{"id":341037,"date":"2017-05-16T04:06:36","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T20:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1488652"},"modified":"2017-05-16T04:06:36","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T20:06:36","slug":"helloava-launches-a-chatbot-for-personalized-skin-care-recommendations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/helloava-launches-a-chatbot-for-personalized-skin-care-recommendations\/","title":{"rendered":"HelloAva launches a chatbot for personalized skin care recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Can a chatbot replace a dermatologist\u2019s recommendation for skin care products? That\u2019s the idea behind HelloAva<\/a>, a startup launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt NY, which aims to walk people through a series of questions to determine their skin type, then make recommendations as to which products to buy.<\/p>\n

HelloAva\u2019s co-founder and CEO Siqi Mou, a former Bloomberg anchor\u00a0who spent a lot of time doing television, says she came up with the idea for the company after agreeing to do a commercial for a skin care brand in Indonesia. Before agreeing to do the spot, she started studying each ingredient, and came to realize that she \u2014 like most of us \u2014 didn\u2019t grasp how many toxic chemicals\u00a0and other harsh preservatives are in our daily skin care products.<\/p>\n

In addition to wanting safe products, most people have a hard time selecting the right ones for their skin, she says. It\u2019s a lot of trial and error to see what works.<\/p>\n

The startup HelloAva actually began as\u00a0a class project at Stanford\u2019s Graduate School of Business last year. During this time, the team interviewed more than 300 women,\u00a0but found that most were more interested\u00a0in getting help with\u00a0product selection than anything else \u2014 including\u00a0being directed to \u201cgreen\u201d products.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 90 percent of the women we interviewed didn\u2019t have a single clue about what they\u2019re putting on their face or what they\u2019re buying,\u201d says Mou. \u201cAnd the majority of them don\u2019t read the labels when they buy something, because they don\u2019t understand the chemicals that are being printed on labels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The solution to this problem that the\u00a0team came up with is HelloAva.<\/p>\n

Using either SMS text messaging or Facebook Messenger, users answer 12 questions that are similar to those a dermatologist would ask during an in-person visit. In fact, they were written with help by a dermatologist \u2014 HelloAva\u2019s co-founder is beginning his residency in July. (He asked for his name to not be disclosed because of his work at the hospital.) The\u00a0questions\u00a0allow the system to categorize the user as one of 30 different skin types in order to make very specific skin care recommendations.<\/p>\n

In addition to\u00a0this Q&A session, users also send a photo of their face to the chatbot (called \u201cAVA\u201d), and are then connected with a human advisor for a more personal conversation afterwards. The advisor can ask and answer additional questions, validate the algorithm\u2019s work and then send the customer\u00a0a checkout link where they can\u00a0buy the recommended products.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At launch, the company is working with a small subset of brands, the majority being either emerging brands or those from Korean beauty suppliers. An\u00a0exception to this is\u00a0L\u2019Or\u00e9al, which is one of the bigger names on board. In total, there are around 250 individual products in HelloAva\u2019s database.<\/p>\n

The focus of AVA\u2019s\u00a0recommendations are\u00a0primarily skin care products, not makeup. But there is a bit of overlap in areas like BB cream, concealer and foundation \u2014 as users may ask for products that don\u2019t cause breakouts, for example, or won\u2019t irritate their skin.<\/p>\n

HelloAva isn\u2019t shuffling customers off to brands\u2019 websites to buy, but is instead hosting its own checkout experience and is holding\u00a0its own inventory. However, because the startup is\u00a0currently working only with a subset of beauty brands on the market, it may not always have a specific product you need.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Asked if she was concerned that HelloAva\u2019s Q&A-style session\u00a0could be easily copied by a larger retailer in the beauty space, like Sephora, Mou explained why she thought that wouldn\u2019t be the case\u00a0Larger retailers could threaten their own brands by recommending some products more than others, which could be damaging, she claimed.<\/p>\n

Plus, she added, as a startup, they\u2019re more nimble than a larger company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have embedded costs,\u201d Mou\u00a0says. \u201cAlso, we move fast, get things out, collect feedback and then get more things out\u2026and we can literally do that in two weeks,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

New York-based HelloAva is\u00a0also co-founded by CTO\u00a0Bob Caslin, and has $300,000 in angel funding.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s launching<\/a> today as a web app and Messenger chatbot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Can a chatbot replace a dermatologist’s recommendation for skin care products? That’s the idea behind HelloAva, a startup launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt NY, which aims to walk people through a series of questions to determine their skin type, then make recommendations as to which products to buy. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-341037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}