Tress

Hairstyle inspiration

🇬🇭 Ghana Communication & SocialShut down

Epitaph

“Here lies Tress. It helped Black women find hairstyles, stylists and products, and grew a warm community across Ghana and beyond. Press and a brand partnership arrived, but funding and fit did not follow. In May 2018 the app went offline and its founders quietly moved on.”

Overview

Born: 2014 (Year)
Died: September 2019 (Month)
Lifespan: 6 years
Fate: Shut down
Headquarters: 🇬🇭 Ghana
Category: Communication & Social, E-commerce & Retail
Stage at death: Seed
Primary cause: Funding or runway
Contributing causes: No product-market fit

Death certificate

Timeline

2014Founding
Priscilla Hazel, Esther Olatunde and Cassandra Sarfo found Tress, a hairstyle-discovery app for Black women
2017Y Combinator
Tress goes through YC's Winter 2017 batch, adding to earlier MEST backing (total raised $120K+)
January 2018Partnership
Tress partners with True Moringa to drive user engagement
April 2018Founder moves
Co-founder Cassandra Sarfo joins getINNOtized as a software developer
May 2018Goes dark
Website and app activity stop, with no public shutdown announcement

Autopsy report

Why did Tress shut down?

Tress, a mobile app helping Black women discover hairstyles and connect with stylists, was founded in 2014 by Priscilla Hazel, Esther Olatunde and Cassandra Sarfo and backed by MEST and Y Combinator with $120K+ raised. Despite early buzz and a 2018 partnership with True Moringa, the app and website went dark around May 2018, with co-founders moving on to unrelated jobs and no public explanation ever given.

What Tress attempted

Tress built a mobile social-community app for Black women to discover hairstyle inspiration, find stylists, buy hair products and discuss hair-care needs, with a crowdsourced database of styles and product recommendations.

What worked

Raised over $120,000 across two seed rounds (2014-2017) via MEST and Y Combinator (Winter 2017 batch); built a social following (~4,000 Facebook, ~6,000 Instagram followers); struck an early-2018 partnership with Ghanaian natural-oil brand True Moringa; received positive press from Newsweek, Refinery29 and OkayAfrica.

Early warning signs

By the time Techpoint Africa investigated, the founders had quietly moved to other jobs (one co-founder joined getINNOtized as a software developer, another joined European legaltech firm Lexoo) with no public wind-down statement — a pattern the article says accompanies "ailing startups" that "shy away from letting the public in on their shortcomings."

What happened

After building an engaged online community and completing its True Moringa partnership in early 2018, Tress's public activity stopped in May 2018 — the website and app went offline, and founders were found to have moved to unrelated roles at other companies. No shutdown was ever formally announced, and journalists' attempts to reach the founders for comment were unsuccessful.

Lessons for future builders

A loyal community and good press are not the same as a business people pay for. Find the revenue model and prove customers will pay early, rather than trusting that engagement will convert once you scale.