This is an installment of Startup Year One, a special series of interviews with founders about the major lessons they have learned in the immediate aftermath of their businesses’ first year of operation.
Launched in October 2020, Ceremonia emerged as a new hair care brand that aims to both represent and honor as well as better serve one of the more overlooked demographics.
Tapping into a cornucopia of natural ingredients sourced from Latin America, Ceremonia prides itself on developing toxic-free formulas for clean, high-performance hair care products—free of silicones,
parabens, sulfates, phthalates, and artificial colorants.
Fortune recently spoke with founder Babba C. Rivera about what it’s been like launching a hair care brand during the pandemic as well as her plans for the new summer collection.
The following interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Fortune: Can you share a bit about your professional background prior to launching Ceremonia?
Rivera: I built my career in the tech industry. Before launching Ceremonia, and before even moving to the U.S., I was part of launching Uber in Sweden. It became the fastest-growing launch market for Uber at the time, which put me on an exciting trajectory within the company. I had the opportunity to travel to multiple markets and host marketing summits for new regions and mentor various marketing managers across the globe. Eventually, my work with Uber led to a relocation to New York City, and I never looked back. I love New York so much and feel forever grateful to Uber for that opportunity.
After four years at Uber, I left to join another startup, Away, as their director of brand marketing. I was able to roll up my sleeves and get into the startup grind and build a team under me. I later on left Away to finally branch out on my own, and started a brand marketing agency under the name “bybabba.” We had a great run with the agency, opened an international office in Europe, hired an international team, and worked with exciting clients such as Hermès, YSL Beauty, Ritual, Glossier, and Bumble.
It was during this time that the desire to eventually build my own brand started to grow on me. After advising so many startup founders and seeing the trends in the market so clearly, I felt an increasing desire to be part of the change I wanted to see. Frustrations around lack of representation and lack of effective clean hair care products ultimately became the fuel for what is today Ceremonia, and marked the end of my brand marketing agency.
Walk into any drugstore or beauty supplies store, and there is no end in sight to the amount of different kinds of hair products available. Suffice to say it’s a hard market to break into. What inspired you to launch Ceremonia? What makes its products stand out from the rest?
The beauty industry is fascinating to me, because there are so many brands out there, yet most of them are all trying to be the same thing. In the creation of Ceremonia, we quickly realized there was no benchmark brand for what we are trying to achieve. We are truly stepping into new ground, positioned as hair wellness versus hairstyling, offering the very best of clean hair care while celebrating the culture of the oftentimes overlooked demographic that is Latinx.
The inspiration behind the brand stems from the richness of Latin culture, mixed with a desire to bring more awareness and pride to the Latinx community. As a Latina immigrant myself, I never saw myself represented in the products I consumed or in the mainstream media. One day I asked myself, “What does this void and lack of representation do to a young woman like myself?” I realized it had made me neglect my own Latinidad. The desire to highlight Latinx talent and culture through our brand’s platform is a very strong catalyst of motivation for me. Before even knowing Ceremonia was going to be a hair care brand, I knew it was going to be something that paid tribute to my heritage. I wanted to create something that my younger self would have felt proud to see and read about, and through this journey maybe I can help someone else out there feel proud of their own Latinidad too.
I ultimately landed on a hair care brand out of personal necessity. I am very passionate about beauty and grew up in a household filled with beauty rituals. My father was a hairdresser and would spend hours doing my hair every day. My mother is a self-care queen who takes three-hour baths several times a week and taught me everything I know when it comes to beauty rituals as a form of self-care and wellness. My mother is a minimalist; she doesn’t know how to do a full face of makeup or how to do any advanced hairstyling, but she knows better than anyone how to care for her skin, body, and hair. Her approach to beauty has been a big inspiration for me in the creation of Ceremonia.
We formulate all of our products from scratch, using nutrient-rich ingredients from the heart of Latin America. Every ingredient serves a true purpose and is there to help make your hair better—not just masking it for the day or giving the illusion of shine. We steer clear of filler ingredients and say no to a long list of not-so-great ingredients often found in conventional beauty, and formulate without any sulfates, parabens, and silicones. Ceremonia is here to help you unlock your best hair days through clean and toxin-free formulas that truly work.
What was the research and development process like for your original lineup, as well as the new summer collection being released this month? What kinds of ingredients are incorporated and why?
We did a lot of research prelaunch. I basically spent all of my own savings on comprehensive consumer insight studies and research. It helped me narrow down the business plan, build out a compelling pitch deck for investors, and more importantly, gave me the final dose of conviction I needed to do this full-hearted. Some interesting stats that came up during the research phase include the fact that while the Hispanic demographic accounts for nearly 20% of the U.S. population, one out of four members of Generation Z are Hispanic. The median age for Hispanics is one of the lowest, at 27, suggesting the future economy of the U.S. truly reads Latinx. Yet where are the future-looking brands that can authentically speak to this demographic? When it comes to the “multicultural” aisle of beauty, you’ll usually find very outdated brands targeting people like my mom.
In addition to interesting stats about the new generation of Latinx, I was also excited to see how much has happened in the past few years when it comes to clean beauty. The concept of clean beauty is getting greater attention, and a lot has happened here when it comes to skin care and even makeup. Hair on the other hand, not so much…
As someone who is very intentional about what I eat and what I put on my skin, I found it crazy that in order to use safe products for my hair I had to compromise on performance and experience. After trying every single clean shampoo and conditioner under the sun, I felt there’s got to be a better and more modern way to help people embark on a clean hair care journey that doesn’t require sacrificing on things like performance and brand. Simply put, people shouldn’t have to choose between safe products or performance, and it also shouldn’t cost a fortune to have a safe and effective hair care routine.
These findings and frustrations were ultimately the building blocks of Ceremonia, fueled by my personal story and background to back it up. I truly believe that everything I have done in my career has set the foundation for this journey of mine. This is my life’s work.
For each product drop, we look at the problems we are trying to solve and then seek out natural ingredients with those benefits. Each product has a cocktail of nutrient-rich ingredients that work powerfully together, and we conduct various iterations, sampling and testing before introducing a product to the market. We are lucky that we have our product development team fully in-house, including a chemist, allowing us to constantly experiment with formulas and ingredients before going into production.
For our latest summer drop, the Guava Rescue and Repair Kit, we tapped into guava as the hero ingredient. Containing five times as much vitamin C as oranges, the antioxidant-rich superfruit helps boost sun defense by acting as a protective shield against solar rays, and neutralizes the free-radical damage that UV and blue-light exposure cause. Harnessing the power of nature to create intentional formulas that protect against everyday stressors, Ceremonia’s Rescue and Repair Kit was intentionally formulated to help our community enjoy a summer of fun without damaging their hair.
Ultimately, we don’t need more steps in our hair care routine, we just need more powerful products that do more for us—like our Guava Leave-In Conditioner that helps repair and strengthen your hair while also protecting against UV and adding a boost of hydration; or our Guava Rescue Spray, a detangling spray that also helps minimize frizz while protecting against heat, UV, and beyond.
Launching and financing a startup at any time is a daunting task, but doing so during a pandemic and economic crisis seems nightmarish, to put it lightly. Not to mention, these are products presumably meant for going out, which wasn’t possible for many Americans until recently. And still isn’t the case for everyone. How is Ceremonia financed?
Oh man, yes. And then add being highly pregnant on top of that! It was definitely not a smooth ride or easy by any means, but determination and persistence is key, and we managed to secure pre-seed funding from some truly incredible angels and early stage checks from SoGal Ventures and Female Founders Fund. We raised just over $1 million to get us through the launch and first batch of products. We launched at the end of October, surpassed all of our launch projections, and received inbounds from dream partners in just a few months of business.
With all of this excitement and momentum, we went out to raise a $2 million seed round to fuel the next phase of the business, and are now heads down with all the exciting things we have in motion for 2021. This is truly our year! Everything has happened so quickly for us, and we feel incredibly lucky to be in a place of momentum and support.
Looking forward, where do you want to see Ceremonia in five years?
In five years, Ceremonia is a household name and a success story that paves the way for many other Latinx founders to see their dreams come true as well. I want Ceremonia to become the benchmark brand I wish we could have pointed to when we did our fundraising. Being able to look at other success stories that you can relate to is so incredibly important, not only for your own self-esteem and belief system, but also for external players like investors and media to understand it and dare to take a bet on you.