When Hannah Spilva sold flower delivery startup LVLY, she didn’t exactly leap straight into building the next big thing. In fact, she thought she might take a breather.

“I never actually intended to start another business,” Spilva says. “After exiting LVLY I was investing, advising startups and enjoying a bit more breathing space.”

But curiosity has a funny way of dragging founders back into the fray. Spilva stumbled across a problem she couldn’t stop thinking about. A casual observation and a little casual research quickly snowballed into a global hunt for hair colour manufacturers and nearly two years of product development.

“Somewhere along the way I realised I had accidentally built my next venture,” she says.

That venture is Done, a new hair colour brand focused on solving one very specific, (and surprisingly widespread) problem: grey regrowth.

Finding the white space

At first glance, tackling grey roots might sound niche. Spilva sees it very differently.

“I actually don’t see it as niche at all,” she says. “Everyone goes grey eventually and more than 80 per cent of women choose to cover their greys. That’s a huge market and very consistent behaviour.”

However, what caught her attention wasn’t the greys themselves but the strange gap in the market around how people deal with them.

“The real issue is that the solutions available are incredibly polarised,” she says. “On one end you have cheap supermarket box dye, and on the other end you have expensive and time-consuming salon appointments. That gap in the middle is enormous.”

To Spilva, it seemed like if you wanted decent results, you either found yourself coughing up cash at the salon every few weeks or rolled the dice with a DIY box kit. Not exactly ideal for the customer, but just the kind of white space an entrepreneur would find appealing.

The moment COVID exposed the problem

The penny really dropped during the pandemic. When salons shut their doors, women across the country suddenly found themselves staring down their own regrowth in the bathroom mirror.

“COVID really highlighted the problem,” Spilva says. “When salons closed, so many women – myself included – were relying on our hairdressers to drop boxes of colour over the fence because we simply couldn’t face embracing the grey.”

Even during lockdown, when nobody was going anywhere, the urge to deal with regrowth didn’t disappear.

“That moment made it obvious how emotionally charged the problem is and how reliant we have become on salon appointments for what should be a quick at-home maintenance ritual.”

Salon-quality colour… without the wait time

And so, the experiments began. Spilva and her team spent nearly 2 years testing product iterations before launching.

“We spent almost two years developing and testing formulations both in salons and at home to ensure the results met professional standards while still being simple enough for customers to use confidently.”

The final result is a product designed specifically for what she calls ‘grey maintenance’ rather than traditional hair colouring.

“Traditional hair colour is largely about transformation,” she says. “Grey maintenance is very different. It’s predictable, consistent and ongoing.”

Done aims to slot neatly into that routine. The colour develops in just 10 minutes, a big step down from the typical 40-minute process-time.

“Time back really is the ultimate luxury,” Spilva says.

The product is also positioned as a more considered alternative to supermarket dyes. Done’s formula is free from ingredients many consumers prefer to avoid, including ammonia, PPD and resorcinol. And the kit itself is designed to feel less like a rushed DIY job.

“The kit has been designed as a ritual rather than just a dye. It includes shampoo, conditioner and gloss so the experience feels more like a salon service than a quick fix.”

Designed in Australia/ Made in Italy. Image supplied

Made for busy people with high expectations

Spilva says the brand was built around a very specific customer in mind.

“Our customer is a busy, capable person with high expectations and limited time,” she says. “She cares about looking polished and put together, but she’s also juggling work, family and a million other things.”

Convenience plays a big role in modern beauty, she says, and Done leans into that.

“People still want performance and quality, but they also want products that fit into real life. Convenience is increasingly becoming a form of luxury.”

Landing a major retail partner

Done launched direct-to-consumer before landing a retail partnership with beauty giant Adore Beauty. Interestingly, Spilva says the retailer approached them first.

“I think when you’re doing something genuinely different in a category, the people who understand that category tend to notice.”

For a young brand, retail brings both opportunity and pressure.

“Retail dramatically increases your reach, helps build brand awareness and adds credibility,” she says. “But it also raises the operational bar. You have to deliver consistent supply, strong brand presence and a great customer experience every time.”

For a founder knee deep in a new venture it’s exciting … and slightly terrifying.

Starting again is still scary (maybe even more so)

Despite having already built and sold a successful startup, Spilva says launching again doesn’t magically make things easy.

“It carries just as much uncertainty, risk and excitement,” she says.

“In fact, sometimes it feels scarier because you go in with your eyes wide open. You know exactly what you’re strapping yourself in for.”

Experience does help with perspective though.

“You know there will be mistakes and hard lessons along the way, so you’re a bit kinder to yourself when those moments happen.”

What success looks like for Done

For now, the focus is firmly on establishing the brand and expanding its product range.

“Our core focus right now is grey maintenance,” Spilva says. “But within that there’s a lot of opportunity to expand into both coverage and care.”

Longer term, the goal is simple.

“A brand and product range that customers genuinely love,” she says. “Continued growth, strong retail relationships and, commercially, a business that is profitable and sustainable.”

If there’s one thing Spilva has learned from building companies before, it’s this: overnight success isn’t a thing.

“Brand matters enormously. Your team matters enormously. Culture needs to be intentional from day one. And you can’t ignore the numbers.”

Creativity might spark the idea. But discipline is what turns it into a business that lasts.

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