Rishielle Giscombe-Smith is the founder and CEO of GLAMO, the mobile salon app. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica on August 3, 1992. Rishielle grew up with her mother, Gwendolyn Belford, and she is the youngest of three kids. The last school Rishielle attended in Jamaica was Mona High School. Then she migrated to the United States at the age of 18 and attended the Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, New York.

Rishielle lost her mother in 2014 at the age of 22. Due to her mother’s death, Rishielle decided to take a leap of faith. She took a 2-day train to Florida with no money, which made her more independent and forced her to fend for herself. Rishielle enrolled in Broward College to study Architectural Engineering, then dropped out to pursue her dream of having her own business. In 2016 the GLAMO concept was born. Rishielle started the development of her app in October of 2017 and launch the GLAMO app in December of 2018. 

1. Tell us about your business.
GLAMO is a mobile salon app that provides clients with their own personal stylist or barbers in the comfort of their home within minutes of booking. GLAMO is a platform that brings clients and stylist together under one umbrella. Clients get the opportunity to view who is coming to them and the work they have done. Both clients and stylist get the opportunity of rating each other. The GLAMO app can provide a stable income for stylist and barbers, by eliminating stylist overhead costs like renting a chair, renting a salon, and giving away 40% to 50% of each earnings per client to the owner of the salon or barbershop. GLAMO is very affordable for our clients and is hassle free. Clients don’t have to sit in a salon shop all day to just get a 50-minute style done, instead, they can request a service right at their fingertips.  

2. Are you a business person or a social entrepreneur or both? (A business person starts a business based on an existing idea or concept. A social entrepreneur seeks to achieve social change through innovative means.)
I am an entrepreneur. I am the founder and CEO of the GLAMO app.

3. Who or what motivated you to go into business?
My mom motivated me to start my own business. I was always business oriented at a tender age, starting my own juice business at the age of eleven. But, my mom’s passing opened my eyes. When we were struggling back in New York, taking public transportation in the snow from point A to point B to still spend a whole day in the salon just to get our hair done. I thought there had to be a more convenient way for older and younger people to get salon service done and then it hit me. That is when GLAMO was born. 

4. Did you face any challenges in mobilizing your capital?
Building capital was and still is the most challenging thing. With an app, it is a constant investment. We are still looking for more investors to help the app to reach the level that we know it can be. We’ve had company’s that are interested in partnering up with GLAMO; companies like Turo and so many more.

5. What motivates you on a day to day basis?
My aim is to help better my country by using this platform on a larger scale in places like Silicon Valley, where most of the large international tech companies are located. I also want to use my app to create jobs for more people, not just in the United States and Europe, but in Jamaica as well. 

You can find out more about GLAMO on their website, Facebook, and Instagram.