I Didn't Need to Start The Roma Collective

A message from Roma Parfum founder Joe Gallagher Jr.

I didn't need to start a brand incubation division.

I think that's an important place to begin this story, because lately there have been accusations and assumptions about why The Roma Collective was created, where the money went, and what my intentions were.

So I want to explain how we actually got here.

Before The Roma Collective existed, Roma Parfum had eight fragrances.

Those original eight were doing great.

At the time, we were doing approximately $5,000 per month in bottle sales. It was manageable. Joseph, my longtime assistant and strategist, and I could handle the operation. Most importantly, we were profitable.

There was no desperate financial reason for me to suddenly take on 20-plus additional fragrances, 20-plus personalities and 20-plus startup businesses.

I chose to do it.

And it started with something I kept noticing.

I SAW A PATTERN

We had sent hundreds of Roma 8 Discovery Sets into the fragrance community.

Reviews started coming in.

Some were from established creators. Others came from smaller creators who simply loved fragrance and enjoyed talking about it.

As I watched and read hundreds of those reviews, I started noticing something.

Here were all these people who were incredibly passionate about fragrance. They could describe it. They understood how scent made them feel. They had stories. They had personalities.

But they didn't have fragrances of their own.

That fascinated me.

So instead of only listening to what people were saying about my fragrances, I started paying attention to the people saying it.

I began identifying creators who I believed could become fantastic fragrance brand owners.

It wasn't about follower count.

It wasn't about age.

It wasn't about appearance.

It wasn't about who had the most polished social media page.

I was looking for a vibe.

I wanted somebody with something special about them. Somebody I thought would hustle. Somebody with a story. Somebody I genuinely wanted to experience what it feels like to smell an idea that once existed only in your head and eventually hold the finished bottle in your hand.

I knew that feeling.

I wanted other people to experience it.

THEN CAME THE ROMA COLLECTIVE

I created a WhatsApp group called The Roma Collective.

With Joseph's help, we invited a handful of the creators I had identified.

The reaction was incredible.

People couldn't believe someone was offering them this opportunity.

And that's when an idea became a program.

Before creating it, I researched what it would cost someone to independently enter the fragrance industry through private-label and fragrance-development companies.

It wasn't cheap.

Of the companies I researched, the lowest development program I found was approximately $7,500 for development alone, followed by unit costs somewhere around $40 per bottle. Most of the five to seven companies I contacted operated on a similar model.

That isn't necessarily unreasonable. Developing fragrance commercially is expensive.

But I knew the people I wanted to help weren't necessarily walking around with $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000 to gamble on their first fragrance.

So I tried something different.

$2,200 AND 12 WEEKS

Our initial program cost $2,200.

The goal was a roughly 12-week development process that included guidance on starting a fragrance business, understanding what tools and people a new brand would need, one-on-one access to me when necessary, fragrance development and revisions, branding and packaging development, and 50 retail-ready 30mL fragrances.

And when it came to the formula, I wasn't interested in telling someone, "You used your revisions. Take it or leave it."

If it took another revision to get someone excited about wearing their own fragrance, I was willing to do it.

Maybe that wasn't the most scalable business decision.

But these weren't numbers to me.

They were people.

And very quickly, we started becoming a family.

THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED THAT MAY HAVE SET OUR EXPECTATIONS TOO HIGH

Our first creator launch took off.

From the announcement of preorders, approximately 22 bottles sold, followed by roughly another 60 bottles between creator inventory and bottles produced for online orders.

At a $75 retail price, the revenue generated from those sales was more than double the creator's original $2,200 program investment within roughly two months.

We were ecstatic.

We thought:

Maybe we can do this every time.

We couldn't.

Because there is nothing "every time" about entrepreneurship.

Every fragrance is different.

Every personality is different.

Every audience is different.

Every launch is different.

And every person handles the pressure of suddenly becoming a brand owner differently.

Ultimately, circumstances arose with that first relationship—including contractual issues—that caused us to determine it was better for everyone involved to separate.

That didn't erase what the experience proved.

This model could work.

THEN TOMMY CARLINI CHANGED THE MODEL AGAIN

Our second release also performed well, but it happened completely differently.

Tommy didn't have $2,200 to put into the program upfront.

Instead of simply telling him no, we came up with another approach.

I would develop the formula. Once he approved it, he could begin presales. When his sales reached an agreed threshold, I would produce an initial quantity of bottles for him, and his per-unit cost would be considerably higher than the cost available to creators who had paid for the complete program upfront.

It gave someone without the upfront capital another path into the business.

And it worked.

From there, The Roma Collective continued evolving.

Four more creators paid their program fees in full.

Three chose deposits with flexible payment arrangements.

Others eventually entered through variations of the presale model.

And this is an extremely important distinction:

The amount someone paid did not determine when I cared about their fragrance.

Formula development generally progressed according to when people entered the Collective, where their formula stood in development, whether they had approved it, and what still needed to be changed.

Some creators loved revision one.

Some loved revision two.

Some needed three.

Others needed considerably more.

Fragrance development doesn't move at identical speeds simply because two people started around the same time.

AND THEN I MADE THE BIGGEST MISTAKE: I TRIED TO DO TOO MUCH

People could see how much I was doing.

Formula development.

Revisions.

Production.

Packaging.

Brand development.

Content.

Meetings.

Consultations.

Sales.

Marketing.

And simultaneously operating Roma Parfum itself.

Some members began volunteering to help.

I appreciated it.

I allowed some of them to become increasingly involved.

Joseph warned me against blurring that line.

His concern was simple: they came into this relationship as clients and creators. If we begin turning clients into members of the operation, eventually those boundaries are going to become confusing.

In hindsight, I wish I had listened more carefully.

Because the lines between customer, creator, volunteer, team member, friend and business partner started becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish.

Meanwhile, creators who had paid in full were understandably watching other products reach completion while theirs might still be on revision three, five or seven.

That created frustration.

I understand that frustration.

What I don't agree with is the conclusion that a delay means somebody's money was stolen.

Those are two very different things.

THEN SOMEBODY SAID: THIS SHOULD BE A TV SHOW

Suddenly, we weren't just talking about fragrance anymore.

These were real people from completely different backgrounds trying to become fragrance entrepreneurs.

They had stories.

They had setbacks.

They had personalities.

They had conflicts.

They had dreams.

They had something worth watching.

What started almost as an unbelievable idea began becoming real.

I found a director.

Then producers.

Then people interested in writing and developing it.

Then potential sponsors began responding positively to the concept.

Roma Therapy was becoming real.

And that's when excitement also started turning into fear.

Some creators wanted television exposure.

Some absolutely did not.

Some wanted it but understandably wondered:

"What happens to my fragrance?"

"Does this change my launch?"

"When will my product be finished?"

"What exactly am I signing up for?"

Those were legitimate questions.

The mistake was allowing the excitement surrounding television to move faster than our ability to clearly communicate how the fragrance operation and entertainment operation would remain separate.

SO LET ME MAKE SOMETHING VERY CLEAR

Nobody was required to participate in Roma Therapy in order to have a fragrance.

Nobody had a gun to their head.

Nobody was told that their dream of becoming a fragrance brand owner suddenly required becoming a reality television personality.

I believed—and still believe—that appearing on a television series centered around your story and your fragrance could create an extraordinary marketing opportunity for a new brand.

But an opportunity is not a requirement.

If somebody joined Roma because all they wanted was their fragrance, then their fragrance was the objective.

AND THEN CAME THE ACCUSATIONS

As uncertainty increased, so did emotions.

Eventually, allegations began circulating suggesting that the entire Collective had somehow been created to take people's money, that creators weren't going to receive their products, or that money intended for fragrance development was simply being taken and spent however I wanted—including on television production.

Those are serious accusations.

And I reject them.

I didn't create The Roma Collective because Roma Parfum was failing.

Roma Parfum was already selling fragrance.

I didn't take on dozens of additional formulas, personalities, brands, packaging projects and daily consultations because I needed an easier way to make money.

There would have been much easier ways to do that.

I did it because I saw people I believed deserved an opportunity.

That doesn't mean everything went perfectly.

It absolutely did not.

We underestimated how much work this would become.

I underestimated how personally invested I would become in these creators.

We allowed business relationships and friendships to overlap.

Timelines changed.

Formulas took longer than expected.

Our program evolved while we were operating it.

Then an unexpected television opportunity magnified everything.

Those are legitimate things to criticize.

But mistakes, growing pains and delays are not automatically evidence of fraud.

I NEVER GUARANTEED ANYONE SUCCESS

This is another distinction worth making.

I know our early creators generated sales.

I know Roma's original eight generated sales.

But I never promised that every person joining The Roma Collective would make a certain amount of money.

Nobody can honestly guarantee that.

What I promised was something different:

I would give each creator the best opportunity I could to develop a fragrance they were proud of and give that new brand a genuine chance to succeed.

I still stand behind that.

And when Roma Therapy became possible, I saw another enormous opportunity.

Imagine launching an unknown fragrance brand and having your founder story, development process and eventual product launch introduced through television.

Would that guarantee success?

No.

Could it dramatically increase someone's chances of being discovered?

I believe so.

That's why I pursued it.

THE ROMA COLLECTIVE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BECOME THIS BIG

That's probably the strangest part of the entire story.

I didn't sit down with a business plan saying:

"Let's recruit dozens of people, develop dozens of fragrances and then make a television show."

It happened one opportunity at a time.

One person at a time.

One fragrance at a time.

One crazy idea at a time.

And eventually we looked around and realized we had built something much bigger than the original concept.

With growth came mistakes.

With mistakes came frustration.

With frustration came disagreements.

And with disagreements, unfortunately, came accusations.

I'm not going to pretend I'm flawless to defend myself.

I'm not.

There are things I would absolutely do differently if I could restart The Roma Collective tomorrow.

I'd create harder boundaries.

I'd expand the production team sooner.

I'd separate creator development, operations and entertainment from day one.

I'd communicate timelines differently.

I'd slow down before saying yes to another creator simply because I believed in them.

And I'd remind myself that wanting something badly for another person doesn't necessarily mean they're going to want it in exactly the same way I do.

Those are lessons.

Expensive lessons.

Stressful lessons.

But lessons nonetheless.

SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US?

It leaves us with fragrances that still need to be finished.

Creators who still believe in what we're building.

Other creators who may decide this journey is no longer for them.

Customers waiting for products.

A company that needs to become more organized as it grows.

And an entertainment concept I still believe has enormous potential.

Most importantly, it leaves me with responsibilities.

I'm not running from them.

If you paid for a fragrance-development program, my responsibility is not to force you onto television.

It's to address what Roma agreed to provide.

If you want nothing to do with Roma Therapy, that's your decision.

If you want your fragrance and nothing more, I respect that.

And if you want to stand beside us and find out how far this thing can go, then I'm ready to keep building with you.

I DIDN'T NEED TO START THE ROMA COLLECTIVE.

I wanted to.

Because I saw talented people who loved fragrance but didn't believe owning a fragrance brand was realistically within their reach.

I wanted to change that.

Maybe I tried to change it for too many people too quickly.

That's something I'm willing to own.

But I will not accept the rewriting of that ambition into an allegation that this was somehow designed to steal from the very people I was trying to help.

The easiest thing I could have done was continue selling Roma's original eight fragrances.

Instead, I opened the door and invited other people inside.

Some walked through it and made money.

Some are still developing their products.

Some relationships didn't survive the process.

Some people will leave.

Others will stay.

But my purpose hasn't changed.

Create great fragrance. Tell real stories. Build brands that otherwise might never have existed.

I can't promise every brand will become successful.

I can't promise there won't be another mistake.

And I certainly can't promise building something this ambitious will ever be easy.

What I can promise is that I haven't forgotten why I started it.

It wasn't because I needed another fragrance brand.

It was because I thought some other people deserved the chance to have one of their own.

Joe Gallagher Jr.
Founder, Roma Parfum
Where Stories Make Scents.