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The story of our beginnings
Research
Kicked off research with Cooper Perkins to understand how feasible this vision was to answer the question “How could a robot give an autonomus manicure?”
Works-Like Prototype
Raised a Seed round, led by Lerer Hippeau and Red Sea Ventures, to build the initial team and first works-like prototype of the manicure machine.
Alpha Prototype
Growing from 5 to 20 people, we raised a Series A led by Imaginary Ventures to further our development of the manicure machine, building Gantry II and first alpha units that might be capable of delivering a full manicure.
End-to-End Manicure
On our newly constructed Alpha Units, we hard coded and ran the first ever end-to-end robot manicure on June 7th, 2021. We pivoted the business to launch B2B over D2C.
Autonomous Manicure
With the advances in our computer vision development, we delivered the first autonomous manicures. We sold out our entire first run with pre-sales of over $13M in annual manicure subscription revenue. We kicked off manufacturing and ended the year closing an extension to our Series A, led by Shine Capital.
We’re building the very first of its kind
A consumer device that can interact with a human, unassisted, to perform a service with a high level of precision.
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AI-Driven Computer Vision
Inside the machine, there is a 5-camera and LED system that bounces light off your fingers. It then uses proprietary and new-to-the-world computer vision techniques in photo-metric and geo-metric stereo along with AI-driven models, to build a 3D reconstruction of your nails.
No blades involved
From the very beginning, we’ve focused on safety as our top priority. How can we build a machine that cannot harm anyone? To achieve this we had to design a method of shaping and filing a nail without a single blade. We started by researching tools used on toddlers before settling on a more commonly used nail salon tool - an etched glass file - where the grit is so fine that the skin does not notice it, but the nail is quickly filed down.
Extreme Accuracy
A nail is not a very large surface. In order to deliver a salon quality manicure, we had to define what a salon quality manicure is, beyond the simple eye test and then build a system capable of meeting that accuracy. We believe a perfect manicure is achieved when nail polish is painted 0.2mm - 0.6mm from the edge of the nail and is painted with a uniform smooth edge gap. As such, we have had to build our machine's system wide accuracy to 0.4mm +/- 0.2mm.
Pod Based System
A key component to making a great consumer experience was reducing the steps needed between manicures. Nail polish is thick and can easily clog. By designing every liquid and every tool that interacts with a nail inside of the pod as single-use tools, we ensure that no liquid flows through the machine.
One Hand At A Time
One of the biggest barriers to a manicure being a great experience today is it that it traditionally puts both of your hands out of use for about 40 minutes. We have built The 10 to do one hand at a time from start to finish. This allows you to have a hand free to use your phone at all times. It also results in one hand being 100% dry and usable if you want to skip drying on the second hand the second it is painted.
One Hand At A Time
One of the biggest barriers to a great manicure experience today is that it traditionally puts both of your hands out of use for about 30-40 minutes. We have built The 10 to do one hand at a time from start to finish. This allows you to have a hand free at all times to multi-task. It also ensures that one hand is 100% dry and usable if you want to skip drying on the second hand the moment it is painted.
