Founded in 2023 by Stephanie and Paul McCleary, Muse specialises in at-home semi-permanent hair extensions that are made with 100% human hair.
The first few weeks of the brand’s launch, it sold out three times. In the first year, it surpassed AUD1m (USD619,490) in sales, underscoring the high demand for DIY hair extensions.
After proving that it had a product that was solving a major paint point in the market, the husband and wife believed they were ready for the next step to take the business further.
“We’d already built traction, but we wanted to scale even faster and get industry backing to take Muse to that next level,” said Stephanie on the Beauty 4.0 Podcast.
The opportunity came up for a chance to appear on Shark Tank Australia, a reality TV show where entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to a panel of wealthy investors to secure funding and mentorship.
“Shark Tank was an opportunity to get our brand in front of millions of people overnight. And so we could prove that we actually had something that was worth investing. It wasn’t so much about the money. We didn’t really need the money. We wanted a way to get news out there,” said Stephanie.
The products and business impressed the panel of Sharks and the McClearys walked away with not one, but two investors – Davie Fogarty and Robert Herjavec.
“Being featured on Shark Tank showed customers that we weren’t just another hair extension brand, we were onto something special. And it has open doors to partnerships and media coverage and opportunities that we probably would never have had otherwise. So it’s been incredible,” said Stephanie.
“It’s definitely not for the faint hearted, but it was also a really incredible experience, and it forced us to articulate our vision in a way that was real and it was good for us to have the validation.”
She added that the mentorship and the network the company now has access to has been the most invaluable outcome of the experience.
“We were first to market, but you can get very lost in that. Doesn’t matter if you’re first, if someone else just markets better than you, then no one really cares that you were first market.”
To learn more about Muse, Stephanie, and her experience post-Shark Tank, check out the podcast above.
