100 Investors Rejected Her Pitch. Now She Has 10 Spas and Will Double Next Year

Through the height of the pandemic Rachel Liverman did the impossible. She launched and scaled her brick and mortar business, a high-end 30 minute facial bar, Glowbar, across New York. In the last four years Rachel has raised $10M, launched 10 Glowbar locations, and employs over 150 people.

Rachel’s first step for bringing her vision was sharing it to raise money. She ended her first fundraise with $1M, which was largely spent on the first physical location. Unlike the typical venture capital route, Rachel literally emailed everyone she knew asking if they’d like to invest.

“I took everything from $2,000 to $200,000 and everything in between. I took a very different approach and that worked for me and felt really organic to me.

I love talking about the business, but in turn it actually did make it harder because I ended up with a hundred no's. But each of those conversations I learned a ton and they got me thinking about the business in a different way.”

With that $1M in the bank, Rachel opened her first Glowbar. Their marketing approach was very grassroots, and it’s an approach they still use today. In different locations they’ll partner with local businesses, put up (the cutest) fliers all over the area, and pump out a ton on social media.

Glowbar also offers memberships where you get a monthly paid treatment and a discount on products. Rachel knew that word of mouth marketing would be incredibly important, so with every membership you gets a free guest pass.

“Almost every person joined [the membership] after they had their first appointment. They are our most loyal. They are our most committed.”

Glowbar’s corporate is a lean team of 10, and then the Glowbar aesthetician team is 150+. To say Rachel knows a thing or two about being a great leader would be an understatement. Her secret is radical transparency; being honest and human.

“I will say to the team, Hey, I'm having a really tough day. I'm finding it really hard to be motivating and like empowering. Do not take this personally.”

Glowbar’s been growing like crazy with no slowing down. This year they closed their $10M series A, which has been fuel to tons of new stores opening and lots of great hires. Ali Webb, the co-founder of Drybar and Marla Beck, the co-founder of Bluemercury have joined as key advisors.