Geisha Traditions Allow HBS Startup to Join Fastest-Growing Companies

A Harvard Business School alumna’s startup that taps into the beauty secrets employed by the modern-day Japanese geisha has made it onto this year’s Inc. 5000 – a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US.

Victoria Tsai founded TATCHA – a play on the Japanese words tatehana, meaning ‘standing flower’ and chabana, which are arrangements created for use as part of the Japanese tea ceremony – in San Francisco in 2009, three years after graduating from Harvard Business School’s MBA class of 2006. The company has now experienced a three-year growth rate of almost 11,000% to post revenue of US$12m in 2014 and place it just outside the Inc. 5000’s top 20.

Harvard Business School graduate tells of internship that wreaked havoc on her skin

The Harvard Business School (HBS) graduate told Inc. Magazine that learning about the beauty rituals of a modern-day geisha worked wonders on her own skin – something she says suffered greatly during an MBA internship that saw Tsai perform competitive benchmarking for a big-name beauty products company that culminated in acute dermatitis: “The second year of business school was not fun,” she admits. “I was interviewing everywhere looking like Quasimodo.”

After graduating from HBS, Tsai joined Starbucks to help grow the company’s presence in China. It was her frequent travels to China, with layovers in Japan, that first brought her into contact with the culture of the geisha. Over the course of repeated trips, Tsai came upon the 1813 text of Miyakofuzoku Kewaiden, or ‘Capital Beauty and Style Handbook’ and was suitably impressed by the differing approaches taken by geishas towards beauty regimens that she decided to launch TATCHA – even though it meant selling her car and engagement ring to raise the initial capital.

“The idea that I could find authenticity, simplicity and beauty in another place and bring that to life for other people is a dream come true. It never felt like that much of a risk; it was something that I had to do,” the HBS alumna told Yahoo Finance. Some of her company’s best-selling products include Rice Enzyme Powder, Dewy Skin Mist, and Camellia Cleansing Oil – all items that are said to take their cue from the geisha’s code of practice.