INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In 2017, Shenk and friend Jaleh Bisharat launched NakedPoppy, a site that curates and sells cosmetics that have been vetted by chemists
(including some of its own products).Interestingly, as the young startup was announcing $4 million in seed funding last summer from Cowboy
Called Novi, it hopes to address the same need that Shenk and Bisharat discovered, but it plans to go much broader.Specifically, Novi is
developing a platform that it hopes will eventually become a go-to service for beauty brands, as well as a lot of other businesses that sell
to the growing number of consumers concerned about what, exactly, is in their homes
Think carpet sellers, medical device makers, developers of house cleaning products like detergents
Just one of the many steps involved is building connections to far-flung and disparate raw suppliers, like makers of the surfactants used
for cleansing, foaming, thickening and other special effects in cosmetics
Indeed, where Novi will really shine, suggests Shenk, is in data management.Investors who know her seem to think she has what it takes
Brian Rothenberg, a partner at Defy Partners who helped scale Eventbrite across six years before he joined the world of venture capital,
just led a $1.5 million seed round for Novi
(Shenk declines to name the outfit, but she says another reason she had to split off from NakedPoppy was the high likelihood that Novi would
