm: [00:07:55] Yeah, definitely.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:56] Now, what has been your favorite part about being part of the Main Street program?

Paige Malcolm: [00:08:02] Yeah, so my favorite part has honestly been meeting so many other entrepreneurs and founders during our meetings, our workshops. I feel like we never get enough time to talk to each other. So yesterday we just had a session just for the founders, like a round table session where we all just spoke about our businesses and just exchange information and, you know, just really got to know more about each other. So that’s my favorite part so far. And then of course, the mentorship from from our mentors, from different companies and, you know, Erica Risha, like they’re just all doing an amazing job to help the founders.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:41] Now, what has been maybe the most challenging part of the experience so far, maybe something you didn’t anticipate when you got into the program?

Paige Malcolm: [00:08:51] Yeah, honestly, I would never anticipate going through this program. And so early on, having a co-founder like Breakup and that kind of it didn’t like destroy my motivation. But for like a week or two, I was just really not focused on my business but focused on that situation in particular. And I am really grateful, you know, because like everyone at Main Street was supportive and just giving me like words of advice and encouragement. So that really helped me through like that tough time that I was dealing with a couple of weeks ago.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:33] Yeah, that’s something that a lot of entrepreneurs suffer with. They think that they have to do everything themselves and they have to do this alone. But when you’re part of a community like you are, it’s really helpful to have other people that are kind of they’re not doing the exact same thing, but they’re doing something similar. And to have their, you know, advice or their lessons, it really does help.

Paige Malcolm: [00:09:56] Yeah, a lot.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:58] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Paige Malcolm: [00:10:02] Yeah. So I would say I just need more like advice and, you know, support. Honestly, you can never go wrong with just having, you know, like a team of people or just like a community that’s behind you and that’s there to support you. Um, I would say that that’s like the biggest thing for me.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:24] Are you do you have a place of people want to connect with you? Is there a website where they can maybe get on a wait list or kind of learn about what’s going on in the business?

Paige Malcolm: [00:10:35] Yeah. So our website will be active at the end of August and the URL is skin centric.us so WW dot skin centric US and our Instagram is skin centric. Co Our Twitter is the same thing and we also have LinkedIn that’s skin centric and then our TikTok is skin centric Co as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:00] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the momentum page. It sounds like you’re having a lot of fun and doing a lot of good work.

Paige Malcolm: [00:11:08] Yes. Yes, for sure. It is a lot of fun.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:11] Well, thank you for sharing your story. What you’re doing is important. What you’re doing is hard and persevering and learning like you are is going to help you no matter how this plays out in the long run.

Paige Malcolm: [00:11:27] Yeah, Yeah. Thank you so much. I really look forward to just, you know, seeing what the future holds. And I feel like there’s so much, like, value that’s concentric can add, you know, even if we, you know, have to make changes in the future. So anything.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:43] Sure. Well, I think what you’re doing in terms of sustainability and you’re saying there’s other ways to do this, that we’ve been doing packaging in a certain way and selling in a certain way. And maybe there’s another way to do this. It’s a great idea.

Paige Malcolm: [00:11:58] Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:59] Thank you. All right, This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on GSU radio.