Three founders. One main stage.
Three finalists take the stage to pitch their business expansion ideas. Real stakes. Real capital. Real impact on the industry.
Each finalist brings a documented model, a proven flagship, and a plan to scale it. They pitch live in Seattle — and one walks away with $50,000.
Hollis Head Spa is a luxury Japanese-inspired head spa built on the belief that the next generation of winning spa businesses will be defined not by their treatments, but by the experiences they intentionally design. Founded by Toni DePaola — a registered nurse and 23-year cosmetologist — Hollis has developed a fully documented operating model, proprietary AI-supported scalp assessment tools, and nurse-informed treatment protocols that deliver a consistent, restorative experience across an entire team. Now opening a 2,000-square-foot flagship location, Toni is building the repeatable prototype that will serve as the foundation for future expansion and franchising.
Shine MD is a physician-led medical aesthetics clinic built around a market the industry has overlooked: the 85% of the world's population with skin of color. Founded by Dr. Mona Khurana — a board-certified physician and woman of color who couldn't find care that worked for her own skin — Shine MD has grown nearly fivefold in five years to $2.17M in annual revenue from a single flagship. Now Dr. Khurana is ready to systematize her clinical model and scale it into the category-defining network for inclusive, skin-of-color care in North America.
After 44 years as a paramedical esthetician — during which she identified haircare products as an overlooked driver of acne breakouts and launched the non-comedogenic haircare line Clear 2 Perfection® — this founder asked a defining question: what happens when a lifetime of expertise walks out the door?
The answer is Expertise Intelligence™, a system that captures proprietary professional judgment and transforms it into AI-powered Expert Teammates™ that can advise employees and customers in real time, even when the original expert isn't in the room. The Spa at Personal Choice is both the innovation laboratory and the proof of concept for a scalable platform designed to preserve and multiply specialized expertise across the entire beauty and wellness industry.
Make your case to a panel of the industry's sharpest minds.
Watch past Deep End winners pitch their boldest ideas — then start thinking about yours.
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