Prose CMO Megan Streeter: AI is at the core of who we are

May 2023 also marked a significant milestone for Prose: It reached profitability before bringing in about $135 million in sales for the year. In 2024, co-founder and CEO Arnaud Plas estimates the brand will do about $160 million in sales. Plas credited the brand’s skin-care line as a major driving force behind its profitability. It has been reported that the category accounts for about 10% of the brand’s sales.

In its next stage of growth, Prose will use its learnings and tech innovation to expand into new categories, including textured hair care, and build upon its momentum in skin care.

Three years into leading marketing for Prose, CMO Megan Streeter joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to chat about what’s next for the brand, how it’s further revolutionizing beauty tech and how the customization market is expanding. The excerpts below have been slightly edited and condensed for clarity. 

Driving innovation in a buzzy category
“Prose is helping to drive growth and buzziness. What’s different for us is that personalization used to be a trend, but now it no longer is. It’s the future, and we’re a leader. When I think about business and I think about Prose and I think about the hair-care category, there are three things that come to mind. First and foremost, we’ve reconceptualized the idea of the one-size-fits-all approach. … We’ve been able to do so with our consultations. Now, every single product is very tailored to the needs of the consumer. The second is AI. AI is a buzzword; everyone’s using it. But AI has been at the core of who we are from the get-go. We’re proud of our proprietary AI algorithm that engines and fuels what happens behind the scenes to create that personalized product. … The third thing is sustainability. Consumers are looking at their beauty products not to only perform but also to be sustainably focused. What we’ve been able to do at Prose is marry the approach of having tech and beauty together. … [Through our technology], we’re ensuring that we’re not wasting product and we’re doing good for the environment.”

The importance of AI
“AI is becoming integral to everyday language now. You see it everywhere — it’s part of life. For us, it’s important because we are an AI-powered company. Without that proprietary algorithm, we would not be able to do what we do. It’s important to the consumer that we marry that with the human touch. That’s where our R&D team, our product development team and our marketing team put a lot of energy and emphasis on having incredible expertise. We’re able to use AI and technology [to our advantage], but then also support it with the human touch. That’s the unique proposition we also offer at Prose.”

Expanding into personalized skin care
“We are so proud of our skin-care expansion. … It was an opportunity to demonstrate the fact that we want to not only be a personalized hair-care brand but also a personalized beauty company. … Since we launched in May of 2023, we’ve had exceptional month-over-month growth. We took a very different approach to how we launched. We capitalized on our existing subscribers first. All last year was about testing and learning and optimizing. … We were able to convert more than 10% of our subscriber base who are currently hair-care customers. In terms of repeat customers, it’s been at over 80% month-over-month. We’ve gotten five-star reviews. … Our line is only three products, so it’s a small line of skin care, but we are able to deliver over 15 million possible formulations.”

Streeter’s outlook on DTC
“We’re very proud of the fact that, after six years, because last year we hit profitability, we’ve been able to maintain [being solely DTC]. It’s been a tough environment. The marketplace has changed and costs have risen, not only in terms of product costs but also advertising costs, so you have to be really smart in terms of where you’re putting your investments. There are a few things that have enabled us to do that and continue to be on the path of profitability. Our tech stack has allowed us to scale — we’ve been able to find efficiencies there. Skin care was a great driver, in terms of helping profitability, as well, and we’ve gotten smarter. Part of our culture is centered on constantly learning — we’re always testing and learning. We have found new ways to be able to look at our investments in terms of different attribution models, incrementality testing and honing into the different cohorts and making sure that we’re addressing their needs. That’s not only just from a product perspective, but also from the top of the funnel through to the whole customer journey. We’re a very data-focused company, so we do not rest on our laurels. Every day, we’re looking at the numbers and making sure we’re moving in the right direction. But we’ve helped to set up the right infrastructure to do that and have the right checks and balances to ensure we’re moving in the right direction. For other DTC companies, it’s hard. You can’t replicate what we’re doing here. It’s part of our uniqueness and what creates our defensibility. Costs will continue to rise, but it’s how you are investing [that matters]. You have to be hyper-focused and smart, in terms of your attribution, and understand where you’re getting that next incremental customer at the most efficient costs. You need to be building organically to help balance the cost of acquisition. As you look from a total company perspective, you need to be investing in the people at the right pace, as well.”