Recently, some of the writers over here at HCAU had the opportunity to stop by and meet the lovely, talented, boss lady extraordinaire KaDeadra McNealy. We got the scoop on her brand new business “Millennial Nail Bar,” that just opened up through American University’s Kogod School of Business Entrepreneurship Incubator and let us tell you, it was an experience we will never forget!
Walking in to “Moment 4 Life,” by Nicki Minaj already set the atmosphere to one catered to fit anyone’s definition of a good time and every one seemed to be having just that. They also had a cheese board, cake, and lemon water so you know you’re in for the full spa treatment when you get there (and for half the price!). The idea behind Millennial Nail Bar is to create “A minimalistic nail bar that focuses on nail art and design all wrapped up into a music driven atmosphere,” according to Miss McNealy herself who was tired of feeling like getting her nails done was a chore and wanted to create a positive experience that would make her just as excited for her nails as she was to be going out afterward. And we think she accomplished just that! As for the nail technicians (who were all students either enrolled at the university or planning to be), they were a little unskilled when it came to gel/UV polish but listening to all of the hopes and goals that they had set for themselves in the upcoming future there is no doubt that they’ll be surpassing the other salons in the area in no time! Their regular manicures were as graceful as they can get.
While we were visiting, we had the opportunity to talk with KaDeadra and her team a little more in depth about how Millennial Nail Bar has empowered them to reach for their goals. KaDeadra’s Marketing intern Fatma talked about how having such a strong team of all women that can accomplish so much in such a short amount of time (Millennial Nail Bar was just an idea last summer) made her feel that she could accomplish anything. This year MNB participated in th Women’s March on Washington to which the Sophomore responded “I think it’s empowering to think that there is a team that you can always come to if something bad or stressful is happening. We participated in the women’s march and I don’t think a lot of businesses did that… and I’m an international student and seeing that I have a group of women I can come back to.”
McNealy, who recently graduated from AU’s SPA Master’s Degree Program in Public Policy, focused on the diversity of the group; stating that “we really get such a diverse background of women and they all have such amazing ideas something I might not have thought about, Fatma will think of. If Fatma doesn’t think of it, Sarah might.” she went on to talk about the group effort that goes on behind the scenes, talking about how she “also work[s] a 40 hour a week job as a Statistician. So I get back and I don’t have time or energy to think, so I my team, ‘what do you guys think’ and this happens a lot….”
Overall, we were stunned by the amount of hard work and effort that went into the creation of Millennial Nail Bar and even more impressed by the results. After the competitive process of becoming a business through “the incubator,” MNB is currently on it’s feet and looking to open up a store front soon. But for now they’ll be hosting pop ups around campus that you can keep track of by signing up for emails on their website at “millennialnailbardc.com” or following them on instagram @millennialnailbardc. We know we’re stoked!
Photo/GIF Credits