This month’s Indie Insights explores how founder-led engagement can translate into product innovation, model advocacy, and long-term progress, and Cristal Hernandez, founding father of Cristal Cosmetics, exemplifies this strategy.
With transparency on the core of her model, Hernandez has invited her prospects into practically each stage of the method, from product growth to packaging choices. What started as a startup launched with solely $700 in seed cash has grown right into a community-driven enterprise with a passionate buyer base that not solely follows the model but in addition helps form it.
We spoke to Hernandez at NYSCC Suppliers’ Day 2025, the place she not solely exhibited her model within the Indie 360° Pavilion however was additionally a featured panelist on “The Energy of Heritage: How Latina Founders are Remodeling Magnificence with Tradition and Components.” In our dialog, she shared how Cristal Cosmetics continues to prioritize connection over conversion, and why significant neighborhood engagement can outperform conventional advertising.
CDU: Your model has seen unbelievable progress fueled by your neighborhood — are you able to stroll us via the way you first began constructing and interesting that neighborhood from the bottom up?
CH: After I first began, I had no cash for conventional advertising, simply $700, an MBA, and a dream. I leaned closely on social media, displaying my viewers each step of my journey: the wins, the struggles, even the tears.
I didn’t attempt to “promote” them one thing, I invited them to be a part of the method. They noticed me packing orders in my mother’s storage, formulating merchandise, and studying as I went.
I prefer to suppose that that transparency constructed belief and made them really feel like they weren’t simply shopping for a product, they have been investing in a narrative they have been a part of.
CDU: What are among the distinctive or surprising methods you’re leveraging your neighborhood for product suggestions and innovation?
CH: I contain my neighborhood earlier than a product even hits the market. I’ll ask for his or her opinions on packaging, allow them to check formulation early, and even identify merchandise after them. Generally I’ll hop on reside movies to point out prototypes and get their real-time reactions.
It’s not simply suggestions, it’s co-creation. They really feel like they’re serving to construct the model as a result of they’re.
CDU: How do you steadiness listening to your neighborhood’s enter whereas nonetheless staying true to your model’s imaginative and prescient and long-term technique?
CH: It’s a steadiness of respect and management. I deeply worth what my neighborhood desires, however I even have a transparent long-term imaginative and prescient for the place Cristal Cosmetics goes.
I hear fastidiously, even to suggestions that’s exhausting to listen to, however I filter it via the lens of my model’s mission: reasonably priced luxurious that builds confidence. Not each pattern or request is smart for us, and that’s okay.
I at all times need my prospects to really feel heard, nevertheless it’s my job to information the model ahead thoughtfully.
CDU: Group engagement can take quite a lot of time and power — what practices or platforms have been handiest for you in creating significant, scalable interactions?
CH: Exhibiting up persistently, particularly because the founder, has been the simplest apply for constructing actual, lasting neighborhood.
It’s not nearly displaying as much as promote, it’s about displaying as much as join. I discuss to my viewers about their day, their life, as a result of neighborhood isn’t constructed on transactions, it’s constructed on relationships. Even when I’m solely reside as soon as per week, I make it depend by being current and making it about them.
We’ve been utilizing social media because the begin, Fb, Instagram, and now TikTok, and all of them nonetheless play a serious position in our progress. TikTok Store has made the gross sales course of seamless, however the true worth comes from the engagement.
And since I can’t be reside 24/7, my staff steps in as an extension of me. Whether or not they’re packing orders reside, or giving a tour of the warehouse, they’re serving to pull again the curtain so our prospects really feel included within the journey.
When folks see the guts behind the model and really feel like they’re a part of the story, that’s when true neighborhood, and loyalty, is constructed.
CDU: In what methods has your community-driven strategy helped foster model loyalty and repeat enterprise in comparison with extra conventional advertising strategies?
CH: Our prospects aren’t simply shopping for merchandise, they’re rooting for the model prefer it’s theirs, as a result of it’s. That emotional connection goes deeper than any advert marketing campaign.
When folks really feel personally invested, they arrive again, they inform their pals, they usually develop with you. Conventional advertising talks at prospects. Our community-driven strategy talks with them and that’s why our retention and repeat buyer charges are so robust.
CDU: For indie magnificence founders simply beginning to construct their very own communities, what are some key classes or methods you’ll advocate based mostly in your expertise?
CH: Don’t attempt to be good, be actual. Folks connect with the journey greater than the polished last product. Doc every thing, present up persistently, and make your viewers really feel like they’re a part of your progress.
Additionally, construct a model with a transparent why behind it, one thing folks can imagine in. And bear in mind: community-building is gradual at first. However in case you nurture it, it turns into probably the most highly effective advertising engine you’ll ever have.not solely follows the model but in addition
