Since September 2016, Black Enterprise.com has followed the journey of ShearShare, a marketplace which allows salon and barbershop owners to rent their excess suites and booths to licensed cosmetologists and barbers on demand with their phone, in cities and countries around the world.
Now, Shear Share co-founders, husband-and-wife Courtney and Tye Caldwell, are taking their business to the next level through a partnership with Track and First American Payments. “ShearShare helps you keep more of your hard-earned money with our new B2B app, says Caldwell. We can now erase the headache of knowing how much money to withhold for business taxes and save on payment processing fees.”
Black Enterprise caught up with Courtney Caldwell to learn more about how the partnership developed.
How did you land a partnership with Track and First American Payments? And why are the products you’re able to offer, because of these partnerships, important?
Tye and I know all too well the hardships faced when choosing to work in the beauty industry. When we heard Track’s value proposition at a private 500 Startups event, we knew immediately that this would be a game changer for our community.
Our team spent more than seven months getting to know the Track co-founders before deciding that this was something we wanted to introduce to the solo artists in our industry. Track’s offering fits nicely into our overall ShearShare mission statement and represents yet another first for the beauty and barbering industry. For the first time EVER, freelance cosmetologists and barbers have access to weekly pay stubs, tax savings accounts, and quarterly filing of their business taxes.
As for our relationship with First American Payments, we were introduced at an industry event and wanted to recommend its mobile payments solution to our community because they offered our stylists a lower interest rate than the industry leaders. A total win-win. Again, we’re meeting our fellow stylists where they are—on their mobile devices—and saving them valuable time and money when it comes to operating their businesses.
We are also excited to announce that we are now part of Backstage Capital’s portfolio of companies. Arlan Hamilton is the first VC to believe in our vision and take the plunge into B2B beauty-tech with us.