# Louisa Schneider

> Louisa Serene Schneider is the founder and CEO of Rowan, the ear-piercing company that hires registered nurses to do the piercing and runs its own medical advisory board. She started it from her attic in 2017 after a career in M&A and retail trading at Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan, and built it into a chain doing roughly $70-100 million a year with dozens of studios and hundreds of employees, more than half of them nurses.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Rowan
- **Organizations:** Rowan, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Columbia Business School
- **From:** Rowan County, North Carolina, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Undergraduate, Dartmouth College, MBA, Columbia Business School
- **Known for:** Founded and scaled Rowan to a reported $70-100M in annual revenue, Built the only ear-piercing company with its own medical advisory board and nurse piercers, Reduced piercing adverse-reaction rates from an industry ~30% to under 1%

## Career timeline

- **early career** — Began on Wall Street as an analyst at Morgan Stanley; worked on the sale of Brooks Brothers
- **pre-MBA** — Covered consumer and retail at J.P. Morgan in the Credit Portfolio Group
- **2006** — Earned MBA from Columbia Business School
- **post-MBA** — Returned to Morgan Stanley to trade retail stocks
- **2017** — Founded Rowan as a concierge home ear-piercing service in NYC using licensed nurses
- **2021** — Raised a Series B funding round (~$20M); total funding grew past $30M
- **2022** — Operated roughly 300 Target store kiosks; named to Inc. Female Founders 100
- **2023** — Pivoted away from Target to standalone Rowan studios
- **2024** — Reached ~65 stores, ~400 employees and a $100M annual run rate; Entrepreneur of the Year finalist
- **2025** — Grew to roughly 90 studios and ~800 employees, over half registered nurses; ~$70M+ revenue

## Achievements

- Founded and scaled Rowan to a reported $70-100M in annual revenue
- Built the only ear-piercing company with its own medical advisory board and nurse piercers
- Reduced piercing adverse-reaction rates from an industry ~30% to under 1%
- Raised over $35M in venture funding
- Inc. Magazine Female Founders honoree (2022, and again in 2026)
- 2025 Women in Retail Top Women in Retail honoree
- Entrepreneur of the Year finalist (2024)

## Latest updates

- **2025-09** — CNBC profiled Rowan at ~90 studios, ~800 employees and over $70M in annual revenue.
- **2025** — Named a 2025 Top Women in Retail honoree.

## Links

- Website: https://heyrowan.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/louisa-schneider-b8b2519
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/heyrowangirl
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisasereneschneider/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/heyrowangirl

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/louisa-schneider
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-11