Rowan's Founder on Elevating the Ear Piercing Experience With Safety and Celebration
In this episode of Women in Retail Talks, Women in Retail Leadership Circle Senior Content Strategist Ashley Chiaradio interviews Louisa Serene Schneider, founder and CEO of Rowan, a unique ear piercing experience. Listen in as Schneider discusses how her nieces’ ear piercing experiences inspired her to start the business, how Rowan’s business model is marrying safety with celebration for a unique ear piercing experience, and why an earring subscription box is a perfect solution to the piercing aftercare process for customers.
In addition, Schneider shares how the COVID-19 pandemic caused huge growth in demand for Rowan’s at-home piercing service, why the company’s focus on safety and its professional nursing staff is appealing to customers, and the piercing company’s expansion into brick-and-mortar during the health crisis. Lastly, Schneider explains how celebrating “unit-level happiness” on a weekly basis keeps her team motivated, as well as what she’s looking forward to in 2021 at Rowan.
Louisa Serene Schneider is the founder and CEO of Rowan. The idea for the business came to her when taking her teenage nieces to get their ears pierced at the mall. She felt as though the experience was lacking in safety and celebration. From there the idea of Rowan was born — to offer safe piercings in a way that celebrates the experience as a life milestone. With a background in finance, Louisa always had a keen interest in retail, with an eye on the consumer experience. Louisa covered consumer and retail at JP Morgan before receiving her MBA from Columbia Business School. She then went back to Morgan Stanley and traded retail. (Fun fact: She traded the IPO of lululemon athletica.) Now a mom of three, Louisa launched Rowan in June 2019 with $4 million in venture capital funding.
Date: December 1, 2020
Credits: Louisa Serene Schneider
Duration: 15:07
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