Stage of Innovation: MVP (You have a product ready to go to the market)

Problem: The culture of male grooming has evolved rapidly over the past few years and offers significant growth potential for the future, especially in Africa. The male grooming and barbing trade is one of the fastest growing retail service categories in Africa’s informal economy. With over 10 million Barbers and beauty technicians in Africa, men spend over 36 Billion Dollars at salons and barbershops each year across Africa. However, with a near-zero technology adoption, the African traditional salon industry still operates the same centuries-long business model that is a complete misfit for an agile generation: an average customer spends 16-32 hours in a year going to and from a salon; the same customer spends an additional 8-32 hours within same year waiting on long queues for haircuts. As the trend towards mobile and on-demand services continues to grow in Africa, the traditional hair salon industry seems to be lagging behind. Although making these frequent and consistent trips to salons and barbershop has become a tradition for many Africans, advancements in technology have revealed several loopholes in the process. Through an extensive market research, leveraging both primary data (in-depth feasibility study) and secondary data, we have been able to validate several pain points that call for urgent solutions within one of Africa’s oldest industry.

Unique Selling Point: Some substitutes that people resort to when they cannot access a mobile haircut salon include: DIY HAIRCUTS: Some people choose to cut their own hair or have a family member or friend cut it for them; TRADITIONAL SALONS AND BARBERSHOPS: When mobile haircut salons are not available, people may choose to go to a traditional salon or barbershop for their hair cutting needs; GOING WITHOUT A HAIRCUT: Some people may choose to go without a haircut until they can access a mobile salon or traditional salon; However, the convenience and flexibility of having a hairstylist come to your location is the unique selling point for our mobile salon model. Our App-enabled mobile Haircut Salon is a relatively new concept in Africa that involves hairdressers or barbers coming to customers’ locations to provide hair cutting, styling, and grooming services. This includes homes, offices, or outdoor locations. The idea behind this concept is to provide convenience and flexibility to customers who may not have the time or ability to go to a traditional salon or barbershop.