Creating Beauty, Building Business: How Two Decades as a Pro Makeup Artist Became My Fundraising Superpower
While most beauty tech founders pitch investors from boardrooms, Natalie Piacun's journey began in makeup chairs and salon floors. After two decades as a professional makeup artist and co-owner of a successful salon enterprise, she's now navigating the startup world with a perspective that's both rare and invaluable—she's not just building for the beauty industry, she's lived it.
Her transition from hands-on beauty professional to tech entrepreneur reveals the unique challenges female founders face when their expertise doesn't fit traditional investor expectations. In this conversation, Natalie opens up about translating creative intuition into hard data, the reality of fundraising while juggling family and multiple businesses, and why her "non-traditional" background has become her greatest competitive advantage.
From learning to speak investor language without losing her authentic voice to proving that lived experience trumps theoretical knowledge, Natalie's story challenges the startup ecosystem to recognize that the best founders for consumer-facing businesses are often those who've spent years understanding their customers' real needs—not just their market segments.
What specific challenges have you encountered as a woman founder during your fundraising journey, and how have you navigated or prepared to navigate them?
My journey into the world of beauty tech as a female founder has been incredible, but the challenges of balancing my other business and family life have been more complex than I had anticipated. Having worked as a professional makeup artist in the beauty industry for two decades, and more recently co-owning a successful salon enterprise with a secondary beauty hub launching soon – life is full on. Fine tuning time at home whilst pushing forward with a business that demands vision, time, and energy, is something I think many female founders quietly manage every day. And that balancing act becomes even more intense during the fundraising journey.
What I’ve learnt from my experience to date, has been how best to translate a creative understanding of the beauty space into a language that resonates with investors - particularly in an industry that often prioritises hard data over lived experience. I’ve had to become fluent in both: pairing consumer insight with reliable market analysis and backing my vision with metrics that show viability and scalability.
Working with Block Dojo has been instrumental in that process, refining the pitch, sharpening the business model, and connecting with a support network that really gets the startup mindset. But more than anything, I’ve learned to trust the value of my background. Years of working hands-on with real people has given me an instinct for what matters, and I’ve built a product grounded in real needs - not just trends.
Ultimately, it’s about owning your vision. You don’t need to come from a traditional tech or finance background to build a great company - you need to understand your market better than anyone else and be able to show where the opportunity is.
2. What advice would you give to other women founders who are just starting their fundraising process, particularly around building confidence and presenting their vision?
Firstly, you don’t need to sound like anyone else to be taken seriously. Confidence doesn’t mean mimicking investor jargon, it means knowing your audience and showing how your vision solves a real problem in a commercially smart way. Speak from your heart, your experience and your “why.” Investors invest in founder conviction and teams – remember no one can tell your story better than you.
Secondly, do your research and prepare. Know your numbers, market, and traction points, but don’t let perfectionism hold you back. You won’t have all the answers, it’s ok to say, ‘I’ll get back to you on that’. What matters more is that you’re adaptable but clear on your direction, and don’t blag something if you clearly don’t have the answer – investors can see straight through that!
Thirdly, surround yourself with people who champion you. It’s easy to feel isolated in the early days of building a start-up and fundraising, so find other women founders, mentors, groups, or venture platforms that understand the startup journey. Your belief in your concept and brand messaging will grow stronger when you have feedback and a support system.
3. How has your experience in the beauty/creative industry shaped your approach to building relationships with potential investors, and what do you wish more investors understood about women-led startups?
Working on fashion and advertising campaigns has taught me that relationships are everything. Whether it’s with models, clients, or creative directors, success comes from trust, collaboration, and the ability to really listen and come together as a team. I bring that same energy into investor conversations, I treat them like creative collaborators, not just finance. I want them to feel part of something meaningful with me and help shape the future.
I also think investors sometimes underestimate just how commercially sharp women-led startups can be. We’re not just passion-driven - we’re market-driven, insight-driven, and deeply in tune with the emotional and practical needs of consumers, especially women. In beauty tech, that’s a superpower. Women founders often build with empathy and efficiency, and that leads to products with staying power.
What I wish more investors understood is: if you want to back the future of consumer tech - especially in health, beauty, and wellness - you need to back women who’ve lived and worked in these worlds. We’re not just founders; we’re the customer, the operator, and the strategist rolled into one.
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