iBeAuthentic

What iBeAuthentic does

iBeAuthentic, LLC is a privately held digital communications company founded in 2011 in Menominee, Michigan, that builds proprietary technology and provides professional services exclusively for the professional beauty industry. Its core technology stack includes a Digital Commerce Platform with ERP integrations and territory-rights management, an Education Management System (EMS/EMS Lite), a Concierge CRM, a Salon Loyalty platform, and the Custo Cart upsell application distributed through the Shopify App Store. The company sells to two primary verticals — professional beauty brands/manufacturers and professional beauty distributors — offering its products and services on an à la carte basis, with the most successful clients contracting for multiple service lines.

The business operates on a hybrid revenue model: project-based and retainer professional services (marketing, inside sales via the iBeLink team, concierge customer support, and education coordination) layered with subscription/recurring software revenue (EMS, Salon Loyalty, Custo Cart at $49.99–$99.99/month tiers), plus retail revenue from The Style Garage storefront in Menominee. Distribution is sales-led and direct-to-enterprise, supplemented by a marketplace channel for Custo Cart. Customer count disclosed is 44 professional beauty clients across 93 active strategies, supported by a team of 51–100 employees and a leadership bench with over 102 years of combined director-level beauty industry experience.

Name

iBeAuthentic

Legal name

iBeAuthentic, LLC

Website

https://ibeauthentic.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

iBeAuthentic is a privately held digital communications company that builds proprietary software and provides marketing, inside sales, education, and loyalty services exclusively for professional beauty brands and distributors, serving 44 clients globally from Menominee, Michigan.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Menominee

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Professional Services - Marketing: Marketing services including set-up and maintenance of digital commerce websites, social media management, video production, print services, digital ads, email marketing, SMS marketing, design services, and influencer/affiliate programs.
2. Inside Sales Services: Inside sales team support branded as 'iBeLink' - cost-effective approach for brands or distributors to reach more customers and increase sales. Offers long term or short term options based on client needs.
3. Concierge Services: Concierge team services providing professional customer service representation for brands, including onboarding support, customer support, and coordination between educators, sales teams, and executives.
4. Education Services and EMS Platform: Education booking coordinators, evaluation coordinators, and expense coordinators using proprietary Education Management System. Platform manages education requests, class formats, educator matching, expense tracking, and event evaluations.
5. Salon Loyalty Program: Loyalty software for beauty businesses that handles point earning, redemption, and reward management based on company-specific guidelines.
6. Custo Cart App Subscription: SaaS application for Shopify e-commerce stores with three tiered monthly subscription plans based on order volume.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

iBeAuthentic is a digital communications company that sells a modular bundle of proprietary software platforms and professional services tailored to the professional beauty industry. Its core offering combines a beauty-specific digital commerce platform with territory rights management and ERP integration, the Education Management System (EMS/EMS Lite), a Concierge CRM, and a Salon Loyalty program, delivered alongside marketing, inside sales, concierge, and education coordination services to beauty brands and distributors.

Product overview

iBeAuthentic is a digital communications company offering a modular suite of proprietary software products and services tailored for the professional beauty industry. The core offering consists of a Digital Commerce Platform for beauty brands and distributors, complemented by specialized modules including iBeLink (inside sales), the Education Management System (EMS/EMS Lite), Concierge CRM, and Salon Loyalty. These products share a common technology foundation built specifically for beauty industry workflows and integrate with Shopify (via Custo Cart app), Order Time Inventory, and customer ERP systems. Services include Marketing, Education Coordination, and Inside Sales, all offered on an a la carte basis. The company also operates The Style Garage, a physical retail sub-brand.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Custo Cart: Easy-to-use upsell app for Shopify stores to seamlessly include items in customers' carts without compromising site speed. Offers free shipping tiers, bundled discounts, and free samples functionality.
• iBeLink
• EMS (Education Management System)

Products and services

• Digital Commerce Platform Proprietary ecommerce platform designed specifically for the professional beauty industry, featuring territory rights management, secure shopping channels for authorized professionals only, and customized integrations with customer ERP systems. Built for beauty brands and distributors needing B2B and B2C ecommerce that respects channel rules.
• iBeLink Inside Sales Service Inside sales service that operates as an extension of client teams, connecting with customers via verbal communication across field, store, or ecommerce accounts. Functions as either an independent sales force or customer service support role, available on long-term or short-term engagements based on client needs.
• Education Management System (EMS / EMS Lite) Proprietary education management platform designed specifically for professional beauty industry education needs, managing education requests, class formats, educator-to-event matching with mapping, expense tracking, event evaluations, and automated email communication. Available in full EMS and EMS Lite versions with responsive design and encrypted backups.
• Concierge CRM Platform and Concierge Service Proprietary CRM platform powering the Concierge service team, providing lead management, customer profiling, call scheduling, activity and note tracking, and reporting. Concierge team uses the platform to deliver professional customer service representation, onboarding support, and coordination between educators, sales teams, and executives on behalf of beauty brand clients.
• Salon Loyalty Program Loyalty software for beauty businesses that lets customers earn and redeem points on purchases, with rewards value and achievement levels set according to company-specific guidelines. Handles point conversion math and provides customer access to view and spend points.
• Custo Cart Upsell application for Shopify that seamlessly includes items in customer carts without compromising site speed. Supports free shipping tiers, tiered discounts, free samples, bundling, and cross-selling abilities with a customizable progress bar. Distributed through the Shopify App Store.
• Marketing Services Collaborative marketing services including digital footprint expansion, digital commerce website setup and maintenance, social media management, digital ads, email and SMS marketing, design services, and influencer and affiliate programs. Sold a la carte and commonly bundled with other iBeAuthentic services.
• Education Coordination Services Booking, evaluation, and expense coordination services for beauty industry education programs. Coordinators manage class bookings, educator matching, expense tracking, and event evaluations using EMS or client-preferred booking software on behalf of brands and distributors.
• The Style Garage

Quantifiable outcome

• 25% sales increase in first few months for new inside sales clients
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Order Time InventorycoreTechnology or IntegrationOrder Time provides cloud-based inventory control system for order management, customer management, and inventory control. iBeAuthentic partnered with Order Time to offer integrated inventory management solutions to beauty distributors and manufacturers. The partnership enables automated syncing of inventory, orders, and data across multiple sales channels, suppliers, and fulfillment locations.
• The Style GaragecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorThe Style Garage is a distributor dedicated to servicing professionals in the beauty industry, operating a modern retail store from a historical storefront in Menominee, Michigan. They put quality, non-diverted professional beauty products into the hands of stylists and salons. iBeAuthentic developed unique plans to fit each stylist's individuality using non-traditional approaches.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Vagaro: Vagaro is a vertical SaaS platform for salons, spas, and beauty professionals offering booking, payments, marketing, and ecommerce — directly overlapping with iBeAuthentic's modular salon/beauty software suite. Both companies serve the same professional beauty customer base with technology designed specifically for salon and distributor workflows.
• Boulevard: Boulevard provides salon and spa management software including booking, POS, client management, and marketing tools — a direct vertical competitor to iBeAuthentic's CRM, loyalty, and digital commerce modules for the professional beauty market.
• Fresha: Fresha operates a beauty and wellness marketplace with integrated SaaS for bookings, payments, and marketing to salons and spas. Comparable to iBeAuthentic in serving beauty professionals with a technology-forward, vertical-specific commerce and engagement stack.
• Zenoti: Zenoti is a vertical SaaS platform for salons, spas, and medspas with modules spanning online booking, CRM, marketing automation, inventory, and ecommerce — overlapping with several of iBeAuthentic's product lines in the beauty and wellness market.
• Phorest Salon Software: Phorest provides salon software with online booking, client management, marketing, and education tools for salons and stylists. Its education and marketing modules closely parallel iBeAuthentic's EMS and digital marketing offerings for the same customer base.

Broad incumbents

• Mindbody by Vista: Mindbody (acquired by Vista Equity) provides broad scheduling, marketing, and commerce software across salons, spas, fitness, and wellness. It competes with iBeAuthentic across the salon/spa vertical with a wider product portfolio and much larger installed base, including larger enterprise beauty accounts.
• Shopify: Shopify powers the underlying ecommerce platform for iBeAuthentic's digital commerce offering, and Custo Cart is distributed via the Shopify App Store. As a broad incumbent, Shopify's expanding native commerce and marketing features are both an enabler and a competitive threat to iBeAuthentic's proprietary commerce platform.
• HubSpot: HubSpot is a broad incumbent marketing automation and CRM platform. While iBeAuthentic's Concierge CRM is purpose-built for beauty, prospects may default to HubSpot for marketing automation and CRM, making it the most credible horizontal substitute for portions of iBeAuthentic's stack.
• Salesforce: Salesforce is the dominant horizontal CRM platform with marketing, sales, and service clouds used by many enterprise beauty brands and distributors. Comparable as a broad incumbent substitute for iBeAuthentic's Concierge CRM and broader marketing/education tools at the high end of the market.
• SalonCentric: SalonCentric (a subsidiary of Sally Beauty) is a major US professional beauty distributor with significant digital operations and B2B/B2C commerce. It is both a potential customer and a potential channel/competitive threat to iBeAuthentic, given the overlap in distributor-focused digital tooling and ERP-integrated commerce.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/IBeAuthentic
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ibeauthentic-llc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about iBeAuthentic