This year's PBA Beauty Week from The Professional Association, hosted by Cosmoprof North America, featured an event unlike any other—to great reviews. The trade association’s much-anticipated Beauty Pitch event in Las Vegas featured five finalists presenting their businesses before a live audience to a celebrity panel and potential investors with the ultimate goal of taking their company to the next level.
The inaugural finals event took place at the Mandalay Bay Ballroom on the morning of July 12. To start the event, Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and John Paul DeJoria, CEO and co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems, shared their advice on business practices with PBA chairman Scott Buchanan of Scott J Salon & Spa serving as the moderator.
Live pitches from the finalists followed the discussion in the form of an intense three-minute pitch and a short Q&A before the judges: Cuban; DeJoria; Melissa Goldstein, beauty and lifestyle director at Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings; and Neil Parmar, journalist at INC.com.
Beauty Pitch offered both up-and-coming and established companies the opportunity to present their brands, products or ideas to a panel of top investors. Finalists were selected by a panel of judges consisting of industry professionals, program hosts and investors: Buchanan; Katie Fitzgerald, CircleUp; John Heffner, The Drybar; Harlan Kirschner, The Kirschner Group; Diane Miles, TSG Consumer Partners; Daniela Ciocan, Cosmoprof North America; Charu Siri, The Wall Street Journal and CNN; and Steve Sleeper, PBA executive director.
Continue reading this story in Beauty Store Business' September digital edition.
[Image courtesy of The Professional Beauty Association]