Tyra Banks rang the closing bell at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center in San Francisco this afternoon. The supermodel turned entrepreneur and startup investor was there to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the launch of Tyra Beauty.
Tyra Beauty is both “beauty business and badassery,” Banks quipped in a video chat with TechCrunch. It’s a “cosmetics experience, not a cosmetics line.”
She spoke of the business model, where they employ salespeople called “Beautytainers,” to spread the word about Tyra Beauty through word of mouth.
This is not Ms. Banks’ first foray into the startup world. She has invested in companies, particularly women-led startups, through Fierce Capital. One of her favorite investments is The Muse.
The world will see more of her investment thesis, with the upcoming launch of “Funded,” a startup competition show on NBC. Banks will be working with skateboarder Rob Dyrdek and marketer Rohan Oza to evaluate startups who are competing for a $1 million investment in their business.
Expect “a bunch of love and a bunch of trash talk, ” said Banks.
She also spoke to us about the course she’ll be teaching at Stanford and talked about her tech mentors, Tony Hsieh and Joe Gebbia. For more on the conversation, watch the above video. (She even got me to “smize)!”
