For Ulupreneur Simone Kendle, watching her mother struggle to find the perfect wig while going through breast cancer treatment—and then desperately seeking her own solution for postpartum shedding after having her daughter Kaia—caused her to realize the power of a natural, well-fitting wig. It was everything.
Simone spent over eight years at Capital One, building expertise in understanding customer experiences and needs through process improvement, sales coaching, and customer insights analysis roles. While growing her career there, she simultaneously launched and ran her own wigs and extensions company benefitting women battling cancer, as well as a social media educational platform for influencers looking to organically grow their online presence. Most recently she launched The Twinsetters Podcast, where she draws on her experiences in business, the beauty industry, and motherhood to bring insights to women seeking a more purposeful life.
Becoming a co-founder at Hairtelligence, which helps Black women use computer vision technology to find the best hair solutions, was a natural progression for Simone. She says she and her fellow founding women are ready to show the next generation of girl bosses that it’s time to take control of the markets they engage with and focus on their communities’ needs.
About Simone Kendle
Simone Kendle is a recent graduate from the Wharton School, where she majored in Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation. She grew up in a military family and settled in Texas, where she earned her BA in operations and supply chain management from the University of North Texas.
Prior to Wharton, Simone spent eight years at Capital One working in project and process management, people leadership, and CX insights. Simone was responsible for bringing NPS and consumer insights to the Bank’s Executive Leadership Team, as well as optimizing strategic partnerships and CX consulting opportunities across the business to bolster customer-centric decision-making. These actionable insights influenced initiatives across the Operations, Digital, Product, and Marketing teams.
At Wharton, Simone served on the boards of the African American MBA Association and Wharton Women in Business, and was an Investor in the Penn Wharton Innovation Fund. In her second year, Simone became a Teaching Assistant for the Wharton Management Communication Program, where she coached up to eight founders at a time to tell the story of their startups in the best way possible to secure investments.
