In her debut book, New Methods for Women, Sharmadean Reid, the founder of WAH Nails, Beautystack, and The Stack World, presents an alternative approach to leadership. Initially approached by Penguin Life to write a straightforward business guide, Reid instead crafted a manifesto for women. The book covers a broad range of topics, from healing trauma and managing media consumption to negotiating and making others feel heard.
New Methods for Women, launching today, integrates business advice with the personal and inner work necessary for outer success. It draws on Reid’s 20-year career, which includes beauty and media startups, fundraising, and earning an MBE.
Reid’s journey began in 2005 when she founded the fanzine WAH after graduating from Central Saint Martins. The fanzine, positioned at the intersection of music, fashion, and feminism, evolved into WAH Nails, a cult beauty salon she opened in 2009. Her foresight into the nail art trend turned the WAH community into a customer base for WAH Nails.
WAH Nails quickly gained traction. Within two months of opening, it was invited to hold a pop-up in Selfridges. The brand hosted events for Nike, Marc Jacobs, and Diesel, held jumble sales, and participated in London Fashion Week. It also secured a prime spot in Topshop’s flagship store on Oxford Street and launched an at-home nail care line. Despite her early success, Reid began experiencing severe panic attacks and chronic stress, prompting her to move back to her hometown of Wolverhampton.
In 2017, Reid co-founded Beautystack with Dan Woodbury and Ken Lalobo. Beautystack, a booking app for independent beauty professionals with a social interface similar to Instagram, quickly gained attention. The “see it, like it, book it” app made Reid the first Black woman in the UK to raise £1 million in venture capital funding. According to Extend Ventures, Black women in the UK received just 0.02 percent of VC funding between 2009 and 2019. Reid went on to raise a total of £6.5 million for Beautystack between 2018 and 2022.
Read More : Clack Here
