Haircvt opens up for investment

HAIRCVT, the digital portfolio site that allows clients to find hairdressers based on their work, has opened up investment - meaning anyone can own a part of the business. We caught up with co-founder Adam Symons to find out more. Why did you decide to open HAIRCVT up to investment? We aim to do what ASOS have done for clothes and Uber have done for taxis. We’ve had an incredible 12 months and we want to raise extra funds to accelerate our growth over the next year or so, take our product to the next level and launch HAIRCVT outside of just London and Paris. We decided to open investment up to the public because we wanted those people who love and believe in our product to be able to own a part of the business and share in the spoils. How are you encouraging salons and hairdressers to get involved? Well, we had the idea when one of our salon owners approached us about investing in HAIRCVT. Since then we’ve spread the word to our 600 stylists… and now we’re talking to you! Can anybody invest? Yes! You just need to sign up for a Crowdcube account which takes two minutes and then invest online. What do hairdressers get out of investing? Owning a part of HAIRCVT means that you’ll be part of our Real Hair Movement, and share in our success as a business. If you’ve got a little cash lying around and you want to make an investment that’s a little closer to your heart than putting it in an ISA – well, here we are! The potential financial returns are very enticing – based on our forecasts we predict a 25x return within five years. What are you aiming to do with your investment? Two things. 1. Make our product even more awesome. On one side we have a whole bunch of features that our stylists have been asking for but we haven’t had the man power to do. On the other, we’ve got great developments lined up for haircvt.com to make it easier and easier for your work to be found and a PR and marketing campaign ready to bring a huge volume of traffic to the site. 2. Move outside of London and Paris to launch HAIRCVT to stylists throughout England and France. How does HAIRCVT differ from other hairdressing inspiration sites? We bridge the gap between inspiration and booking your appointment. Sure your client can find a nice picture of Alexa Chung, but good luck finding the right stylist to make that look happen for you. Every hairstyle on our site is a real client from one of our stylists, who each have their own profile on the site that allows you to book them online. Easy. We like to think of it like the digital equivalent of seeing someone in the street with great hair, going up to them and asking where they got it cut, who did it, how much it cost and how you describe the look. Except you’d probably get arrested if you did that in London! What is the five-year plan for HAIRCVT? In five years’ time we will be launched throughout England, France, the US and at least one other country. We want to be the place where every stylist wants their work to be seen, and an 'Uber for hair' for anyone wanting to get their hair done. Find out more about investing in HAIRCVT here!