Anna Harman is the co-founder and CEO of Studs, the New York-based ear-piercing and earrings brand she launched with Lisa Bubbers in November 2019. A former mutual-fund lawyer and Bridgewater Associates operator turned consumer-retail entrepreneur, Harman built Studs to fill the gap between Claire's and the tattoo parlor: a clean, needle-piercing studio paired with curated 'Earscapes' of affordable jewelry. The store was profitable in its first month and has since grown to dozens of locations nationwide, raising a $20M Series B in 2021 and roughly $25.6M in total funding.
Rowan is a nurse-led ear piercing brand that applies clinical, medical-grade standards to a service long associated with mall kiosks and piercing guns. Founded by former Wall Street trader Louisa Serene Schneider, the company pairs licensed nurse piercers with hypoallergenic, nickel-free jewelry across 100+ studios nationwide, plus a direct-to-consumer e-commerce shop. Backed by VMG Partners and Kevin Durant's Thirty Five Ventures, Rowan turned a low-trust ritual into a safety-first, celebratory experience for customers of every age.
Studs is a New York-based ear piercing and earrings brand that pairs licensed, needle-based piercing studios with a large e-commerce and in-store catalog of flatback studs, hoops, huggies and clickers. Founded in 2019 by Anna Harman and Lisa Bubbers, the company coined the idea of 'Earscaping' - curating a personalized stack of piercings and jewelry - and positions itself as a modern, hygienic alternative to mall piercing-gun kiosks and tattoo-shop counters. It operates a fleet of profitable studios across the U.S. alongside a direct-to-consumer online store.
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.
francesca's® was an American women's fashion and lifestyle retailer known for its eclectic mix of clothing, jewelry, accessories and giftable items sold across hundreds of small boutiques and online at francescas.com. Founded in Houston in 1999, it grew from a single store into a national chain of more than 700 boutiques, went public on the Nasdaq in 2011, and built a loyal following of women shopping for affordable, trend-driven, occasion-ready style. After two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, the company wound down and closed its remaining locations in early 2026.