Beauty e-commerce business Thirteen Lune has hired John Frierson as head of corporate strategy.
Thirteen Lune was launched by Nyakio Grieco and Patrick Herning in 2020 with the goal of stocking and helping market brands that are founded by people of color, and “ally brands” with products that can be used by everyone. The business has grown quickly, and today carries 100 brands and has doubled its revenue over the past six months online, according to the company.
Frierson founded the lifestyle group at Creative Arts Agency, where he spearheaded the brand’s private equity fund in consumer goods. As president of Fred Segal, he launched lucrative collaborations with global brands CB2, Ralph Lauren, Wrangler and many others, and packaged and sold the company in 2020. Most recently, he was president of interior design and lifestyle brand The Novogratz.
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He joins Thirteen Lune following its latest $3 million fundraising round led by Fearless Fund, a venture capital firm created by women of color that invests in women of color. In total, Thirteen Lune has raised $4.5 million.
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“I’m super excited about Thirteen Lune because it’s a curated retail platform, which is special to me having done the things I did at Fred Segal — and it’s going through a tremendous amount of growth, so everyone is super hot to do things with it,” Frierson said, noting that the business is developing private label, expanding internationally and continuing to onboard partner brands.
“In many cases, this is the first big growth opportunity for these brands, and I love the idea of building a community of brands and people. It’s a mission-based company, we’re all doing this together, taking on challenges together, bringing brands along with us as we expand,” he added, explaining how the process of incubating young brands is similar to what he did at Fred Segal.
Thirteen Lune has also rolled out retail via a shop-in-shop partnership with J.C. Penney Co. Inc., which previously had partnered with Sephora. There are 10 Thirteen Lune locations already open inside Penney’s stores, with plans for 600 locations by 2023.
Frierson has known Grieco for more than a decade. “When I was a young agent at CAA, she came into my office pitching a different project, then we started talking and hanging out, and she shared she had another little beauty business, based on her grandmother’s recipes from Kenya. She showed me her first product, the coffee scrub, and I signed her to be a client at CAA. In those days, it was unusual to sign a small entrepreneur who didn’t have a business yet,” he said, explaining how he helped build Nyakio Beauty.
“I love storytelling, and underneath Thirteen Lune there are a hundred stories, so there’s a huge amount of content and as we expand, that’s something we will focus on,” Frierson said.