(upbeat techno music)
(cheers)
- Tyra Banks, legendary model turned startup investor
and entrepreneur is here at the Nasdaq
to celebrate Tyra Beauty.
Thanks for joining us.
- Thank you.
- So tell us about this company you're working on.
What is Tyra Beauty?
- So Tyra Beauty is what I would like to call
a cosmetics experience.
Not a cosmetics line.
We have a couple of tag lines,
one is we're beauty, business and bad-assery.
So the beauty is makeup,
the business is that we have
our entrepreneurs that are our social sellers,
that actually sell Tyra Beauty and make money.
Make a percentage of what they sell
and anybody can be what we call a beauty-tainer.
They're called beauty-tainers.
And then the bad-assery is we like to be a little
dangerous, a little rebellious, have a little fun.
I launched it one year ago.
This is the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center's
one year anniversary,
Tyra Beauty's one year anniversary,
when we came out of beta a year ago.
And so it's just so nice to be here, it's amazing.
- Yeah, yeah so and you have a lot going on.
You're also starting a new show on NBC
with Rob Dyrdek where you're gonna be investing in startups.
Can you tell us a little bit what to expect there?
- Yeah, so the show is called Funded.
This is actually Rob's creation
so this is one of the first shows that I've ever done
that I didn't create.
And usually I don't do that
but when Rob approached me and I met with him.
I was like, this is amazing, hell yes I am down for this
and I can't say too much
but it's NBC, it's Rob
and then also Rohan Oza
who is a marketing guru.
And we just all had a team dinner last night
and it was a bunch of love
and a bunch of trash talk too.
So that's what you're gonna see on TV.
And you know, giving people that American dream
and giving them an insanely amazing prize of not seed money
but it's money to take them to the next level.
So we're really taking businesses that are
already doing very well,
to like
overdrive.
- And so outside of the show, you've also done
some startup investing, you've had fierce capital.
What companies have you invested in
and what are you looking for?
- One of my favorites that I've invested in is called Muse,
the Muse.
It's a female founder, her name is Catherine
and she is
a genius and the company is growing.
I love getting my emails and my updates
like this was a smart one, this was a good one.
So I have about seven or eight companies
that I've invested in.
A new one that I invested in is
most of them are kinda female, but I'm open.
There's a very famous chef by the name of Roy Choi
who is starting a
fast food
almost like high end fast food
for a very affordable price.
So I've invested in his
his brand as well.
So those are two of my favorites,
but a I do have a very small portfolio of eight.
I was going for 30 to 40 businesses
but I decided to halt with that investment
because Tyra Beauty is personally funded.
So it is self funded.
So every check that goes out, every inventory,
or when it comes to full time hires,
everything comes from me and so I felt like I needed
to put the oxygen mask on myself before my children
like they say to do on the airplane.
So put the oxygen mask and the capital
is going to Tyra Beauty right now
and pausing on fierce capital.
- Well you've definitely been keeping yourself busy
and so I understand you're also gonna
be teaching at Stanford.
What is that about?
- I'm very excited.
So I recently spoke at Stanford
and did about, I don't know, an hour and a half,
two hour speech Q and A session.
One of the professors came up to me and said
you know what, that's not
a speech and a presentation, that's a class.
She approached me and then
we created something and took it to the
the assistant dean and they approved.
Or associate dean.
And now I am going to be Professor Banks.
- Wow.
I'm jealous, I wish I had professors like that.
And so do you have any tech mentors,
any people that you look up to in the world
of Silicon Valley?
- Yeah so I am a cold caller.
He's not in Silicon Valley, but I read his book
and it is called Delivering Happiness.
I read it many years ago, Tony Shay,
the CEO of Zappos.
And I was
amazed by his story.
All the way from him loving Taco Bell, which I love.
Down to just how just
savy he was and how culture meant everything to him.
And he wrapped this company around culture
that just so happened to sell shoes and now other items.
I cold called him and I was like, this is Tyra Banks
and I love your book and I want you to mentor me
and I love Taco Bell too.
And he was like, this is not Tyra Banks,
this is a prank call and he almost hung up.
He's like prove it.
And I was like how do I prove it?
And I was like,
coming up on America's Next Top Model,
and he was like oh my God, it is you.
And so I've stayed in touch with him.
I love Joe Gebbia out here with Air B and B.
I call him about even HR issues
like do you do you know, paid time off
or do you do flex time.
You know, just like those minutia things from
these like titans of industry and tech
is everything to me.
And I am not ashamed of asking to be mentored.
- Great, well last thing, will you smize?
- Of course, no will you smize?
- Oh, I don't know.
- So no mouth, Novocaine mouth.
- Okay.
- No relax.
- Okay.
- Oh my God, you're so
just so beautiful.
Okay wait, no smile at all, like dead.
Like Novocaine, I just gave you a shot at the dentist,
there you go, now squeeze your eyes
and look into that camera like you're pissed.
Even more, no lips, no lips, no lips.
Dead lock, chin up, chin up, chin up, chin up,
squeeze eyes tighter, you're just so pissed off.
Yes, yes, yes, yes you're doing it.
You're doing it.
That was it.
You're smized, you smiled with your eyes.
- That's awesome, I'm so excited about that.
Thank you so much for joining us here.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
(upbeat techno music)