'Our date nights are usually at the kitchen table... two laptops and a takeaway' - Dublin skincare entrepreneur Sara Stokes on bootstrapping her beauty brand and touring with U2

"But working in the music industry, you have to be entrepreneurial - especially working in management, because you're essentially the business partner, or one of the business partners of your client. You're helping them deal with their record label, their publishing company, their merch company, and all sorts of aspects of their business... that kind of entrepreneurial spirit is something that I definitely took from the music industry, for sure."

"When I left the music industry, I was like: 'Oh my God, I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never worked in the skincare industry. Am I going to be able to do this?'"

"So I turned to my partner and said: 'If I do this, how are we going to afford our life? We've got two kids. It's a huge gamble.' But he's an entrepreneur himself and he's very much a bit of a risk-taker."

Sara Stokes moved from music management on U2's record-setting 360 tour to found Skn To Skn, a skincare brand tailored for pregnant women. She identified the need in 2020 while pregnant and realised existing products were too harsh. Entrepreneurial skills gained managing artists—dealing with labels, publishing, merchandise and business partnerships—shaped her approach to building the company. After a second daughter in 2023 and during maternity leave she felt urgency to act. Stokes and her husband relocated from London to Windsor suburbs and bootstrapped the business using their personal savings, accepting financial risk to pursue the opportunity.

Read at Irish Independent