How Naomi Osaka invested in a $3.1 million hair business after one woman turned her personal salon frustration into a 4-location company
Naomi Osaka has invested in several businesses outside tennis, but one of her more unusual bets came in the haircare industry. In 2024, Osaka became an investor in Pressed Roots, a salon company founded by Piersten Gaines for customers with textured hair.
The business had already shown signs of traction before Osaka came on board. Pressed Roots had generated $2 million in annual revenue in 2022, followed by $3.5 million in 2023. Gaines then raised $3.1 million from a group that included Osaka, Howard Schultz, Meg Whitman, Slauson & Co. and RevTech Ventures.
How Piersten gaines built Pressed Roots around an overlooked customerGaines came up with the idea while studying at Harvard Business School. She had seen how blowout chains such as Drybar offered customers a standard experience, but she struggled to find something similar for textured hair.
“I had a lot of really terrible salon experiences throughout my life,” Gaines told Fortune in 2024. She wanted to build a chain where customers could expect trained stylists and a consistent service each time they visited.
Before putting money into a permanent location, Gaines tested the idea through pop-ups in Boston, Atlanta and Dallas. The appointments sold out, giving her evidence that customers would pay for the service. She spent about two years running pop-ups before raising $500,000 to open her first permanent location in Dallas.
The first salon was scheduled to open in March 2020. Gaines held a soft launch three days before the planned opening, with more than 250 people attending. She said the salon was already booked for its first month before the pandemic forced it to close.
That setback did not change the basic business model. Pressed Roots focused on the silk blowout and built its own stylist training programme. Its stylists also work as employees instead of independent contractors, giving the company more control over the customer experience.
How Naomi Osaka joined a group of high-profile Pressed Roots investorsThe $3.1 million raise came after Gaines had already shown investors that customers were willing to spend on the service. Inc. reported that Pressed Roots generated about $2 million in revenue in 2022 before reaching $3.5 million the following year.
Osaka was not the only prominent name attached to the round. Former HP CEO Meg Whitman and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s Schultz Family Foundation also invested. Slauson & Co. and RevTech Ventures were among the other backers, while Gaines also connected with angel investors through Slauson & Co.
The business had a clear pitch beyond the salon itself. Gaines told Fortune that customers in her target demographic continued spending on their hair even during the pandemic. Her argument to investors was that haircare was not simply an occasional luxury for these customers.
“Our goal is to make quality haircare accessible,” Gaines told Fortune.
In April 2025, Pressed Roots had four locations and about 200 employees. Gaines was also looking beyond the salons, with plans to expand into hair products and accessories. The company’s Houston expansion had already taken its footprint outside the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The investment therefore came after Gaines had spent years testing the idea, building revenue and proving that a specialised salon could attract a loyal customer base. Osaka joined a wider group of investors backing a business that had already moved from a Harvard classroom idea to a growing Texas-based company.
The business had already shown signs of traction before Osaka came on board. Pressed Roots had generated $2 million in annual revenue in 2022, followed by $3.5 million in 2023. Gaines then raised $3.1 million from a group that included Osaka, Howard Schultz, Meg Whitman, Slauson & Co. and RevTech Ventures.
How Piersten gaines built Pressed Roots around an overlooked customerGaines came up with the idea while studying at Harvard Business School. She had seen how blowout chains such as Drybar offered customers a standard experience, but she struggled to find something similar for textured hair.
“I had a lot of really terrible salon experiences throughout my life,” Gaines told Fortune in 2024. She wanted to build a chain where customers could expect trained stylists and a consistent service each time they visited.
Before putting money into a permanent location, Gaines tested the idea through pop-ups in Boston, Atlanta and Dallas. The appointments sold out, giving her evidence that customers would pay for the service. She spent about two years running pop-ups before raising $500,000 to open her first permanent location in Dallas.
The first salon was scheduled to open in March 2020. Gaines held a soft launch three days before the planned opening, with more than 250 people attending. She said the salon was already booked for its first month before the pandemic forced it to close.
That setback did not change the basic business model. Pressed Roots focused on the silk blowout and built its own stylist training programme. Its stylists also work as employees instead of independent contractors, giving the company more control over the customer experience.
How Naomi Osaka joined a group of high-profile Pressed Roots investorsThe $3.1 million raise came after Gaines had already shown investors that customers were willing to spend on the service. Inc. reported that Pressed Roots generated about $2 million in revenue in 2022 before reaching $3.5 million the following year.
Osaka was not the only prominent name attached to the round. Former HP CEO Meg Whitman and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s Schultz Family Foundation also invested. Slauson & Co. and RevTech Ventures were among the other backers, while Gaines also connected with angel investors through Slauson & Co.
The business had a clear pitch beyond the salon itself. Gaines told Fortune that customers in her target demographic continued spending on their hair even during the pandemic. Her argument to investors was that haircare was not simply an occasional luxury for these customers.
“Our goal is to make quality haircare accessible,” Gaines told Fortune.
In April 2025, Pressed Roots had four locations and about 200 employees. Gaines was also looking beyond the salons, with plans to expand into hair products and accessories. The company’s Houston expansion had already taken its footprint outside the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The investment therefore came after Gaines had spent years testing the idea, building revenue and proving that a specialised salon could attract a loyal customer base. Osaka joined a wider group of investors backing a business that had already moved from a Harvard classroom idea to a growing Texas-based company.
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