BBR7 Thought Leader Q&A: Elaine Binder, President & Co-Founder of Spongeables

Inspiration can sometime appear in the most simplest of forms.

A perfect example is the all-in-one, soap and sponge brand – Spongeables. In August 2004,  Spongeables LLC launched a new combination sponge and shower product called Spongeables. This innovative product takes the applicator sponge and gel soap of most shower gel systems and combines them with a glycerin and olive oil soap contained already in the sponge. The soap is released during showering and is claimed to last to up to 30 showers.

Beauty Biz Roundtable BBR7 attendees who were fortunate enough to sit in the roundtable discussion of Spongeables’ President and Co-Founder, Elaine Binder, eagerly listened to her presentation on  “Transforming Inspiration into SKUs.”

For those who didn’t get a chance to sit in Elaine’s thought-provoking roundtable, here’s an exclusive interview which discloses the inspiration behind Spongeables!

1. Please tell us about your career path/progression. The road to… where you are now? How did you get started? I started almost 10 years ago, when my 5-year old son used up my bottle of shower gel in less than a week. At that point, my husband and I decided to look into a product that clearly performed on a per shower basis without waste, and fit everyone’s budget.

2. Why did you choose this career? Why the beauty industry? Being an entrepreneur from a very early age, I was inspired by anything that is outside the box, anything that did not exist but certainly in demand. Every day ideas which eventually led me to the Spongeables concept.

3. Who/what are your biggest career influences? It may sound strange but I am influenced not by business people but by creative people – people who have creative ideas. I also like  people who are not afraid to work hard to make their dreams come true.

4. Who is today’s beauty consumer? How are they changing? I feel that the multi-usage and multi-functionality aspects of the Spongeables brand is the future of beauty. Less bottles, more space in the shower, best ingredients choices, affordable prices and customer care are the key to any company’s success story.

5. What do beauty professionals need to do to continue to connect/attract with today’s beauty consumer? More Roundtable conferences like BBR, variety of topics, more open table discussions on challenges and how to overcome and assist with such issues by sharing the know-how which hopefully benefits everyone.

6. What do you see as the latest trends in your industry? Multi-use and multi-functional products that are affordable with excellent quality offered to our consumers.

7. What attributes make a great leader? Tell us about your leadership style.Work with your team, conduct daily briefings, stay in tune with the latest in the industry, be proactive and more importantly, be open to new ideas. My philosophy is: “No one in my company works for me, everyone works with me”  which is the only way we can continue to be successful. 

8. What kinds of qualities do you look for in an employee/when hiring a candidate/someone to join your team? Professionalism, loyalty, consistency in performance and having an open mind to any and all ideas, concepts and dreams that could benefit the company.

9. What is the best way/strategy for someone interested in your company to employ to get a foot in the door? What makes a candidate stand out? Hard working individual who are enthusiastic about our patented technology with ideas on how to make the company stronger by implementing their experience into the existing infrastructure.

10. Any other advice/words of wisdom? Believe in yourself, follow your heart, trust your instincts, be your own boss!

11. How would you explain your BBR7 experience? Friendly, open discussion, perfect mix of participating companies/members.

For more details on Elaine and Spongeables, visit: http://www.spongeables.com

Click here to view photos of Elaine and other Thought Leaders from BBR7

Hosted by Mazur Group, the Beauty Biz Roundtable (BBR) series brings together 100 Mid to Senior Level Beauty Executives in a roundtable format that fosters networking and idea sharing. This is NOT a lecture or panel discussion. BBR attendees have the opportunity to sit down in small group settings with industry peers. Past BBR attendees and Thought Leaders have come from every major beauty company here in the West including Stila, Dermalogica, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Neutrogena, Urban Decay, CND,  P&G, Josie Maran, Intelligent Beauty, Sexy Hair Concepts, boscia, OPI, Smashbox, beautylish.com, and more!

Stay tuned for BBR8 scheduled for Fall 2012!