In 2018, Miona Quick grew to become the primary Black lady to graduate from the College of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s diploma in astrophysics. 5 years and one layoff later, she’s taking up the magnificence trade with the launch of her firm, Shukrah – and a first-to-market innovation.
The corporate’s flagship product, the Carefree Comb, is a patent-pending wide-tooth comb that holds hair product within the backbone and distributes that product alongside the bottom of the comb with the intention to make washing, conditioning, and detangling sooner and simpler. Shoppers with coarse, thick, or Afro-textured tresses can now:
• lower down their haircare instances,
• consolidate steps within the haircare course of,
• and/or deliver the majority of their routines exterior the bathe.
Miona (pronounced: mi-ah’-nah) first invented the comb in November 2016 through the time of her grandfather’s premature loss of life from bile duct most cancers on the age of 68. “I didn’t wish to do something. I didn’t wish to eat, I didn’t wish to go to class or take midterms that week, and I undoubtedly didn’t wish to do my hair,” she recollects.
She began searching for instruments that may permit her to detangle her hair shortly whereas making use of her merchandise however didn’t discover something out there.
For the following 7 years, the Chicago native would educate herself computer-aided design (CAD) with the intention to produce totally different prototypes of her comb invention. She would additional go on to be taught enterprise ideas from watching widespread tv reveals like Shark Tank and listening to business-related podcasts.
“Enterprise faculty prices an excessive amount of for me, and I didn’t have any formal mentors so I used a bunch of free media as sort of a scrappy map,” Quick laughs.
The Carefree Comb idea would go on to win enterprise competitions, together with a grant from rapper-turned-investor, Chamilloinaire. In 2019, Miona took a job in tech to save cash for her first manufacturing spherical and to be taught what it was wish to scale a enterprise from the within. Nonetheless, after being impacted by the mass layoffs of 2022, she determined to lean into constructing out her firm.
“After being laid off, I knew I didn’t have the cash to fully flesh out product growth as an even bigger firm would. I might barely afford hire, a lot much less afford a number of rounds of testing [contract manufacturer] prototypes with trial and error. That will get costly actual fast. I actually solely had one shot at making this work,” she clarifies. “I needed to take a leap of religion. So right here I’m, hoping Shukrah has wings.”
After going viral on TikTok with an indication garnering a half-million views, the rising CEO is discovering that the Carefree Comb faucets right into a deep want inside the magnificence market.
Miona is anticipating to have preorders for the Carefree Comb shipped out round Christmas 2023. For extra particulars about this launch and journey, go to the official web site at Shukrah.com
Additionally, comply with the model @helloshukrah on Fb, Instagram, and TikTok.
