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Featured Alumni Business: Follain

Tara In-Store Photo

Tara Foley M’13

Name of Business:
Follain (Gaelic for ‘healthy, wholesome, and sound’)

Mission/ Description:
Follain is a healthy skin care retail store making the world a more beautiful place by: (i) selling the highest quality products that are free of harmful chemicals; (ii) removing packaging waste from the fastest-moving products; and (iii) promoting and selling locally manufactured, healthy brands.

Alumni Name and Contact Information:
Tara O’Connor Foley M’13; tara@shopfollain.com
@shopfollain on Facebook + Twitter

Located:
53 Dartmouth Street, Boston, MA 02116

How The Idea Began:
About 5 years ago–I was eating healthfully (sometimes even organic) and exercising (a regular triathlete), and realized that I was covering my skin with toxic chemicals. Transitioning to healthy skincare was difficult; the products could not all be found in one place. I wanted to bring healthy, wholesome, and more environmentally sound skincare products together into a single space. I began blogging about healthy products (naturalchemyst.com); I learned how to grow the most popular ingredient on a lavender farm in France; I learned about skincare manufacturing in Maine; and then I headed to Babson for an entrepreneurship-focused MBA. I refined the concept there, and launched immediately after graduation.

Favorite Thing(s) About The Business:
Engaging customers face-to-face, all day every day.
Sharing my passion with people all day, while gathering data from them at the same time!
I now love going into “work” every day more than I can describe…

Worst Thing About The Business:
Engaging customers face-to-face, all day every day. I have so little time for the behind-the-scenes aspects of the business.

Most Recent Business Accomplishment(s):
Winning the EDENS Retail Challenge national business plan competition in February of 2013; further hatching the concept during the Babson 2013 spring semester; and launching immediately after graduating in June of 2013.

Definition of Entrepreneurship:
Read my definition of entrepreneurship>>