Nailbot
A serious gender imbalance exists with girls not continuing STEM education in the same percentages as their male counterparts. As the MIT challenge page notes "despite comparable levels of achievement in science and mathematics in K-12 education, by middle school, boys are already twice as likely to show interest in a science or engineering-related job; by college they are five times more likely to choose a STEM career path." Girls are also less likely to see engineering and other STEM fields as creative and allow for expressive thinking.
To reinforce this statistic, surveys performed by Microsoft contended "that young girls become interested in STEM subjects around the age of 11 and then quickly lose interest when they're 15.....This means that governments, teachers and parents only have four or five years to nurture girls' passion before they turn their backs on these areas, potentially for good."
We believe that each individual has an innate need for creative expression. Young women have been the targets of arts & crafts, fashion and makeup product campaigns that push analog and static solutions. Meanwhile young men are pushed next generation computers, digital experiences, interactive games and consoles and other building robots at higher price points.
Over 40% of young people have experimented with creative expression in the form body and nail art. Nail art is among the five most shared categories on social media. Gen Z & Gen A love instant gratification, changeable art and using digital tools to express themselves. Yet the solutions they have been offered have been analog and one-dimensional.
Preemadonna powers smart beauty and builds “connected creativity” products & platforms. Our flagship connected creativity product, the Nailbot, prints creative art and photos on nails in five seconds. Along with the printer comes an art platform and a community of makers - particularly Gen Z & Gen A young women. Future products and platforms make nail polish and print body art & makeup.
Nailbot Printer Product & Platform
Nailbot is an at-home nail studio using proprietary smart creative nail machines, easy to use software and fast drying consumables. Nailbot is “Cricut for Nails.”
Step 1: Prep your nails with a light-colored base coat or press on for a clean canvas, and then prime.
Step 2: Using the mobile app, select the art you want to print - you can create art, choose from thousands of preloaded images (nail art in the cloud) or choose any picture
Step 3: Tap Print on the app and in 5 seconds, the art will appear on your nail. Seal if you like the print!
Build A Bot / Nailbot STEM KITS
These Kits lets you build and assemble your own at home nail printing robot that executes the same printing steps/behavior as the fully assembled beauty SKU.
You will learn how:
- How a printing system works
- How gears work to create movement
- How to assemble a complex system
Additional Levels teach users 3D printing and design, digital design, materials science & computer science. For example, users will learn:
- How to send commands to Nailbot from a remote device
- How bluetooth transmissions work
- Process of 3D Model -> Made part
- How to design a 3D model
Market Size / Segmentation / Response
Key segments within the Connected Creativity Market total a $135B+ market: Nail ($15B),Tattoo ($50B), Crafts ($44B), and Wearables ($30.5B). Within our first $15B nail segment, nail trends are popularized by the 21M pre-teen and teen girls in the USA. 92% decorate their nails regularly. 14% decorate at least once a day (2.1M girls). Nailbot’s most engaged evangelist and printer is a young woman aged 8-18.
We have already completed revenue generating Nailbot experiences with our core engaged demographic of young women aged 8-18 through crowdfunding, activations at maker faires and girl scout events, tech camp presentations and an ambassador program.
We have also deployed a number of Nailbot STEM Kits (Level 1 - Build your own Bot) to girls aged 10-15 and have recorded them building the kits an incorporated their feedback for product improvement. Here are some of their reactions:
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REVIEW FROM A 12 YEAR OLD USER, KAYLIE
12 YEAR OLD USER RATING: 10/10
“I think it’s fun to build the Nailbot STEM kit yourself because you learn a bit more! Plus it’s fun to see what parts are used and how they work! I would definitely buy it! It’s a very good learning experience!”
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REVIEW FROM A 14 YEAR OLD USER, ROSIE
14 YEAR OLD USER RATING: 9/10
“I like the idea of building the Nailbot myself & I would TOTALLY buy it!”
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REVIEW FROM A STEM INSTRUCTOR, STEPHANIE
EDUCATOR RATING: 9/10
I supervised a 12 year old and 14 year old who built the Nailbot STEM Kit over a two hour period. They spent the first hour building the kit and the second hour testing and using the Nailbot. They had a great time building the kit! One of their favorite things about the kit was being able to see the different parts that make up the Nailbot machine. It was fun to watch them problem solve and collaborate together, and they were ultimately successful in assembling the kit! They loved using the Nailbot after building it and could have spent hours browsing and printing the nail designs. The Nailbot STEM Kit is an exciting product because I don’t know of many STEM kits that you can build and then use for a specific purpose afterwards. I’m looking forward to testing the Level 2 & 3 kits!
IDEAL AGE RANGE OF LEVEL 1 STEM NAILBOT KIT:
12+ with adult supervision recommended
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE LIKE IT?
The closest kits I’ve seen on the market are “build-your-own” computer kits like Piper and Kano, or various robotics & electronics kits that kids assemble then use. I haven’t seen anything like Nailbot that is specifically marketed towards girls!
PATH TO A RATING OF 10/10:
Shorter length, simpler part names, information on the function of each part & multiple video angles for assembly guidance
We have 3 Full Time Employees, 3 Part Time Team Members and appropriate Third Party Contractors. Most importantly, we have both a USA and Asia hardware contract manufacturer that is ready to scale and that already built our pilot production builds. We also have a local 3PL (Third Party Logistics Provider) that fulfills our orders and products for scalability.
Key Members
Pree Walia, CEO (FT). Hardware operator at connected device and building automation startups, former community organizer and champion of Gen Z girls. MBA from the University of Chicago
Marcy Alstott, Operations (Contract). Leads hardware manufacturing execution. Former VP of Operations at Sun, Operations team at Adept Technology, and led HP Operations & Manufacturing
Marie Millan, Lead Project Manager & Mechanical Engineer.
As we developed and prototyped Nailbot and other inventions since 2014, we has shared our product development process and mentored other young creators across STEM and STEAM focused schools, tech camps, troops and conventions. We've also used this opportunity to incorporate feedback from users and parents into the product development process.
Here's a short list of organizations we've been proud to support through our founder "prototype to product" presentations, mentorship, financial sponsorship or maker kits.
Women in Toy, Entertainment & Licensing
MakerGirl
Salvation Army (San Diego) Brave Event
Kode with Klossy
Girl Scouts San Diego
Del Norte High School | San Diego, CA
Alexa Cafe by IDtech
Made by Girls by Digital Media Academy
Project Scientist
Marlborough High School | Los Angeles, CA
Francis Parker School | Chicago, IL
Girl Scouts New Mexico Trails
G.I.R.L. 2017 | Girl Scouts Convention
FlatIron School
- Ensure continuity across STEM education in order to decrease successive drop-off in completion rates from K-12 through undergraduate years.
- Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model that is rolled out in one or more communities
Milestones Achieved
Product & Platform
Finished R&D and manufactured 900 Nailbot 1.0 Printers in early production runs.
Released iOS & Android Apps & created over 500+ unique designs ("nail art in the cloud")
20% spend 20+ minutes in app | 50% spend 2+ minutes in app | 56% print their own content
Created STEM curriculum for Build a Bot Printer Series. Shipped Level 1 Build a Bot Kits to pilot users and educators.
Community
Shipped early drops to our crowdfunding backers and organic brand ambassadors. $122K in Nailbot 1.0 Shipped Revenue: Across Hardware, Consumables, & Crowdfunding Backers (We had a successful Kickstarter, Republic and Indiegogo Campaign along with a Waitlist on our own D2C website.)
Soft launched D2C website supporting early customers and waitlist pre-orders
Built community through crowdfunding, pilot activations, social media, & STEM partnerships
We are looking to access a network of resource partners to most effectively distribute our Nailbot STEM Kits and curriculum for maximum impact and adoption. We need the quick iterative feedback from educators, parents, school decision makers and students to bring these STEM Kits to girls across the country. While we have piloted efforts across local schools, troops, tech camps, deploying on a growth scale is the next step.
We'd like a hands on curriculum advisor in the industry to access our modules, video support and componentry. More specifically, we have Level 2 and Level 3 Build a Bot STEM kits in addition to virtual manicure coding curriculum and a robust digital design program that need review.
We'd like to use the financial grant (ideally $250,000+) from this Gender Equity Challenge to make, ship and support 500 Nailbot STEM Kits across Level 1 and Level 2 curriculum to tech camps, schools, libraries, makerspaces, coding and making clubs and for underprivileged girls and groups to apply for a free kit.
In return, we can share our experiences raising pre-seed, seed capital for a hardware based business, going through various accelerators and bringing a product to life! We are champions of learning and sharing resources with our greater community and it would be a privilege to do so.
Pree Walia is the founder and CEO of Preemadonna. She is the lead inventor of Preemadonna's creative devices including Nailbot and holds over 8 utility patents.
Pree previously worked at high growth venture backed start-ups focused on connected devices and building automation services. Pree started her professional career working on progressive political campaigns as a political fundraiser and community organizer. She holds a MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from Northwestern University. Pree is a native of Louisiana and Mississippi and is a Girl Scout Alumni.
She is passionate about causes that impact women and girls and consistently gives back to the communities that built her. Pree served on the Board of Directors for MakerGirl, a nonprofit that inspires girls to pursue STEM fields. Pree was named one of the top 25 Women in Robotics to know by Robohub. She is a recent EIR at Startup San Diego.
