Sharmadean Reid

Sharmadean Reid MBE (born 28 May 1984) is a British Jamaican entrepreneur. She is the founder of WAH Nails and Beautystack. She is an advocate for women's empowerment.

Reid was born to a Jamaican family with a father of Indian heritage in Wolverhampton in 1984. She completed a BTEC in Art and Design.^[1] She moved to London the month before she started a degree at Central Saint Martins, graduating with a degree in Fashion Communication and Promotion. During her degree she worked with Nicola Formichetti, Arena Homme + editor Jo-Ann Furniss and Alasdair McLellan.^[2] Reid started WAH (We Ain't Hoes) in 2005 while at university as a hip hop zine focusing on the new wave of street smart feminism.^[3] She used a Mac Mini and interviewed women in hip hop, building a community for women in the industry.^[4] She describes her skills in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign as the most important part of her feminist activism.^[4] The zine developed into the WAHappenings blog and WAH Power Lunches - opportunities for women to get together and discuss careers and ideas.^[5]

After graduating in 2007, Reid worked at the men's magazine Arena Homme Plus as a Sportswear Editor, before moving to Nike as a stylist.^[2] In June 2009, The Independent recognised Reid as one of the "15 people who will define the future of arts in Britain".^[6] Throughout 2018, Reid wrote a business advice column Bossing It for The Guardian.^[7] She delivered a TED talk about empowering women with technology at University College London in December 2018.^[4] Reid is an advisor for the charity Art Against Knives.^[8] She is a founding member of the British Beauty Council.^[9][10][11]

Driven by the idea of a place for women to "hang out, form friendships and build communities"^[12] while being able to have "whatever you wanted on your nails",^[3] the first WAH Nails salon was opened in August 2009.^[13] In February 2010, WAH Nails opened concessions in Topshop Oxford Circus and Harvey Nichols Dublin. WAH Nails London was launched in September 2014.^[14] It used social media (including tumblr and Instagram) to grow a community by sharing viral images.^[15] WAH Nails has several high-profile patrons, including Serena Williams, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Margot Robbie.^[16] They launched a product line at Boots UK, as well as a book.^[17] In November 2016, Reid launched her first clothing line inspired by Princess Diana and in collaboration with ASOS.^[18][19][20] In the same month WAH Nails launched in its London store a virtual reality nail experience, designed together with Kim Boutin, former digital art director at Kenzo.^[21] WAH have been featured in broadly.^[22]

In 2016 Reid partnered with Tabitha Goldstaub to launch Future Girl Corp, a business boot camp for women entrepreneurs.^[23][24] The bootcamp launched with a twelve-month business workshop for future women CEOs in Shoreditch in 2016.^[17][25][26] She coordinated monthly training events for women entrepreneurs throughout 2017.^[27][28]

Reid became frustrated by the lack of technological solutions in beauty booking software.^[29] Reid founded BeautyStack alongside Daniel Woodbury and Ken Lalobo, an image-based booking system for beauty professionals, in May 2017.^[15] Beautystack closed a seed-funding round in 2018, raising over £1 million.^[15] This made Reid one of few black women worldwide to raise over £1 million. The platform allows influential beauty professionals to form networks.^[2] It was described as an Instagram-LinkedIn hybrid, combining social discovery with in-app booking.^[29] The app launched with a pop-up shop in Kings Cross, as well as a magazine and video.^[29][30]

Her awards and honours include; an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to the nail and beauty industry, a Marie Claire Future Shaper Award.^[19][31][32] In 2018 she received a CEW Achiever Award.^[33]

Reid has a son.^[34]

• WAH Nails London