Meg Pryde's startup Brandefy is helping stretch beauty lovers' money a little further by showing them budget-friendly product options with its new subscription box.
The Richmond-based platform is a mobile app that gives users the ability to find affordable dupes to pricey, cult-favorite beauty products through carefully cultivated comparison reviews, as well as user-based reviews. The app also provides options for cruelty free, clean and eco-friendly brands.
Users can also submit a request for alternatives to a product directly through the app.
Since launching the platform in 2018, Pryde said her team has remained focused on growing the Brandefy community and increasing app engagement. Since the beginning of 2020, users have opened the Brandefy app more than 500,000 times.
Earlier this month, Brandefy launched its first beauty subscription box, a niche Pryde said she was initially hesitant to break into.
"I was kind against launching a beauty box, but when I looked at our consumer data, it just made sense," she said. "Our customers were always asking where they could buy specific items, so instead of directing them toward a bunch of individual websites, we took this perspective of bundling our favorites and shipping them directly to the customer."
Unlike most beauty box subscriptions that choose products for you based on a quiz, Pryde said Brandefy's box -- Bright Beauty Faves -- sends full-sized products that the customer will love every time because they choose exactly what they want for themselves.
It's a quarterly box, and for $15, subscribers get multiple full-sized products that total between $59 and $70 in value. Currently, the service is invitation only, so users must be signed up and active on the Brandefy app to join the waitlist.
"We noticed that was a gap in the current market, and you know you best. I also think it makes the consumer happier with the brand if you’re letting them choose things they know they're going to use," she said. "These are products you're going to love versus products you're never going to use."
Pryde said all of the brands chosen for the box will always be among the most popular on the app and cruelty-free, a quality that's proven to be important to Brandefy users.
The startup has raised just under $1 million in total funding through a friends and family round and a pre-seed round. Pryde said they also received a $5,000 prize as the winners of the Lighthouse Labs Capital One Demo Day in 2018, and participated Cincinnati-based accelerator, The Brandery, last year, where they banked a $100,000 investment.