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Doing THE MOST
Dawn Myers '03 makes room for women of color as she disrupts the haircare industry
The idea came to Dawn Myers ’03 while watching Shark Tank. A white woman with beautiful, thick, straight hair was telling the business tycoons about a product she designed that replicates spiral curls in a fraction of the time as a salon roll-and-set.
The woman made a tiny tweak to an existing product, and voila! That got Myers thinking about Black women and whether there was a product on the market that she could make to address some of the pain points of maintaining textured hair, something that could detangle and condition simultaneously, saving consumers a ton of time.
“If she was able to make a tiny little tweak to a mainstream product and make millions of dollars, I knew there had to be an opportunity for underserved niches,” Myers reasoned. “I started ideating. I had a sketch on a piece of paper—the very beginning phase of product development.
I went to CVS and Ace Hardware and bought a bunch of combs, brushes, hinges, and tools, and started soldering together a prototype.”
The end result was a tech-enabled haircare device for women of color called THE MOST Mint, which officially debuts this fall. It works by running the device through freshly washed hair; both detangling and releasing product at the press of a button. THE MOST’s technology is patent-pending in 26 countries and is what Myers likes to call “the Keurig for the hair industry” since The Mint leverages a consumable component similar to K-Cups. Those consumables—small pods pre-filled with curl creams, oils, and gels—facilitate easy product application and improved product penetration.
THE MOST Mint will be the first product offering of Myers’ larger company, THE MOST, a marketplace for natural health enthusiasts to learn about the latest in Afro tech offerings. Since launching the company in 2018, Myers has flown to Dubai, Jamaica, and Belize to find investment backing and to look for different butters and creams to sample in the development of haircare products.
Myers has also traveled to New York to present the idea to major stakeholders in the haircare industry and said she found people to be “ravenous” about the concept.
“People were really excited about it. This whole company sprung up from there,” Myers said. “I just kept working on it.”
These days, Myers imparts a lot of her lessons learned to up-and-coming, Black-owned businesses looking to attract investor- and venture-funding through Black Girl Ventures and The Vinetta Project, nonprofits designed to educate female founders about funding resources in the tech space. She tells these founders what she’s learned as she successfully raised capital for THE MOST through venture capital, corporate venture arms, accelerators, grant programs, and pitch competitions. She tells them about the gender and racial disparities rampant in the funding landscape and that in order to make their brands more visible, they’ll have to work harder to find alternative funding and be creative.
Last year, THE MOST secured a series of slots in prestigious programs: Glossier’s Black Beauty initiative, which came with $30,000 in grant funding and mentorship throughout the program; Sephora Accelerate, a six-month program for female founders in the beauty industry; and NextFab’s Rapid Hardware Accelerator program, which provides young startups capital and support through product development, among others.
Myers was recently named to Washingtonian magazine’s 2021 Tech Titans list for being an innovator in the networkers, nonprofits, and incubators space. Myers, who heads up Vinetta Project’s Washington chapter, was recognized by Washingtonian for organizing events that connect investors with woman-run technology firms and for her success running THE MOST.
Recently, Myers sat down with NCS Magazine to discuss her work, what she’s learned, and how it all began. She was pensive about her years attending NCS. On the one hand, she said she gained a phenomenal work ethic while a student. On the other, it came at a cost.
That cost was a “tumultuous, traumatic, and trying transition” as a Middle School student struggling to understand her new school environment and keep up with the fast pace at NCS, Myers says. Before enrolling at NCS, Myers attended a Catholic school in a low-income area, with a less rigorous curriculum.
“It was a culture shock,” Myers said. “I was a grade, sometimes more, behind in their [NCS’s] subjects and had to really fight to catch up.”
Another challenge was dealing with teachers who didn’t understand the nuances of her background and the ensuing struggles adjusting to her new environment, which included her nearly hour-long commute to school each way from Laurel, Md. Some just thought she was lazy, Myers said. “There was a lot of implicit bias. A lot of teachers saw me as not working as hard. It was extraordinarily challenging,” she said.
Still, Myers says she’s thankful for the experience. As an adult, Myers said she can now appreciate how the school prepared her for success. She saw it early on, first as a student at Boston College, where she juggled two jobs, was part of the Black Student Union and the Mock Trial team, and cheered for the college and later for the Boston Celtics. She also saw it while attending graduate school at Howard University School of Law.
“The work ethic that I acquired when I was in that environment [NCS] set me up for success for the rest of my life,” she explained. “And I 100 percent credit NCS for putting me on a very different path, broadening my view, and giving me a bank of contacts to help me grow. I also had teachers, like my French teacher Madame O’Malley, my civics teacher Mr. Sahr, and my math teacher Ms. Hamilton who supported and believed in me.”
And Myers also knows that she brought something of value to NCS. The Southeast D.C. native said the diversity in her background and race represented a diversity of thought and experience for the Episcopal school.
“I believe welcoming students from different socioeconomic backgrounds is intrinsically valuable. I benefitted tremendously from NCS, but I also brought a differentiated skillset and perspective to the school,” Myers said. “I believe my unique talent, grit, and perseverance was a benefit to the community, and we should recognize the deep value that substantive diversity can bring.”
Written by Dawn Onley, a freelance writer based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, this story originally appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of NCS Magazine.
Back
The idea came to Dawn Myers ’03 while watching Shark Tank. A white woman with beautiful, thick, straight hair was telling the business tycoons about a product she designed that replicates spiral curls in a fraction of the time as a salon roll-and-set.
The woman made a tiny tweak to an existing product, and voila! That got Myers thinking about Black women and whether there was a product on the market that she could make to address some of the pain points of maintaining textured hair, something that could detangle and condition simultaneously, saving consumers a ton of time.
“If she was able to make a tiny little tweak to a mainstream product and make millions of dollars, I knew there had to be an opportunity for underserved niches,” Myers reasoned. “I started ideating. I had a sketch on a piece of paper—the very beginning phase of product development.
I went to CVS and Ace Hardware and bought a bunch of combs, brushes, hinges, and tools, and started soldering together a prototype.”
The end result was a tech-enabled haircare device for women of color called THE MOST Mint, which officially debuts this fall. It works by running the device through freshly washed hair; both detangling and releasing product at the press of a button. THE MOST’s technology is patent-pending in 26 countries and is what Myers likes to call “the Keurig for the hair industry” since The Mint leverages a consumable component similar to K-Cups. Those consumables—small pods pre-filled with curl creams, oils, and gels—facilitate easy product application and improved product penetration.
THE MOST Mint will be the first product offering of Myers’ larger company, THE MOST, a marketplace for natural health enthusiasts to learn about the latest in Afro tech offerings. Since launching the company in 2018, Myers has flown to Dubai, Jamaica, and Belize to find investment backing and to look for different butters and creams to sample in the development of haircare products.
Myers has also traveled to New York to present the idea to major stakeholders in the haircare industry and said she found people to be “ravenous” about the concept.
“People were really excited about it. This whole company sprung up from there,” Myers said. “I just kept working on it.”
These days, Myers imparts a lot of her lessons learned to up-and-coming, Black-owned businesses looking to attract investor- and venture-funding through Black Girl Ventures and The Vinetta Project, nonprofits designed to educate female founders about funding resources in the tech space. She tells these founders what she’s learned as she successfully raised capital for THE MOST through venture capital, corporate venture arms, accelerators, grant programs, and pitch competitions. She tells them about the gender and racial disparities rampant in the funding landscape and that in order to make their brands more visible, they’ll have to work harder to find alternative funding and be creative.
Last year, THE MOST secured a series of slots in prestigious programs: Glossier’s Black Beauty initiative, which came with $30,000 in grant funding and mentorship throughout the program; Sephora Accelerate, a six-month program for female founders in the beauty industry; and NextFab’s Rapid Hardware Accelerator program, which provides young startups capital and support through product development, among others.
Myers was recently named to Washingtonian magazine’s 2021 Tech Titans list for being an innovator in the networkers, nonprofits, and incubators space. Myers, who heads up Vinetta Project’s Washington chapter, was recognized by Washingtonian for organizing events that connect investors with woman-run technology firms and for her success running THE MOST.
Recently, Myers sat down with NCS Magazine to discuss her work, what she’s learned, and how it all began. She was pensive about her years attending NCS. On the one hand, she said she gained a phenomenal work ethic while a student. On the other, it came at a cost.
That cost was a “tumultuous, traumatic, and trying transition” as a Middle School student struggling to understand her new school environment and keep up with the fast pace at NCS, Myers says. Before enrolling at NCS, Myers attended a Catholic school in a low-income area, with a less rigorous curriculum.
“It was a culture shock,” Myers said. “I was a grade, sometimes more, behind in their [NCS’s] subjects and had to really fight to catch up.”
Another challenge was dealing with teachers who didn’t understand the nuances of her background and the ensuing struggles adjusting to her new environment, which included her nearly hour-long commute to school each way from Laurel, Md. Some just thought she was lazy, Myers said. “There was a lot of implicit bias. A lot of teachers saw me as not working as hard. It was extraordinarily challenging,” she said.
Still, Myers says she’s thankful for the experience. As an adult, Myers said she can now appreciate how the school prepared her for success. She saw it early on, first as a student at Boston College, where she juggled two jobs, was part of the Black Student Union and the Mock Trial team, and cheered for the college and later for the Boston Celtics. She also saw it while attending graduate school at Howard University School of Law.
“The work ethic that I acquired when I was in that environment [NCS] set me up for success for the rest of my life,” she explained. “And I 100 percent credit NCS for putting me on a very different path, broadening my view, and giving me a bank of contacts to help me grow. I also had teachers, like my French teacher Madame O’Malley, my civics teacher Mr. Sahr, and my math teacher Ms. Hamilton who supported and believed in me.”
And Myers also knows that she brought something of value to NCS. The Southeast D.C. native said the diversity in her background and race represented a diversity of thought and experience for the Episcopal school.
“I believe welcoming students from different socioeconomic backgrounds is intrinsically valuable. I benefitted tremendously from NCS, but I also brought a differentiated skillset and perspective to the school,” Myers said. “I believe my unique talent, grit, and perseverance was a benefit to the community, and we should recognize the deep value that substantive diversity can bring.”
Written by Dawn Onley, a freelance writer based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, this story originally appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of NCS Magazine.
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Dawn Myers '03 (Photo by Mary Gardella)
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(Photo by Mary Gardella)
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