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About Folica
Since Folica’s founding in 1999, the Company has become a leading innovator in the beauty retail category through the combination of proprietary product development, unparalleled product selection and an incredibly loyal and engaged customer base. With a mission to provide customers an outstanding selection of hair products at highly competitive prices, along with an opportunity to learn new hair care possibilities through other shoppers “like them”, Folica is positioned at the intersection of a social community and an ecommerce platform.
Folica’s success is rooted in one key operating principle: listening to the customer. Through listening to the dynamic input and feedback it has received from its customers over the years, the Folica team has designed a number of superior proprietary product lines, sold not only at Folica.com but other top retailers including HSN. Over the years, Folica has established an extensive library of customer reviews, “How To’s” and “Best of” excerpts provided by both consumers and professionals.
Folica is headquartered in New York with a facility in New Jersey.
Stripes History with Folica
Stripes invested in Folica in 2007 having developed a strong relationship with Folica’s founder, Dennis Huang in the three years prior. Since then, Stripes has worked closely with Dennis to help build out the Company’s senior-level management and support key strategic initiatives.
In Our Time As Partners
- Carl Gish, Folica’s current CEO, joined the Company in 2008 bringing more than 16 years of senior marketing and general management executive experience from Amazon.com, Unilever and Dyson.
- The Company relocated to a larger warehouse facility (2x increase in square footage) and opened an office in New York, New York.
- The Company launched a new back-end infrastructure and technology platform.
- Sales of Folica’s superior, proprietary products have expanded by 30%.
Sales of Proprietary Products
Hear From the CEO
Carl Gish
CEO of Folica
"The opportunity to work with Stripes was one of the many reasons why I decided to join Folica as CEO back in 2008. It was clear that Stripes is not a firm that puts money into a company and then immediately flips the investment, and that was critical me. I liked how Stripes is a collaborative team that provides more than just capital to its investments- they have a uniquely suited technology and consumer network, they understand the importance of a brand and a strong consumer value proposition, and they aren't worried about getting their hands dirty.
Since joining, I have found Stripes' connections and tactical knowledge of building early-stage e-commerce businesses to be the most valuable. In terms of their network, they provide introductions wherever they can and use their connections to talk to and establish prospective partners. We often draw upon Stripes' specialized expertise in technology and online marketing to address tactical initiatives. Stripes has done a great job of regularly stepping in to help with recruiting, strategic initiatives and support our marketing efforts.
Finally, Stripes helps to give us a long-term view. At this stage of our growth, we're in here every day focusing on the tactical areas of the business, so we find it helpful to have a partner to help us think through the long term strategic initiatives we need to address in order to develop into a larger, more valuable business."
Carl Gish, CEO of Folica