BIBO is a hair and beauty salon located on 2509 Broadway in the Uptown District. The owners, Susie Geda and Kech Carera, both have strong ties to Oakland and the East Bay community. Susie has over 27 years of experience in hairstyling, working previously at a shop in Rockridge. Kech is an East Bay native, and was Susie’s former client for 15 years. They decided to become business partners and together they formed BIBO Salon, which recently celebrated its one year anniversary in July.
Susie and Kech both share similar values, and place an emphasis on their salon empowering women and involving the local community. They envision their salon to be a part of Oakland’s transition, and wish to train their stylists into developing into the best they can be in order to make a solid career out of their expertise and skill sets. Susie mentions, “I hope to pass down what I know about the salon industry to the next generation of stylists, in order for them to better support their dreams.”
The loan from Main Street Launch helped Kech and Susie buy inventory and train their stylists with classes teaching new techniques of hair-cutting. “The techniques our staff are trained in you can’t find anywhere else in Oakland. They are unique to us at BIBO,” Kech comments.
Susie says, “Main Street Launch is a great organization–they have good interest rates and staff helped us draft a business plan, along with walking us through every step of the loaning process.”
Regulars love BIBO because they say that being in the salon makes them feel happy, and that the atmosphere there is always positive and feel-good. Kech and Susie wish for their business to be successful and hopefully expand within the next several years. Their goal is to be the best salon Uptown, and you can support their business by booking an appointment online at www.BIBOsalon.com!
