Connection
Trusted relationships among leaders across beauty, technology, innovation, media, and business.
An Industry Alliance
A specialized industry initiative of Beauty, Brain & Brawn
The Beauty Tech Alliance
An industry alliance connecting founders, operators, technologists, researchers, educators, investors, innovators, and industry leaders shaping a more innovative, representative, and inclusive future for beauty.
Built on trust, shared values, and a commitment to expanding access, increasing representation, and creating opportunities that extend beyond any one individual, company, or platform.
Chapter One
Built on Conviction
The Beauty Tech Alliance was not created through applications or open enrollment.
It was formed through years of relationships, collaboration, shared experiences, and mutual respect.
Its members are individuals whose leadership, expertise, and vision are helping shape what comes next.
The purpose of the Alliance is not simply to gather exceptional people. It is to create meaningful connections between them.
Philosophy
Success Scales Through Others
Meaningful success is multiplied when opportunities are shared, relationships are cultivated, and exceptional people are connected to one another.
The Alliance exists to amplify ideas, expand access, foster collaboration, and create pathways that benefit the broader industry.
What Emerges Here
Five quiet currents that move between members.
Visibility
Editorial features across the Beauty, Brain & Brawn Magazine — one important source of founders, innovation, and industry intelligence within its broader editorial ecosystem — plus media opportunities, thought leadership, and strategic amplification.
Access
Industry events, private gatherings, conference delegations, partner experiences, and curated introductions.
Collaboration
Partnerships, research initiatives, advisory opportunities, business relationships, and new ventures.
Events
Roundtables, dinners, conference meetups, curated experiences, and future flagship gatherings.
And what has yet to be named.
Our Manifesto
Representation Begins Before the Camera Turns On.
Meaningful representation is shaped long before talent appears in a campaign, walks onto a runway, or steps in front of a camera.
It begins with who is educated. Who is trained. Who conducts the research. Who formulates the products. Who develops the technology. Who writes the curriculum. Who receives investment. Who owns the intellectual property. And who helps define the standards shaping the future of beauty.
“Representation at the endpoint is fragile when representation is absent from the infrastructure.”
The Beauty Tech Alliance is working to strengthen that infrastructure by connecting the people, expertise, institutions, technologies, resources, and opportunities capable of shaping a more inclusive and innovative future for beauty.
The Community
Join the Conversation
The Beauty Tech Alliance extends beyond formal membership. Our professional community brings together people working across beauty, technology, research, education, investment, entrepreneurship, media, retail, and innovation to exchange ideas, discover opportunities, and build relationships across the industry.
Hosted on LinkedIn, the community provides a space for meaningful discussion around emerging technology, beauty innovation, entrepreneurship, representation, research, industry challenges, partnerships, and the future of beauty.
The LinkedIn community is the broader conversation around The Beauty Tech Alliance. Formal Alliance membership remains curated and invitation only.
Built by founders. Strengthened through collaboration. Expanded through trusted relationships.
Founding Leadership
Founding Leadership
The Beauty Tech Alliance is guided by a group of founders committed to advancing innovation across beauty, technology, education, entrepreneurship, and strategic collaboration.
Together, they are building an ecosystem where founders, institutions, and industry partners can create meaningful opportunities through collaboration rather than competition.
Beauty, Brain & Brawn | Ermatine
Cole Woods
Founder & Chair
- Strategic Partnerships
- Ecosystem Development
- Founder Advisory
- Innovation Strategy
SOROR by Satasha Stephen
Dr. Satasha Stephen
Founding Member
- Brand Development
- Consumer Products
- Education
- Community
The Beauty Genie
Ebony Karim
Founding Member
- Beauty Technology
- Product Development
- Retail Innovation
- Education
The Science of Beauty
Sakeya Donaldson
Founding Member
- Entrepreneurship
- Education
- Cosmetic Science
- Community
Programming & Strategic Initiatives
An Active Ecosystem
The Beauty Tech Alliance creates opportunities for founders, innovators, educators, institutions, and strategic partners to collaborate through thoughtfully curated programming and long-term initiatives that advance the future of beauty.
Recent Gathering
Invitation Only
July 26, 2026 · Chicago, Illinois
Beauty Tech Alliance Gathering | Chicago
During 2026 WNBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago, The Beauty Tech Alliance brought together founders, innovators, educators, beauty professionals, technologists, and strategic partners for an intimate gathering centered on beauty innovation, entrepreneurship, technology, higher education, representation, and collaboration.
Explore the GatheringStrategic Initiatives
Ongoing work shaping the Alliance.
IActive
Founder Discovery Program
Introducing attendees to member brands through curated Founder Discovery Bags that encourage product discovery and founder collaboration.
IIActive
University Innovation Partnerships
Building relationships with colleges and universities to create opportunities for beauty education, entrepreneurship, research, student engagement, and campus retail innovation.
IIIActive
Founder Collaboration Network
Connecting Alliance founders with strategic partners, retailers, educators, media, and investors to accelerate meaningful collaborations.
IVIn Development
Beauty Innovation Ecosystem
Developing long-term partnerships across beauty, technology, retail, media, and education that strengthen the broader beauty innovation landscape.
VActive
Representation & Access
Expanding who participates in, builds, funds, researches, and leads beauty technology by creating pathways for founders, technologists, researchers, educators, students, and future industry leaders who have historically been underrepresented across innovation ecosystems.
VIIn Development
Capital & Investment
Expanding access to the relationships, environments, knowledge, and resources that help beauty technology founders become more visible, prepared, and connected within the investment ecosystem. This initiative is designed to help address representation not only in who builds beauty technology, but also in who receives the capital, relationships, and institutional support required to scale it.
Collaborate
Interested in Collaborating?
The Beauty Tech Alliance welcomes opportunities to collaborate with founders, universities, brands, retailers, investors, and organizations that share our vision for advancing the future of beauty through innovation and meaningful partnerships.
A Long-Term Vision
Built for What Comes Next
The most enduring institutions begin with relationships.
The Alliance exists to cultivate those relationships, encourage collaboration, and create opportunities that extend beyond any one company, platform, or individual.
Over time, its members will help shape conversations, initiatives, partnerships, research, events, and opportunities that influence the future of beauty.
The Alliance is not being built around a single person. It is being built around a shared belief that meaningful progress happens when exceptional people are connected to one another.
Engage With the Alliance
Two Ways to Be Part of the Ecosystem
Join the Professional Community
Participate in the broader Beauty Tech Alliance conversation through our LinkedIn community. Connect with professionals across beauty and technology, exchange ideas, share opportunities, and engage with the industry.
Join the LinkedIn CommunityFormal Alliance Membership
Join a curated ecosystem designed to facilitate meaningful relationships, introductions, opportunities, collaborations, private programming, and industry visibility. Formal membership is extended through invitation, referral, and strategic alignment.
Explore MembershipMembership
Membership
Formal membership in The Beauty Tech Alliance is curated and intentionally selective. Members are founders, innovators, technologists, researchers, educators, investors, operators, and strategic partners whose work and values align with the Alliance’s mission.
Membership provides access to private gatherings and programming, facilitated strategic introductions, partnership and opportunity alignment, industry visibility, peer exchange, investor connectivity and capital-facing opportunities where appropriate, and opportunities to collaborate on initiatives shaping the future of beauty technology.
Members are not simply added to a network. The Alliance actively works to identify meaningful connections, surface relevant opportunities, and create environments where collaboration can happen.
Founding Membership
Help Shape What Comes Next
The Beauty Tech Alliance is currently in its founding membership period, bringing together an intentionally selected group of founders, technologists, researchers, educators, investors, operators, innovators, and strategic partners who can help shape the early direction of the Alliance.
Founding Members are invited into the ecosystem during this formative stage with complimentary membership while The Beauty Tech Alliance establishes its programming, partnerships, member infrastructure, industry initiatives, and long-term membership model.
In addition to participating in the Alliance, Founding Members have the opportunity to influence its evolution through their expertise, perspectives, relationships, ideas, and participation.
Founding Member Status
Founding Member is a permanent designation recognizing individuals who joined and contributed to The Beauty Tech Alliance during its formative period.
As the Alliance grows, formal membership may transition to an annual dues model. Founding Members will retain their Founding Member designation and may receive preferential membership terms when a future dues structure is introduced.
Member Experience
What Membership Unlocks
Membership in The Beauty Tech Alliance is designed to create more than access to a network. The Alliance actively facilitates meaningful relationships, strategic opportunities, industry visibility, collaboration, and experiences that can help members move their work forward.
Gatherings & Private Programming
Receive invitations to Beauty Tech Alliance gatherings, salons, roundtables, workshops, member conversations, special activations, and future Alliance programming — including opportunities to connect both virtually and in person around relevant industry conversations and moments.
Strategic Introductions
Receive facilitated introductions to founders, brands, technologists, researchers, educators, investors, institutions, media, operators, and other professionals within or adjacent to the Alliance ecosystem when strategic alignment exists. These are intentional introductions based on potential mutual value, not simply access to a directory.
Partnership & Opportunity Facilitation
Be considered for relevant partnerships, collaborations, activations, speaking opportunities, advisory opportunities, educational programming, research initiatives, brand engagements, and other opportunities identified through the Alliance ecosystem.
Visibility & Thought Leadership
Access opportunities to contribute expertise and perspectives across Beauty Tech Alliance and Beauty, Brain & Brawn platforms, programming, editorial initiatives, conversations, panels, founder features, roundtables, and other relevant visibility opportunities — based on relevance, expertise, and editorial or programming needs.
Collaboration & Industry Development
Participate in opportunities to help shape Beauty Tech Alliance initiatives, programming, conversations, working groups, research, educational efforts, and other projects designed to move the beauty technology ecosystem forward.
Capital Access & Investor Connectivity
Members may be considered for curated investor gatherings, family office and private capital events, founder showcases, strategic introductions, and other opportunities to build relationships across the investment ecosystem. Where appropriate, The Beauty Tech Alliance may also help members prepare for investor-facing opportunities and facilitate connections based on company stage, sector, strategic fit, readiness, and mutual interest.
Facilitated with discretion and strategic relevance.
Capital Access & Investor Connectivity
- —Curated access to relevant investor networking environments
- —Family office and private capital gatherings
- —Venture capital and angel investor events
- —Founder and investor salons
- —Strategic introductions to aligned investors
- —Founder showcases
- —Capital-readiness conversations
- —Pitch positioning and preparation
- —Investor relationship-building opportunities
- —Introductions to accelerators, financial institutions, and other capital ecosystem partners
Participation in external investor, family office, venture, or private capital events is subject to organizer eligibility, invitation requirements, capacity, availability, and strategic fit.
The Beauty Tech Alliance facilitates access and connection where appropriate but does not guarantee investment, funding, introductions, admission to third-party events, or specific fundraising outcomes.
Founding Member Benefit
Shape the Alliance
Founding Members have the opportunity to contribute perspectives, expertise, relationships, and ideas that help inform the Alliance's early programming, partnerships, initiatives, member experience, and long-term industry priorities.
Additional Member Benefits
Curated Industry Intelligence
Access to relevant conversations, resources, research, emerging technology insights, industry developments, and knowledge shared throughout the Alliance ecosystem.
Peer Exchange
Opportunities to privately exchange ideas, challenges, expertise, recommendations, lessons, and resources with professionals operating across different areas of beauty and technology.
Trusted Referral Network
Access to a trusted ecosystem for identifying potential collaborators, advisors, specialists, partners, speakers, talent, vendors, institutions, and other professional resources.
Access to Expertise
Where appropriate, members may be connected to relevant subject-matter experts, strategists, educators, operators, researchers, advisors, or specialists within the Alliance ecosystem.
Talent & Emerging Leader Connections
As university, education, and talent-development partnerships expand, members may gain opportunities to connect with students, emerging professionals, researchers, technologists, and future industry leaders.
Active Facilitation
The Alliance Works on Members' Behalf
Formal membership is not a passive networking credential. Founding leadership may actively identify alignment, surface opportunities, and bring the right people together when there is a compelling reason for connection.
- —Identify potential strategic alignment between members
- —Make thoughtful introductions
- —Surface relevant opportunities
- —Connect founders with expertise or resources
- —Introduce brands to technology partners
- —Connect industry partners with researchers or educators
- —Identify potential speakers or contributors
- —Connect organizations with emerging talent
- —Facilitate exploratory partnership conversations
- —Bring complementary members together around projects or initiatives
- —Identify members whose companies may align with relevant investor environments
- —Recommend qualified members for external opportunities where permitted
- —Facilitate introductions between founders and investors when there is strategic fit
- —Help founders prepare before investor-facing events
- —Identify relevant family offices, venture funds, angel networks, accelerators, and financial institutions
- —Connect aligned capital partners with promising companies within the Alliance ecosystem
- —Convene founders and investors around focused industry conversations
Membership provides access, facilitation, consideration, and opportunities for connection — including investor connectivity and capital-facing introductions where appropriate. The Beauty Tech Alliance does not guarantee funding, commercial partnerships, paid engagements, media coverage, investment, investor interest, introductions, event admission, or specific business outcomes. Opportunities are facilitated based on relevance, readiness, availability, strategic alignment, and mutual interest.
New members typically join through:
Invitation
Founding Membership may be extended directly by Beauty Tech Alliance founding leadership to individuals whose expertise, work, leadership, relationships, or perspective can meaningfully contribute to the Alliance ecosystem.
Referral
Existing members may recommend individuals for Founding Membership whose work and values align with the mission of The Beauty Tech Alliance. Referrals are reviewed for strategic alignment and do not constitute automatic admission.
Strategic Alignment
Membership is built around mutual value. Prospective members should demonstrate meaningful alignment with the Alliance's mission, values, areas of focus, and commitment to contributing to a more innovative and representative beauty technology ecosystem.
Rather than focusing on size, the Alliance prioritizes meaningful collaboration, shared values, and long-term relationship building.
Not ready for Founding Membership, or simply want to participate in the conversation? Join our professional LinkedIn community.
Interested in being considered for Founding Membership?
The Beauty Tech Alliance is currently building its founding cohort through invitation, member referral, and strategic alignment.
Request Founding Membership ConsiderationThe Beauty Tech Alliance is currently operating within its founding membership period. Formal membership is complimentary for invited Founding Members during this stage. The Alliance reserves the ability to evolve its membership structure, benefits, eligibility requirements, and dues model as its programming and infrastructure develop.
The Gateway
Enter Invitation Code
Access to Founding Membership is extended through invitation only. Upon entering a valid invitation code, invited Founding Members will receive access to the Alliance Charter and onboarding experience.
By invitation of the founding members
Not invited yet? Request Founding Membership ConsiderationA Referral Pathway
Refer a Founder
Founding Membership in The Beauty Tech Alliance is by invitation, extended through the founding members.
If you know a founder building at the intersection of beauty and technology whose work aligns with the mission of The Beauty Tech Alliance, you may refer them here for consideration for Founding Membership.
