Editor’s note: Startland News is continuing its segment to highlight area entrepreneurs’ efforts to accelerate their businesses. If you or your startup is running a crowdfunding campaign, let us know by contacting news@startlandnews.com. Today’s featured campaign — Lips of Steel — spotlights a business co-founded by Kansas City-expat Sofia Gahn, who manages social media for Made in KC and anaphora, as well as other local accounts.
Your name and title?
Emily Kaufman, copywriter; Sofia Gahn, art director
What’s the name of your company and what does it do?
Our company is called Lips of Steel and it is the first iron-infused lipstick. Women are consuming an average of nine pounds of lipstick within their lifetime, and iron is the nation’s biggest nutritional deficiency. Our product is solving this problem by putting the iron we’re lacking in a product we’re already consuming. Because ultimately, beauty should be empowering us. Not destroying us.
How much money do you hope to raise with your campaign?
$15,000
What do you plan to use the funds for?
We plan to use the majority (about 80 percent) of that money for product development and production. The rest will be used for marketing and advertising.
How are you differentiating your campaign or bringing attention to it?
Since our product is so unique, most of our campaign plays off insights related to it. Our launch video features women licking lipstick off their teeth. This is something we rarely think about — where does all that lipstick go? The fact that women are consuming so much of the beauty product and not considering the chemicals and materials being ingested is not with the times. And we’re here to provide a vital nutrient in replacement of these countless chemicals.
Is there anything quirky, fun or unusual you’re trying with your campaign?
The general concept of eating your lipstick is out there. If someone next to you on the train was eating a tube of lipstick you’d for sure pull out your phone and document it. By poking fun at this and highlighting the large portion of lipstick consumed by women within their lifetime is one of the quirkier sides to our campaign.
