Why 3 Harvard MBAs Sell Shower Caps

The Virtuosa shower cap

A CURRENTLY FLAWED SOLUTION

It turns out, the traditional shower cap has quite a few flaws. First, they’re not actually good at solving the one problem they’re supposed to solve—keeping hair dry. “If you have long hair, you spend a lot of time trying to fit it all in the cap,” Zagorovskaya explains. “So the easiest way to fix that is by putting your hair in a ponytail. But if you put your hair in a ponytail and take a shower, and then you take the ponytail out, you’re going to have this line where the ponytail used to be, which messes up your hair and then you have to redo it anyway.”

But even if you do get all the hair into the cap, it’s likely not going to stay air-tight, which kind of defeats the purpose of putting it on in the first place. “They let a lot of air and water in because they’re not really air-tight,” Zagorovskaya continues. “So your hair gets frizzy and you end up having to re-do it anyway and it ends up being just a waste of time.”

PRODUCT TESTING WITH FELLOW MBAs IN FIELD

So the team came up with a design, sourced materials abroad and began manufacturing in the United States. They took the product to class and began handing prototypes out to fellow long-haired classmates.

“As we started testing it with our classmates, one of our classmates with really curly hair tried it and then we asked for the prototype back and she said no,” recalls Zagorovskaya. “She said, ‘I’m not giving it back to you because this is the first time in my life I’ve actually solved my shower cap problem, so I’m not giving it back.’”

The three received another confirmation when pitching in front of the panel of investors at the end of the FIELD course. On the investor panel sat four men and one woman. After all the teams pitched their business ideas, Virtuosa was shocked to hear they were voted as one of the top three businesses in the course.

“They told us the four men thought this was a silly project and were ready to shoot it down,” Zagorovskaya explains. “But the woman, who gets her hair done often said, ‘guys, this is an enormous business opportunity, they’ve really got something here. I know this is scalable.’ And that one voice speaking up for us was the reason we got the recognition.”

COMPETITION AS CONFIRMATION

But the team certainly isn’t alone in the pursuit to create and scale the perfect luxury shower cap. Advertising art director Jack De Jesu saw a similar hole in the market and created a similar company called Shhhowercaps, which sells caps for $43. But while other market entrants have gone for sleek and aesthetic appeal, Virtuosa goes for practicality.

“This is certainly a trend and we’re seeing some competitors pop-up,” says Palmer. “The interesting piece to that is they all have slightly modifying original designs. They all have the initial shape where you pull it down on your head. But ours looks more like a sleeve, you pull it on like a headband in the opposite direction.”

The Virtuosa design, which is patent-pending, works exactly like a headband. First, you scrunch the entire cap together and place it on your head like a headband. Then you move the top part upwards, covering all of your hair. You then seal off the top with an elastic band and connect it to the front for the complete water shutoff.