New startup Vive offers unlimited monthly blowouts for $99 and manicures for $49, and women are going nuts
Gone are the days when getting a blowout was a special treat you gave yourself before a friend's wedding or a first date. Starting at the end of the month, Vive is offering a subscription-based service: unlimited blowouts (that means wash and dry, no haircuts or coloring) for only $99 per month.
It's like Classpass, but for hair. In fact, an investor source says Vive's founder, Alanna Gregory, has already gotten some advice from Classpass co-founder Payal Kadakia.
Alanna Gregory told Business Insider she was working as a research analyst at Barclays when she came up with the idea for Vive.
"I was getting my hair blown out pretty frequently," Gregory remembers. "I have very curly hair."
Gregory was finding it difficult to find places to get her hair blown out, other than the very popular Drybar salon, which specializes in blowouts but can sometimes book up days or weeks in advance.
She and her hairstylist of ten years, Kristen Armstrong, came up with the idea for Vive together, pointing out at first that they wanted to take the at-home route like competitors Glamsquad and Priv, but eventually decided "the salon experience is something people really enjoy."
Vive, Gregory tells Business Insider, saves time and money, offering dozens and dozens of salons throughout Manhattan that subscribers can visit for a blowout - as many times a month as they want.
The average blowout can cost anywhere between $25-$50 (Drybar blowouts cost $40) so even going to the salon once a week for a month can quickly make the $99 fee worth it.
And the quality of salons is very important to the Vive team.
"Each salon is handpicked by us," Gregory tells Business Insider. "We're very strict about quality control."
According to an email Business Insider reviewed, Vive may also begin offering unlimited monthly manicures for $49. When you consider the average manicure costs about $10-15, many women would consider that a steal. Gregory declined to comment on the manicure service.
Vive is just one of a few startups that are picking up on the "Classpass of everything" trend.
For the past few years, a lot of startups have been focusing on the "uberization" of the world, using Uber's business model for rides and applying it to other markets, like on-demand shipping, groceries, dog-sitting and more.
Classpass is a break-out NYC startup that's has earned a reported $60 million run rate by bundling up small business services. Classpass works with thousands of local dance, pilate, spin, yoga and other fitness classes to create a $99-per-month gym-like membership, where users can hop from studio to studio. Vive is a first of many likely Classpass spinoffs, which will try to benefit from bundling tons of local offerings together.
Vive isn't formally round of funding yet, but a number of investors are familiar with Gregory. One says Gregory will likely raise $1 million in the next two or three months to get Vive off the ground.
Gregory and her team are planning on making a lot of formal announcements about the company in the coming weeks, with an end-of-March launch date in mind. But women are already going nuts in anticipation of the service.
For now, the site is collecting email addresses for those wanting to stay in the loop.