Shopify Masters Stop Competing on Features: Reimagine Your Entire Product Category Instead
Jan 6, 2026
Dr. Julie Chung, an ophthalmologist-turned-entrepreneur and co-founder of T3, shares her journey of transforming hair tools into luxury beauty products. She discusses tackling personal frustrations to innovate in design and packaging. Julie highlights the importance of placing these products in beauty sections rather than home appliance aisles, leveraging user feedback for validation. She reveals how strategic beauty PR caught Sephora's attention while emphasizing her choice to remain independent from VC funding to maintain brand integrity.
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Reposition Tools As Beauty Products
- Julie Chung and Kent reimagined hair tools as beauty products by improving design, ergonomics, and packaging.
- They also shifted placement from appliance aisles into beauty floors to change category perception.
12-Minute Prototype Sparked The Business
- Kent built a prototype that dried Julie's hair in 12 minutes and eliminated frizz, which convinced them to start the company.
- They launched with one SKU based on solving Julie's personal styling pain point.
Let Product Performance Drive Distribution
- Start selling through salon channels and distributors to get product into hands and trigger word-of-mouth.
- Let strong product performance drive orders from salons and distributors.