No matter how hectic things are, when you have fresh nails, you feel put-together. On the flip side, chipped nails can make you feel a very particular kind of shame (it’s one of the worst offenses in my mother’s book). But it’s not always that easy to make it to a salon, and even if you do find the time, you may not want to subject yourself to the fumes.
Enter the Cherry app. Founded by Amber Venz Box and Baxter Box (founders of Dallas-based content monetization platform rewardStyle) and Whitney Wolfe Herd (of the Austin-based feminist dating app Bumble), the digital platform brings nail technicians to you, whether you’re at home or in the office. “Cherry is really for the woman who wants to have it all,” said Wolfe Herd at the platform’s launch party in November. “You can have a family, a social life, and a big career, but you can also have a manicure.”
The app is a breeze to use, offering gel, classic, and men’s manicures and pedicures ($10 – $40) to select Dallas zip codes by invitation-only to start (use code “DMag” to give it a try). I was guided through a series of pretty pink and red pages when ordering up a classic mani-pedi, which I received while checking emails and watching Vanderpump Rules in my sweats. The Essie polish was perfectly applied by my technician, a former MiniLuxe employee who has switched to working with Cherry full-time, which is exactly what the platform’s founders want.
“Amber and I are firm believers in not only solving a personal problem to create a business, but solving one that makes others’ lives better as well,” says Wolfe Herd. In addition to allowing app users to “have it all,” Cherry also hopes to better the lives of its employees. Cherry technicians are liberated from waiting around for customers in salons and can create their own schedules à la Uber or Lyft drivers. “They get to have the freedom and flexibility they deserve,” says Venz Box. “They’ll also be compensated in a really fair and transparent way.”
If anyone can disrupt the nail tech industry, Venz Box and Wolfe Herd are the women to do it. Both founders have experience empowering others through their platforms. Venz Box and her husband’s rewardStyle has given influencers around the world the chance to make money on their content, while Wolfe Herd’s Bumble has evolved from a dating app with a feminist twist (women have to make the first move) to a global lifestyle brand with the launch of Bumble BFF and, most recently, Bumble Bizz.
So, order up a Cherry. (Venz Box confirmed the app name is intended to be used as a noun, so don’t go saying something like “Cherry me!” Don’t do that.) Schedule one with your friends, your significant other, or with Vanderpump Rules. When you do, everybody wins.
