How Fur’s Founders Pioneered a New Beauty Category Through Trust and Persistence
Childhood friends Laura Schubert and Lillian Tung launched their New York–based brand, Fur, in 2015. It’s a beauty brand that transformed an overlooked personal care category into a multimillion-dollar business. Starting with a $10,000 investment, Laura and Lillian built a company focused on the care of pubic hair and skin. The attention to grooming and natural ingredients elevated Fur, and it now sits on the shelves of major retailers like Ulta Beauty—all while remaining self-funded.
Their journey offers valuable lessons for entrepreneurs looking to launch products in stigmatized categories. Discover how they powered through the taboo of pubic hair grooming and found success.
Build trust through quality and expertise
When entering an entirely new product category, establishing trust is paramount. For Fur’s founders, this meant investing heavily in product development and testing before launch, even with limited initial capital.
“When we created this company, we were like, If we are going to tackle the stigma around pubic hair care and create this category, we have to do it in a way that is really quality, really legitimate and done with excellence,” Lillian says.
Rather than experimenting at home, Laura called 50 cosmetic chemists to find the right development partner. Most hung up, thinking it was a prank call. But through persistence, she found a chemist who recognized the opportunity and still works with the company today.
The founders invested in European-standard ingredients, dermatological testing, and gynecological testing—choices that built credibility with both consumers and retailers. For entrepreneurs in any new category, this level of diligence in product development can help overcome initial skepticism.
Create an elevated brand experience
While many startups rush to market with minimal viable products, Laura and Lillian spent nearly a year perfecting their packaging and brand identity. This patience paid off. Establishing a strong brand image has meant their original packaging designs have remained largely unchanged for almost a decade.
Early on, the founders faced pressure to make their packaging more conventional, including suggestions to use taller bottles that would appear to contain more product. They also received requests from major retailers to remove the word “pubic” from their packaging in exchange for shelf space. Laura and Lillian refused both compromises, staying true to their mission of destigmatization.
“You really do have to create the positioning and the world that your product will sit in, or it’s not giving it a fair shake,” Laura says.
Invest strategically in early marketing
With their initial $10,000 investment, Fur’s founders focused on product development, testing, and public relations. They recognized PR would be crucial for legitimizing their category.
“PR was a great investment for us at the start because we didn’t want to be a joke,” explains Laura. “We were introducing products and creating a taboo category, and we knew we had one chance to get it right.”
Fur’s publicity strategy targeted beauty editors specifically, rather than spreading resources across business press or influencer marketing. Using this focused approach, the brand established credibility in the beauty industry at launch.
Find your true brand advocates
When venturing into a possibly taboo category, your biggest support may come from somewhere unexpected. While Fur launched as a direct-to-consumer brand, the founders discovered their biggest advocates were professional estheticians who understood the importance of their products.
“Your biggest brand advocates may not be who you think they’re going to be,” says Lillian. These estheticians became powerful allies, recommending Fur products to their clients and amplifying the brand’s message. As an entrepreneur, you should lean into your early adopters, don’t get caught up in who you think your customers should be, and support the audience and community that shows up for you.
Stay polite and persistent
Perhaps the most important lesson from Fur’s success is what Laura calls “polite persistence.” The founders were often laughed at and even kicked out of stores in their early days. But the duo balanced persistence with strategic thinking, setting clear metrics to evaluate their progress.
“You have to feel really passionate about it because there is going to be many days where people are going to tell you this is a terrible idea,” Lillian says. “But not blind persistence where if there is no traction, then you have to pivot.”
It’s this combination of conviction and flexibility that continues to grow Fur from a taboo concept to a respected beauty brand. Fur proves that, with the right approach, entrepreneurs can successfully pioneer entirely new product categories.
“Our business is really about destigmatizing pubic hair and body hair and getting our message out there,” Laura says. This focus on core mission has helped the duo maintain efficiency while scaling. Listen to the full Shopify Masters interview and hear how the founders are leveling Fur up in this next stage of growth.