Written by Alex Bredeen
How this 21-year-old entrepreneur is building the world’s best platform for barbers
Fuel Ventures leads a Pre-Seed round in Barbr, a platform that is looking to totally disrupt the barbering industry.
When did the idea start?
When Reef Ray started Barbr back in 2019, he was just looking for an easier way to get a trim. No unnecessary travelling, waiting in a queue for hours or struggling to find a great barber. After playing around with a few ideas ranging from an on-demand mobile barber app to a simple booking system for barbershops, the 21-year-old university drop out decided to look from a different perspective - “most clients want a convenient and high-quality service but what do the barbers want? What if there was a way to make life 10x better for barbers but still offer clients a smooth and convenient experience?”
Reef spent over a year researching the market, speaking with barbers and learning as much as possible about the barber industry. He quickly discovered that barbering came with a mountain of headaches, none of which involved cutting hair.
He said “most barbers have a passion for cutting hair and making people look good and feel good, yet each barber is essentially an entrepreneur and has to deal with all of the associated challenges. They need to manage their clients, organise their schedule, process payments, track progress as well as build their brand and market themselves. Ultimately barbers need to manage and grow a business while still remaining focused on the art of barbering.”
The solution?
Meet Barbr, a booking platform that helps barbers save time, earn more and unlock their true potential. The app takes care of growth and management, enabling barbers to simplify their bookings, build a digital presence, find new clients, earn more money and become the best at what they love. For clients, it offers convenience and transparency by allowing them to discover, vet and easily book a barber. The long term vision for the company is to build out an ecosystem that offers barbers not only management, growth and independence but also education, new revenue streams and a marketplace that connects barbers with barbershop owners. Barbr has just successfully raised a £175k pre-seed funding round led by Fuel Ventures, one of the UK’s most active early-stage investors, following a successful beta which saw over £100K earned by barbers through the platform. The company is set to publicly launch in April and begin an aggressive rollout across the UK shortly after. At just 21, Reef is the youngest founder to be backed by Fuel Ventures and with such big ambitions for the company, the most exciting times are ahead.