If you've been meaning to check out the Marina pop-up where microwave-sized machines began giving 10-minute manicures last summer, I'm sorry to inform you're too late — at least for the moment.
The Chestnut Street experiment from San Francisco startup Clockwork ended in December when the pop-up's lease expired, not because the robots were teleported back to some Jetsons-style future. They've moved onto bigger, more lucrative gigs: 30 Rockefeller Plaza (aka 30 Rock) in New York City and, starting later next month, at two stops in the Bay Area with a major retailer.
The startup, co-founded in 2018 by CEO Renuka Apte, a former Nvidia and DropBox engineer, and Chief Technology Officer Aaron Feldstein, has five full-time employees. To date it's raised $3.2 million in seed funds from Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian's Initialized Capital and well-known figures in tech and fashion tech. Now the company is close to finalizing a second seed round and in recent months has inked major partnerships with a real estate developer and retailer that could propel Clockwork to national recognition in short time.
Clockwork's smart, efficient machines offer quick nail service for on-the-go women (and the growing male manicure demographic) in search of a touch-up but not the hour-long spa-style experience in most salons. The pop-up was not a test run for more brick-and-mortar but a means to introduce the concept, train the machine's algorithms and train the team on designing the customer experience.
"Our objective is convenience and being where our customer already is, rather than the sit-down experience," Apte said. "These machines have been sort of software-first — that's what has all the smarts — so it allows us to iterate on the machine a lot faster than typical with hardware."
In October Clockwork began a three-month pilot as a workplace amenity in Tishman Speyer's 30 Rock; before it was over the startup had agreed to a contract through the end of 2022. The New York developer plans to install Clockwork machines in other buildings where it offers its wellness-oriented ZO. lounge. Clockwork is in discussions with residential developers for similar uses in apartment building lounges and common areas, Apte told me.
And beginning next month Clockwork is launching in four U.S. locations of a major retailer, including two in San Mateo and Walnut Creek — a huge next step in the company's evolution and the demonstration for customers it grew with the pop-up shop.
That retailer appears to be Target, as evidenced by hints on job postings and social media. Clockwork is looking for in-person customer-facing roles in San Mateo, Walnut Creek, Dallas and Chaska, Minnesota. The only large retailer in all four places is Target, which did not return a request for comment.
Apte told me she couldn't reveal the name of the retail partner yet but said they were the choice among a large group of major brands reaching out to collaborate in part because of a startup- and founder-friendly attitude.
This year the company expects to work with other names besides the retailer and Tishman Speyer, but Apte said the advice she's gotten from other founders is to be deliberate in the early days and acknowledge the perils of expanding too quickly.
Clockwork's agreements so far have typically involved the partner paying a monthly fee and getting a share of revenue, adjusted depending on foot traffic for a given location. For customers the service charged $7.99 at the popup and $10 at 30 Rock for a manicure. Customer responses have been fantastic so far, Apte said, with a net promoter score of 89 (maximum is 100) at the Rockefeller location.
Apte added she's looking forward to begin manufacturing the machines at scale as early as the second half of this year, and perfecting the manicure (or "minicure," when courtesy of the quick-armed robot) and other applications like painting top coats, cutting or shaping — or beyond the beauty vertical. She said when she thinks of Clockwork's "someday," she thinks of the Jetsons.
"My dream would be to walk into a comfy booth and walk out with all my services done," she said. "There's so many commonalities between different robotic applications, that once you've gotten the computer vision and the AI and the calibration piece, you're really able to unlock a lot of other services."
