Application — Growth
Barefaced holds 352 reviews at 4.9/5 and a 20% first-order offer. That proof should be doing the selling in ads, not waiting on the site.
Who I am
- Former COO of Tabs. Built its creator program to 100M monthly social impressions, and the paid ad engine alongside it.
- Founded Mainstreet, a consumer home-services platform: a team of 70, $25M raised (Greylock, Khosla, YC, Tim Ferriss). It failed.
- Before that: Quintessential Ventures, an early seat at a high-growth startup, and entrepreneur-in-residence at Prehype.
- I'm moving into growth specifically. The creative and top-of-funnel work is what I want to be doing every day.
What I noticed
- Mineral Foundation is listed at £18.00 across 60 variants. Shade choice is the biggest decision a shopper makes here, and it is exactly what a creator can show on skin.
- The first-order offer is 20% off, and the pages show a 4.9/5 rating based on 352 reviews. Both proof points belong in the first line of an ad, not only on the site.
- Try Me First Kit costs £28.00 and has 4 variants. It is a low-risk first order for a stranger, so creators should open with it.
What I built
What I'd do here
- My KPI: scale ad spend, hold target CAC. Everything else follows from that, starting with the £18.00 Mineral Foundation as the hero.
- Week to week: launching a bunch of different experiments, losers killed early. Lip gloss sets, lipstick sets and eye kits each get their own hooks.
- Creators: makeup-routine creators for the foundation, sensitive-skin voices for the 4.9/5 reviews, and vegan-beauty creators for the lipstick and lip gloss sets.
- Reporting so you never have to ask. Daily CAC. Weekly what we learned. Monthly cohort payback.
- Event tracking I'd spec and work through with your team. That part isn't me. I'd want it checked before we measure the 20% first-order offer.
Month one
| Metric | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators live | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Creator videos / week | 0 | 14 | 28 | 42 | 56 | 70 |
| Landing pages live | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| New ads / week | 12 | 12 | 12–20 | 12–20 | 20 | 20 |
| Unique experiments | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
Creators come on two a week, up to ten live by week six. Each posts seven videos a week, so 70 videos a week at the full roster. New ads and landing pages follow the creators. Proposed.
Creator videos a week = creators live × videos per creator. Week 1: 0 × 7 = 0; Week 2: 2 × 7 = 14; Week 3: 4 × 7 = 28; Week 4: 6 × 7 = 42; Week 5: 8 × 7 = 56; Week 6: 10 × 7 = 70.
How I'd start
- Write a claims sheet from your own wording: the PETA and Vegan Society certification and the sensitive-skin line, so every creator stays inside it.
- Brief the first creators on Try Me First Kit and Mineral Foundation shades, filmed on real skin, then open experiments from those videos.
I'd love to chat if this makes sense. Grab a time here.
Danilo