Kate Dawes

Technology & Software

Australia

Kate Dawes is the founder of Ripplebox, a referral and reward platform built for the hair and beauty industries. Based in the Perth and Fremantle area of Western Australia, she is an accredited trichologist registered with the International Association of Trichologists and a senior scalp micropigmentation artist with more than 30 years of experience in the Australian hair industry. She is also the Co-Founder and Founding Director of Foli Sim, an Australian scalp micropigmentation company with studios in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, which she runs as a family-owned business alongside her husband Michael Dawes, its General Manager.

Ripplebox is a mobile app that lets salons and beauty businesses set customisable rewards, turning satisfied clients into brand ambassadors who earn rewards for referrals. Operating since around 2023, it offers a low monthly subscription with no long-term contracts.

Kate explains that she saw a gap in the hair and beauty industries' marketing processes and decided to combine word-of-mouth with technology, creating Ripplebox to give salons a cost-effective marketing tool while fostering client loyalty. Her deep background in the hair industry informs that focus, and she sees an opportunity to make referral-based growth accessible to salons of every size.