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- Idea Of The Day - You should build the future of fully custom makeup
Idea Of The Day - You should build the future of fully custom makeup
Needs To Exist
February 13, 2025
In partnership with
GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering a daily startup ideas today that can take the beauty industry by storm.
Here’s what we’ve got for you today.
Daily Idea - Blend Your Own Makeup
PMF PMF PMF!
Makeup: Mix. Match. Make. Your Way.
The One Liner
Custom makeup, made exactly your way.
The 140 character tweet (or X) version
Why settle for mass-produced makeup? Pick any color, any finish, and create your own custom eyeshadow and blush—just how you like it.
The Longer Story Version
The Problem
Makeup should feel personal. But walk into any beauty store, and you’re stuck picking from the same pre-made shades as everyone else.
Maybe your dream blush doesn’t exist. Maybe your perfect eyeshadow only comes in the wrong finish. Maybe you want something totally unique—like a duochrome green-to-purple shimmer that shifts in the light.
Big brands? They make what sells at scale. The result? Thousands of people wearing the same shades, while you’re left mixing, layering, and hoping to get close to what you actually want.
Customization in beauty is trending, but why is it mostly just for lipstick?
The Solution
What if you could create makeup your way—custom eyeshadows and blushes, designed by you, made just for you?
Here’s how it works:
Pick Your Shade: Any color, no limits. Soft neutrals, bold neons, even shades that change in the light.
Choose Your Finish: Matte (no shine), satin (soft glow), shimmer (sparkly), metallic (bold sheen), or duochrome (color-shifting magic).
Bundle It or Go Solo: Buy an individual product or build a set of four.
Luxury Packaging: Because custom should feel premium.
It’s like having a personal lab for your makeup, minus the chemistry degree.
How We’d Build It
Formula & Customization: Work with cosmetic chemists to create blendable, high-quality pigment bases.
Tech-Enabled Selection: Use 3D rendering tools like Modiface or Perfect Corp for real-time shade previews.
Web-Based Customization: Build the front-end with Shopify + React for an interactive, seamless experience.
Production & Fulfillment: Partner with a private label beauty manufacturer to make small-batch custom products.
Marketing & Growth: Leverage TikTok, IG Reels, and beauty influencers for UGC-driven virality.
Why It Needs to Exist
Because makeup isn’t one-size-fits-all.
People already mix, layer, and blend to create their perfect look—why not give them a tool that lets them own the process?
This isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about giving beauty lovers the ability to create something that feels 100% them.
It’s not for everyone. But if you’re the kind of person who wants makeup as unique as your vibe, this changes the game.
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Product Market Fit - No BS Guide
Most people think product-market fit (PMF) is some mystical milestone you stumble upon after grinding for months. Others think it’s just about hitting revenue targets or growth metrics. Both are wrong.
Product-market fit happens when customers start selling your product for you.
That’s it. It’s when they don’t just like what you built—they need it, they rave about it, and they tell others it’s a game-changer. If you have to shove it down their throats with aggressive sales tactics or endless marketing campaigns, you’re not there yet.
David Cramer from Sentry, wrote an excellent breakdown of this in his recent post, and there are a few key lessons worth highlighting.
1. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) Matters More Than You Think
One of the biggest mistakes startups make is targeting the wrong customers. Your product isn’t for everyone—so stop trying to make it fit.
Sentry initially found success with individual software engineers, not executives or VPs. When they tried expanding into performance monitoring, they assumed every developer had latency issues. Turns out, their core ICP (startups and fast-moving dev teams) didn’t prioritize it. The lesson? Build for the people who need you today, not the ones who might need you someday.
🛠 Tools to Define Your ICP:
LinkedIn Sales Navigator (filter by job title, industry, and company size)
Talking to real customers (yes, actually speaking to them)
2. Stop Looking at Dashboards. Start Selling.
Your analytics dashboard won’t tell you why customers don’t care about your product. Neither will another A/B test. You need to be in the trenches, talking to potential users, figuring out if what you built actually solves a painful problem.
Too many startups fall into the “let’s add more features” trap when growth stalls. Instead, go talk to customers and ask real questions. If the best feedback you’re getting is “that sounds useful,” you’re in trouble. That’s just a polite way of saying, I wouldn’t pay for this.
🛠 Ways to Validate PMF Through Customer Conversations:
Superhuman’s PMF Survey (ask users: How would you feel if this product disappeared?)
The Mom Test (great book on how to ask unbiased questions)
Cold Outreach on LinkedIn & Twitter (find 50 people in your ICP and ask for 15 mins of their time)
3. Don’t Rely on Ads or Sales Teams to Save You
If you need to spend a ton of money on ads or hire a huge sales team just to convince people to try your product, you don’t have PMF yet. Growth should be organic. Your first users should be telling their friends, tweeting about it, and begging you for new features.
Sentry’s mistake? They assumed they could market their way into PMF for a new product. But real PMF comes from obsessing over your customers and building something that spreads on its own.
🛠 Tools to Drive Organic Growth:
ReferralCandy – Set up a simple referral program
SparkLoop – Grow your newsletter via referrals
Twitter & Reddit – Engage where your ICP already hangs out
4. Your First Version Shouldn’t Scale
Another PMF myth? That your first product needs to be perfect. It doesn’t. It just needs to work insanely well for a small group of people.
Too many founders build with scale in mind before they even know if the product works. Instead, build something raw, hacky, and ugly—but powerful. If 10 people swear by it, you’re on the right track. If 1,000 people think it’s “nice to have,” you’re in trouble.
🛠 MVP Tools to Test PMF Quickly:
TL;DR – How to Know If You Have PMF
✅ Customers are actively recommending your product
✅ You can’t keep up with demand (users begging for access)
✅ Your churn rate is low, and retention is high
✅ New users come from word-of-mouth, not just ads
If none of the above are true? You’re not there yet. Keep iterating, keep talking to customers, and keep cutting what doesn’t work.
PMF isn’t something you “achieve.” It’s a moving target. But if you build for the right ICP, talk to customers, and stop hiding behind dashboards, you’ll be a hell of a lot closer than most.
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