GOSTRIDER'S Audrey Napoleon on the Wave of the Beauty Incubator Future & What Sets Her Apart from Her Competitors

When DJ-turned-entrepreneur Audrey Napoleon sets her mind to something, just know - it’s a done deal. With a decade of experience working in the music industry as a globally known and recognized Top 5 Female DJ, Napoleon wanted to set her sights on something that she could build, nurture, and put her name on.

With the successful launch of Qveen Studio for Qveen Herby, thus her Beauty Incubator was born and rightfully named GOSTRIDER (Gōst,rīder). Described as a “Beauty Business in a Box”, GOSTRIDER offers talent (anyone from music artists to celebrities to influencers and more) a direct-to-consumer approach to creating their own personalized beauty product collection. This business model is also another way for talent to connect more intimately with their fans and allows for the business-minded artist to create sustainable revenue. GOSTRIDER offers up full-service support - from product development to fulfillment, trend intelligence to online store management - it’s basically everything one needs to successfully launch their own beauty line of hand-picked products.

We chat with Napoleon to find out what sets GOSTRIDER apart from their competition, what her “a-ha” moment was that sparked the creation of GOSTRIDER, and what’s next for her company.

What exactly is GOSTRIDER? The business model is quite a unique one! 
GOSTRIDER is a Talent beauty brand incubator. We place Talents in the driver’s seat for their future by monetizing their audiences in a way that is efficient, easy, and most of all, their own. Our business model expands Talents’ franchises while creating sustainable revenue, and supercharging growth.

As a former DJ turned beauty entrepreneur, what advice can you share to others that are looking to shake up their career just like you did? 
Confucius: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. 

I no longer enjoyed what I was doing. When I started my career, I made a promise to myself that if there came a point I wasn’t in love with it, I would move on… and I did. 

2020 has been a dumpster fire, but you found a niche in the market - and offered much-needed relief for creatives. What was the light bulb moment for you? 
My “light bulb” moment came to me shortly after I decided to retire from music through the want to create something for myself that I could own and the Industry couldn’t take away from me. 

Beauty Incubators have been around for some time, what makes GOSTRIDER different? 
GOSTRIDER is for artists, by artists. 

My career started in 2007 as a record producer/DJ. House music was my genre and by 2012, I was multi-platinum, in the top 5 females globally, and award-winning. While the fans were kind to me, the Industry was not. I imagined other Talents felt the same way so I made it my mission to create a company that supported artists in a real way, the way only another artist could, and GOSTRIDER was born.

What was the inspiration behind Qveen Studio? 
Qveen Herby and I had known each other for quite some time prior to the launch of Qveen Studio. She, too, was feeling the frustration of the music industry so I took that opportunity to present the idea of launching her own beauty brand.

Since the inception of GOSTRIDER, we’ve learned that this same pain is felt in Talents everywhere, allowing us to expand into the Entertainment Industry as a whole. 

Where do you seek inspiration when creating beauty brands for Talent? 
GOSTRIDER is “the brand behind the brand™”.

 The definition of a ghostwriter (phonetically “/ˈɡōstˌrīdər/”) is a person whose job it is to produce material for someone else who is the named author.

We are the ghostwriter to Talent Beauty Brands. We are here to support their creative vision and expansion of their franchise so while we have our expertise in building brands, our creative inspiration comes from the Talents themselves.

What’s next for GOSTRIDER? 
The next couple of years are packed with multiple launches throughout 2021 and into 2022 as GOSTRIDER continues to expand, supporting Talents in launching successful beauty brands.