Listen to this articleScent Trunk is based out of Queen’s University in Canada, when a customer signs up on Scent Trunk’s website they take a fragrance quiz that analyzes preferences and lifestyle. Scent Trunk’s algorithm creates a scent profile unique to every person. Each month Scent Trunk delivers 3 different fragrance samples. “We want to help men build their fragrance wardrobes. Cologne is the ultimate accessory,” says Connor Rowe, Co-founder of Scent Trunk.
The Scent Trunk Story
Written by: William Yin, Co-Founder of new startup Scent Trunk
Scent Trunk started almost completely as an accident. I am a student at Queen’s University, and as an aspiring entrepreneur, I participated in the Queen’s Summer Innovation Institute (QSII). QSII is a program dedicated to mentoring young entrepreneurs so I felt like it was a natural fit for me. I actually never wore any fragrances before the program. However, because I needed to start impressing a lot of people if I was ever going to succeed as an entrepreneur I decided it was time to “up my cologne game”. Like any young man would, I went to a department store. There were so many options for scents, and I had no idea where to start. I ended up finding a sales representative, tried on a couple scents and chose the first one I liked.
However when I bought the full bottle and started wearing it, it didn’t smell as good as I thought. In fact, it smelled pretty bad. I was confused why the cologne I bought, didn’t smell the same as the cologne I smelled at the store. I did some research. Fragrance smells different over time because there are actually a lot of ingredients in it. As the particles break down, different scents are released. I also learned that cologne smells different on everyone, depending on their skin type and body chemistry. I realized that it is crucial to sample cologne for at least a couple hours to fully understand how it will smell on you. I started to wonder whether other people have had this problem. I asked people and discovered that a lot of people were overwhelmed by the number of options there are, making it difficult to make a choice. A lot of people simply stuck to what they usually wore, made a poor decision like I did, or gave up on getting cologne. That’s when I decided there was an opportunity to start Scent Trunk. Our vision is to help men find good fragrances so they smell great and feel confident, by reducing the number of choices, to empower men to choose.
It is extremely difficult for men to find colognes to wear, to stand out, to be unique and to express themselves. Why? There are thousands of cologne brands trying to get your attention, and eventually they just become clutter. It’s impossible to know where to start. Not to mention, retail is moving online, but we can’t smell through the internet (at least not yet…). So, how do we even know if we will like a fragrance that we want to buy online? Sampling is crucial when it comes to picking cologne.
