Dr. Zahir Dossa, CEO of Function of Beauty | MIT Grad Disrupting Beauty Industry

·53 min·5 clips

An MIT sustainability PhD explains why he founded a personalized hair care company disrupting the beauty industry.

The episode begins with a HubSpot advertisement before host Scott Clary introduces Dr. Zahir Dossa, CEO of Function of Beauty. Dossa holds degrees from MIT in computer science, management, and a PhD in sustainability. He explains his academic focus was on how internet technologies could transform value chains, particularly in e-commerce. Dossa's interest in sustainability extended beyond environmental concerns to include social and economic efficiency. He identified the beauty industry as particularly inefficient with many middlemen extracting value. His first venture was The Argan Tree, a direct-to-consumer personal care line sourcing argan oil directly from Morocco. When that business required moving into physical retail to scale, Dossa reconsidered his approach. He asked customers what would make products perfect and received completely different answers from each person. This led to the insight that true personalization was needed. Function of Beauty was founded to create individually customized hair care products using technology. The company can produce 54 trillion different formulations. Dossa explains that traditional beauty companies bucket customers into broad categories rather than recognizing individual needs. He describes how Function of Beauty's online quiz, fragrance options, colored formulations, and bottle personalization (including etched names) create a unique experience. The transparent bottles with custom names became social media content, with customers posting photos on Instagram. Dossa notes this is unprecedented for hair care products. The technology infrastructure was built by a team including MIT engineers and professionals from diverse backgrounds like nuclear submarine operations. The episode explores both the operational challenges of customization and the brand-building aspects of celebrating individuality.

As heard by us

A founder story about turning personalization into a brand people could see and share.

This episode tracks a founder moving from a simple direct to consumer test into a personalized beauty business built around technology, customer input, and a promise of individuality.

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If you want a founder story about customer interviews turning into personalized beauty, start here.

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