Beauty
Whitney McElwain
Redefining beauty with clean and vegan skincare and makeup products
In a world where beauty standards can feel overwhelming, Whitney McElwain, Founder and CEO of Daybird, is a new beauty entrepreneur leading a fresh and inspiring approach with a brand that is self-proclaimed as an anti-beauty beauty club with the goal of reclaiming ownership of what beauty means. As a Hispanic female founder, she is on a mission is to redefine beauty standards for future generations of women with clean, vegan, multitasking skincare and makeup hybrid products.
Her brand, Daybird, was born out of a frustration with societal expectations and the conventional notions of “beauty” and “flawlessness.” More products and more steps to cover and fix our faces didn’t resonate with Whitney and her South Asian co-founder, Veena Krishnan. The two were looking for a product that enhanced their skin without adding unnecessary stress to their mornings or complicated their beauty routines.
“We’re tired of spending time on products and routines that aren’t serving us. I don’t want my one-year-old daughter to grow up with today’s beauty standards.” -Whitney McElwain-
Growing up in a small town in West Texas, Whitney’s Hispanic heritage shaped her upbringing and how she approaches business. She credits her parents for her desire to break barriers through building generational wealth and advocating for underrepresented female founders in venture.
With 12 years of experience in consumer brands, Whitney has worked for well-known names like Red Bull, Curology, and Liingo Eyewear. Recently, she worked at personalized prescription skincare startup Curology, where she developed go-to-market for their new brand. Prior to that, she successfully grew a direct-to-consumer brand to over $2.5 million in ARR within its first 18 months. Whitney holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin.
Today, she lives on Austin’s Eastside with her husband, daughter, and their rescue dog. Through her Anti-Beauty Beauty Club, she’s building a community where women can be themselves, embrace their day, and have conversations about wellness and their personal relationship with beauty.
