
Seeing the Beauty in Impermanence
In this episode of Business of the Beat, host Kendra Bracken-Ferguson sits down with Aditi Sharma, co-founder and COO of QOAT, to explore her full-circle journey from growing up in her mother’s salon to building an entirely new category in professional hair care. Aditi shares how her original plans for law school unexpectedly led her to L’Oréal, where mentors gave her the business education and confidence that helped shape her career. After leaving corporate beauty, she founded EGAD Talent, representing hairstylists and helping creative talent translate their influence into valuable brand partnerships. That work eventually reunited her with longtime collaborator Alfredo Lewis and inspired them to create QOAT—the professional hair-color topcoat designed to help stylists protect their work and clients preserve their investment. The conversation explores the difference between having a great idea and building a commercially viable company, the years of development behind a category-defining product, bootstrapping a startup, building with the right co-founder, and why the unglamorous foundations of operations, finance, distribution, and cash-flow management determine whether an innovative product ever reaches the shelf. Aditi also reflects on releasing the pressure of the “shoulds,” recognizing that ease does not mean a path is wrong, and using yoga, self-awareness, and the principle of impermanence to remain grounded while building at startup speed. Find more shows like this on the Mean Ole Lion app.















