Abby Wallach Interview: Focusing on Fragrance

Abby Wallach is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of ScentInvent Technologies, an innovation company re-thinking the way consumers use, love and buy fragrance. She is an award-winning entrepreneur and executive producer with over 20 years of experience in the media, entertainment, fashion and beauty industry. ScentInvent’s first product, Linger Fragrance Primer was developed to help any fragrance last longer. It launched on HSN to a sell out success in 2016. Abby sat down with Batsheva Weinstein of @sunniesandsangria to share her journey to success.

Batsheva Weinstein: Can you tell me about how you became an entrepreneur and your  journey through the world of business and entertainment?

Abby Wallach: My early career started in the fashion and beauty business doing public relations for clients such as Procter & Gamble’s Beauty Care Council and Oil of Olay. I always loved fashion and beauty but had a strong interest in media and entertainment on the live event production side. So when offered an opportunity to work for Steve Leber, (AC/DC, AEROSMITH, BEATLEMANIA),  I jumped at the chance to work on the live productions and tours of the Moscow Circus and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Rock Band. This was the turning point that led me into the media and entertainment industry for the next 20 years. At Showtime Networks Inc., I produced live events for their programming around the country. This was in the early days of cable and I learned a lot about the tv, cable and the film business. After a successful run at the network, I went to Hollywood to work for Nederlander TV & Film as an Executive Producer. This was an exciting experience to learn the other side of the business from how to package a script with talent to selling it to a studio. My time in LA was amazing but my family was in NY so I eventually moved back to pursue my own business ventures. Next up was Beautiful Stranger TV, the first content commerce brand on the internet featuring trendsetters on the street and backstage at fashion shows. As one of You Tubes first partners, we pioneered that idea to connect content to the point of sale way before technology was ready for it. Fast forward it is what we see everywhere today.

As an entrepreneur you’re always having ideas. What made you stick with ScentInvent and Linger? What makes you stick to a project when you have an idea?

Abby Wallach: As an entrepreneur, you are spending a lot of time thinking, working, doing. Everything is trial and error and there is no fast track to success. Most of the time you have many failures to even get to the success. What led me to the launch of ScentInvent Technologies was seeing a need in the market. There was a big white space and opportunity to innovate in fragrance.

For many years my close friend and now business partner, Caroline Fabrigas and I wanted to go into business together. Caroline is a beauty industry veteran and award-winning executive. I was helping her with her late husband’s scent marketing business and we started to think about how we could innovate in the category.

Once we had the idea, we started having meetings with a chemist and brainstormed about where there was a white space in the industry. How could a company reinvent an industry that hasn’t really innovated in many years. What could we do that would be different. So together we created Linger Fragrance Primer, which is a scent primer that actually primes your skin so your skin will love your fragrance more. This is the beginning of our pipeline of innovation for the category with many other products in development.

What is your favorite scent?

Abby Wallach: I am a major fragrance fan and I have been all my life. Some of my all time favorites are Hermes, Chanel, By Kilian and Voluspa. I also love oils.  But now that I am in the fragrance business, I can’t wear fragrance as much as I used to. We are in the process of developing our own fragrance brand therefore needing to be a blank canvas to test and experience fragrances every day. Most of what I wear now is what we are developing with our master perfumer.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs? What advice can you give to people that will help them take the next step in their business?

Abby Wallach: Follow your gut and follow your dream. If you have an idea and you want to see if you can make it happen,  just get out there and figure it out. Fear, worrying and insecurity is all part of it but if you have something you want to do, try and try again. You never know where it’s going to lead you.

Do your homework and do your research. Spend the time. Nothing comes easy. It may not look like it does but we all have to work hard to achieve goals and success. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. I fail all the time. But I pick myself up and keep going.

With technology these days it is hard to keep up with everything and still take time for yourself. What is your life and business balance advice?

Abby Wallach: That is the multimillion dollar question we all struggle with. I really try to practice yoga. When I sit on that mat, everything becomes really peaceful and quiet. I also meditate. I listen to a really great Deepak Chopra guided meditation. You can get them online and they are free. You need to make time to be alone and to think, or maybe even not to think and just be outside.  I’m a huge bike rider and I just love to be out with my family and friends as that is what I value the most. Relationships are everything!

Currently Linger Fragrance Primer is sold out but please sign up on our website to be notified when we are back in stock and our next product launches. click here.