734 Van Hong: Co-Founder of Mint Tools

0:00Kara Goldin:I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Golden Show.

0:44Kara Goldin:Super, super excited to have our next guest here, a co-founder of an incredible company called Mint Tools. And you may not know the company. Maybe if you're in Canada, you may know about Mint Tools, but it's taking the U.S. by storm at this moment. And your hairdresser might also be very interested in hearing all about it. But Van is not only a creator or co-creator of Mint Tools and the products, but also well-known stylist. And he decided to partner with an incredible partner who has more of an engineering background to create a group of products that he'll get into. But wow, so, so amazing and really, really happy that he's here with us today to talk a lot more about it.

1:44Kara Goldin:But bringing over 40 years in the beauty industry to us through these products, definitely an incredible, incredible company that he's built. The design, the high performance, the ergonomic salon tools, all of those catchy points that everybody is looking for in products, they've achieved that. I, for one, love the Kay's brush that is part of Mint's innovative curling and styling tools, but there's also the longer curling iron that they have for anyone with longer hair. It's such an amazing, amazing invention. So I cannot wait to talk about what it's been like for him to not only start this company, but go from being in a service business to actually creating the tools that obviously he saw that he needed and felt that other people would need as well.

2:48Kara Goldin:So very excited you're here, Van. Thanks for coming. Thank you so much, Kara. I'm very honored to be on your show. Yeah, first of all, my name is Van Hong. I'm co-founder of Mint Tools. When people ask me what I do, I'm a hairdresser, first of all. So a bit of a background story. I started hairdressing when I was 19 years old. As you can see from Asian descent, it wasn't really a career 30 years ago that the parents wanted their kids to get into. Most of my parents' kids were going to university for becoming a lawyer, a doctor, etc. But my mother was a hairdresser. She's very influential in my life.

3:27So at the age of 19, I wanted to take a year off university to buy a car. And she said to me, Van, why don't you go to hairdressing? And it's something I never thought about before because I was an athlete. I took taekwondo, boxing, wrestling. So arts wasn't a hobby of mine at all. And she says, you know, it's actually a good career that it's something you can fall back onto in case university doesn't work out. You can put yourself through school while being a hairdresser. And I said, okay, why not? I always have an open mind. I said, just give it a shot, give it a try. And so I enrolled in hairdressing school.

4:04I was the only guy in class, probably the youngest male too. And I remember my first day, the instructors gave us a task to do, doing French braids. And being a guy who never played with dolls before, this was so difficult. and everybody else was done in literally like 10 minutes. And for me, it took me about six hours, no kidding. And the instructor had to say, man, take a break, leave it, come back to it afterwards. And it was something that I honestly wasn't natural at. I wasn't good at, but it was something about hairdressing that challenged me enough that I wanted to pursue it. I love it.

4:46Yeah, I finished hairdressing school and worked in the salon for a year and went back to college as well. And finally said to my mom, I want to become a professional hairdresser. My mom says, great for you. I'm glad you found what you like to do. And my father says, look what you did to my son. He didn't want me to become a hairdresser because he was concerned about what his friends would say and what his friends would think, right? Because like I said, back then, hairdressing wasn't popular like it is now. it's elevated to a level where hairdressing is respected now but back then it wasn't right I didn't care I want to do what I wanted to do and so I want to take my hairdressing career to next level I went to London England to take the Vidal Sassoon's program came back found a small 386 square foot salon and worked there three years I had two employees I worked 60 hours a week and I loved it.

5:47I was a workaholic, but I loved it. And, you know, it was something that I would wake up and I'd want to do. It was my passion.

5:57Kara Goldin:I'm going to back up and I want to come back to this because I think there's a lot to fill in, but I want to get it out there about Mint Tools before we even jump back to the background. But for someone who is not familiar with Mint Tools but decides after hearing this podcast that they're going to go and order these, what should they expect out of them? What is your promise, I guess, to consumers how it's different, I guess, than other things that are out there? Well, selfishly, I designed the tools for myself. So it's something that I have to love for myself and it has to be a tool that I'm proud of.

6:40So when, you know, before a tool is brought to market, it's tested in a salon for a year before we actually sell it. We want to make sure that the quality is there, the durability is there, and how it feels and functions feels amazing. So I thought about sort of having a tool that gets you that final look, but it's a tool that you want to pick up and enjoy using while you're getting that final look. So we want to ensure that when someone buys one of our tools, I know how hard it is when I work for my money. I want to make sure that when they buy a tool, they feel the same. They feel like they're getting what they pay for and what they expect from a tool company.

7:20Because we're basically a professional brand that's sort of geared towards hair salons, but it's more for a consumer as well.

7:29Kara Goldin:so your co-founder um how did you come together with your co-founder to actually create mint tools well over years in the hairdressing industry um i got hired to be a stage artist as well so doing hair shows uh doing education in salons and kelly as well he he was in the hair industry he was more known as a manufacturer he was a tool guy um like i said before he's an engineer We became close friends, just being in the industry. And then it came to a point where I was having manufacturers send me tools at the salon to test. I would give them feedback. Yes, no, I'd improve this and that. And we sat together and said, you know, we'd make a really good team.

8:13Me as a hairdresser who's very particular with what he likes and what he doesn't like. And Kelly, who has this wealth of knowledge of the engineering background, And he does all the logistics, he visits all the factories and makes sure the quality control is there. So as a team, we work really well together. Plus, we're very good friends. We're best friends. We play golf and hang out while we're not working. I love it.

8:38Kara Goldin:So when over the years, as you've been perfecting your profession, you're, you know, obviously a well-known stylist. You've tested so many tools. I love the I never really thought about the ergonomic side of things. Right. That, you know, it's it really it's important. Right. And it's obviously something that people who are in the industry, who are serving consumers, if they're not comfortable or if they get a cramp from using a certain tool or whatever it is, then they're not going to use it. Right. They're going to find something else. They may not tell you that this is garbage or whatever, but why do you think that more tools haven't focused on this sooner?

9:29Kara Goldin:right that that the ergonomic side of this is is so key to to your products as well i think a lot of brands they're not owned by hairdressers you know um so the decisions that they're making is not based on someone who's actually working behind the chair uh for myself i i still work behind the chair um and i'm able to sort of give that feedback i have a lot of friends in the industry too. And, you know, ergonomics is really important. As you know, in the industry, there's a lot of, the older we get, the more aches and pains we get. And especially with the shoulders and the hands and the wrists, carpal tunnel syndrome.

10:12So it's really important to me that when I design something that it has to feel comfortable, not only for my hands, but I take into consideration, for example, my wife, you know, she may have smaller hands than me, you know you know so the handle has to be slightly different it can't just be from a particular male's perspective it has to be for the industry as well for everybody so that when they use it you know it could be for eight to ten hours a day i'm not looking to make a tool that would be a one-time use kind of situation it has to be something for long hours and be comfortable

10:48Kara Goldin:So the Kays brush, I mentioned this in the intro, what is it that makes it so effective? Oh, that's a big secret, actually. That's incredible. This is actually a pretty funny story because it has all to do with the bristles are really important, right? So the right density of the nylon bristles has to have the correct flex. So that has to do with the thickness of the bristles, the type of bristles, and the amount of flex that it gives. So it has a ball tip as well so that gently massages the scalp as opposed to scratches it. And it also has the, I don't know if you can see though, it has the natural bore bristle down the bottom.

11:33So it does two things. The nylon bristles here will detangle the hair, massage the scalp. and the natural boar bristle will smooth out any frizz or fly away and bring the natural oils from the scalp to the ends of the hair. So when we first started selling this, one of the distributors didn't want to put this on the shelf because she thought the bristles looked too long. And she thought that was a manufacturing error. And I had to say to her, you know, take it out, try it. And then she understood that sometimes things may look different, but is actually an improvement on what's been around in the market for a long time.

12:12And also what's important for this brush or what's unique to this brush is that it has a removable pad. So you push down on it and you can take that out, throw this in the sink and wash it with soap and water. This is a wooden brush, so you wouldn't want to soak this in water because it may crack over time. But it's natural ash wood, so it's very sustainable as well. I love it. What makes people love it, it's the way it tangles in the hair. And when hairdressers use this brush, they often call it the balayage brush. So balayage is when they bleach out the hair and it's all matted in the sink and you have to brush it out, put the toner on.

12:49So this is a favorite brush for them to sort of detangle the hair before applying the toner.

12:55Kara Goldin:So from the moment that you decided, I'm going to go and launch product and actually having a product that you could sell, how long did that take? I know it often takes a lot longer to develop products because you want to develop something. Your name is around this too, right? And you've got to use it yourself. If you're not going to use it, I mean, why sell it, right? And I think it's going to create more harm than good. So how long did that take to actually get a product that Van was like, okay, we're ready? Good question. It takes about a year and a half, actually. And it depends on what it entails.

13:41All of our tools now are exclusive to us. We design what we call the molds. So the molds are the shape, the casting of it. and we were the only ones that have the design because basically I would take a piece of paper, I would draw it out and I would send it to the engineers to say, okay, or designers, could you make this better? Because I'm not an artist, right? So within six months of design period and then it would take a year in the salon for testing, for testing the prototypes and within that year we make adjustments to make sure that it's ready. And within three months we can get that to market.

14:21So it's actually almost a year and nine months. But all of our tools, we pride ourselves to having classics. So it's okay that it takes a longer time to perfect because we're not falling on the fads. We're falling on what's necessary for styles to use in the salon on a daily basis. So it's okay for us to take the time to perfect our tool. It's not going to be like a trend tool that goes away in six months. It's sort of something that's been long lasting for us.

14:52Kara Goldin:How do you balance designing for professional stylists with making tools that also work well for not only work well for consumers, but are also something that consumers know that they need, right? It's sort of a two part answer, probably, because I don't know, it might have to do with durability and price and things like that but it's also you know how do you do both well you know first of all the um durability is a very important um performance and um the quality overall quality because you don't have those stylists are the most particular people when it comes to their tools they want to make sure that you know when they buy something they're going to be able to use it on their styles and not have it break down.

15:42They need something very, very reliable. Once we win the hearts of hairdressers, they will talk with their clients as they're using it. Clients will say, you know, what is that brush, Kaze brush you're using? What is that long barrel curling iron using? And it goes from there. It's primarily word of mouth. So, stylists loves it. They talk to their clients. Their clients will search for us, whether it's on, you know, Amazon or website, or they can purchase it through their stylists as well. And very important point you mentioned was price point. You know, of course, we're a business. We have to make our margins, but we want to make sure that our margins are very fair, that the quality that we bring out and what we charge is very fair.

16:28So we're not one of these companies that will give you sort of a low quality product and because of our brand charging excessive price. No, we don't do that. We want to give people very, you know, value for further product. And so we make sure that in that case, you know, consumers can afford it and stylists can basically afford to use it and sell it to their clients as well.

16:52Kara Goldin:How many SKUs did you launch with when you first were getting Mint tools out there? Three SKUs. We're very, you know, we started from scratch. Shoestring budget. And we do, it's got to work. But we didn't have the funds to go in and create a whole line. So we start with the basics. You know, it was a blow dryer, a straining iron, and a curling iron. And those were the three sort of components that we thought styles would need. And how has that changed today? Like how many SKUs do you have overall? We have 15 SKUs right now. Within the 15 SKUs, we have different sizes. For example, the curling iron, that's one SKU.

17:35We have three different sizes. We have the hair one, that's one SKU. We have five different sizes. We have hairbrush, which is three round brushes and one Kaze paddle brush and a smaller waterproof Mizo brush. So within 15 SKU, there's many different sizes as well.

17:53Kara Goldin:What trends in technology have you been most excited about? Maybe it's in one of your products that you've created or maybe you're working on something that would be using this type of technology. Well, the biggest innovation, probably the blow dryer motors. So before it used to be ACDC and motors, and they're quite large. Now the motors are really small. They're called BLDC dryer motors, and they spin faster, they're more efficient, they blow more air. and what's great for for us and you know we talked ergonomics earlier it's very light and small and powerful so uh as we were working all day it's not we don't feel the pain on our shoulders and arms and it's great for consumers too because you know it's not going to take up a lot of space in their washroom they could take it traveling it's small and compact and they're actually very very futuristic looking now, the hair dryers.

18:53And within our tool company, we're always advancing our technology as technology changes. For example, our curling irons, we currently have two heaters in it. We're launching a brand new curling iron, top secret, next year. And it has four heaters in it. So we're consistently upping our game as technology changes. And we can do that because I make the decisions and Kelly makes it happen. So we don't have to go through these hierarchy of steps.

19:28Kara Goldin:What's a piece of feedback maybe you got from a stylist or a consumer that really stuck with you and kind of shaped the way that you either improved one of your tools or decided we've got to go and launch something that is really going to solve this problem? ah you know what they're i can't think of one but feedback is really important to us uh when we first started it was really important for us to hear uh from styles and um what they liked and what they thought we could improve within our tool because we're um we're relatively young company and uh it's you know sometimes as as business owners it's hard to hear negative of feedback within your baby, especially.

20:22And for us, Kelly and I, we really thought it was important to take that negative feedback and make it work for us. How can we take that feedback as constructive as opposed to them trying to sort of put us down, right? So I would say there's not one that I can think of at the moment, but we appreciate feedback and that's how we've built our business from feedback.

20:48Kara Goldin:Looking back on any business, I guess it's to the exact point that you talked about. It's not just about receiving the hard feedback, but it's also looking back on maybe the challenges that you had and maybe the mistakes you made. I made a ton of them in creating the company that I developed. I did most things right, but there were a lot of things that maybe I shouldn't have done. Do you have any things that you think about if you were starting Mint tools from scratch that you do differently? I'll share one just so you have an idea on this that I remember people told me, oh, you have to hire people in the industry, that they're going to just fast track this for you.

21:34But the problem is, is that they don't know how to think differently.

21:39Kara Goldin:They don't know how to think about it from maybe the consumer who's going to, just because they are in the beverage industry didn't mean that they were going to be able to sort of solve my problem. So I gave a lot of permission to those people, spent some money, my own money, initially on hoping that they'd wave their magic wand and everything would be terrific. But I think there's no shortcuts. And that's what I learned along the way. But I'm curious what you would say to that. No, I think it's totally true. There's no shortcuts, right? There's no one person that has all the right answers. I think in my career, it's sort of trusting in yourself and trying not to listen to other people who you see as being in the business role, telling you how to run your business.

22:47because a lot of times as a hairdresser, I can see myself a hairdresser. I don't see myself as a business person. You have people giving you advice on things to do, how to spend your money, how to spend money advertising, for example. And a lot of that goes to waste. And if it's your company, you have to understand that you have to run it your way. what's best for where you're at. And if you're, I'm the hairdresser, I should trust what I feel the direction the company should go rather than taking advice from people that are in a general business environment, not necessarily your industry.

23:35Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. So looking ahead, when you think about the bets that you're making, you talked a bit about, you know, you've been growing it in Canada, the country that you're from, but now you've come into the U.S. What is the most challenging problem that you've got right now and kind of doing that? I mean, it's much bigger. We've had a lot of people talk about tariffs or, you know, lots of different aspects of growing the business. I guess branding, too, getting the word out about Mint Tools. Maybe more people are familiar with who you are in Canada than in the U.S., although you are known in the U.S.

24:22Kara Goldin:too. But I'm curious, like, what is the biggest challenge for you right now? Right now, we're quite popular on Instagram. We have a lot of support from styles all over the U.S. as well as Canada. And the problem is that when we're trying to get into distribution, The people that own these distributors or manage them, they're not on social media. They're not on the front lines. They're not speaking to stylists, asking what they use, what they don't like. So for us, we're getting known in the hairdressing industry, but it's hard getting the business people to sort of see us and to hear about us.

25:06And that's the hard part. So because once we, you know, it's sort of they're the buyers or the purchasers, but they've never heard of us. But the salons are using our tools. So we have to sort of bridge that connection somehow.

25:22Kara Goldin:Yeah, so, so interesting. So really, really. Yeah, it is. It's a challenging aspect that, you know, how do you get people more and more of these people to know about it? And I think you're doing it right, though. You just have to just keep going brick by brick and getting lots of PR and getting on podcasts and really sharing your story. But I think at the end of the day, your tools are getting talked about because they work and the results are really there. But I think it's what you're doing, too, and just getting the word out there, not only into salons, but also into consumers' hands. is it's hard, but you're definitely doing it.