--- title: "VicBlends Raises $7M Pre-Revenue: The Importance of Trademark Ownership" description: VicBlends raised $7 million for his grooming line before launch. Understand the importance of trademark ownership and creator licenses in investor relations. image: https://www.segarraip.com/hubfs/download-2.png --- [Skip to content](https://www.segarraip.com/segarraip-blog/vicblends-raised-7-million-before-selling-a-single-jar.-investors-will-ask-who-owns-the-name#main-content) [![](https://www.segarraip.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Segarra%20IP.Icon.png?width=200&height=100&name=Segarra%20IP.Icon.png)](https://www.segarraip.com) - [Trademark Services](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-services) - About Show submenu for About - [About Pablo](https://www.segarraip.com/about-pablo-segarra) - [Speaking](https://www.segarraip.com/speaking) - Resources Show submenu for Resources - [Ultimate Trademark Guide](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-registration-guide) - [BLOG](https://www.segarraip.com/writing) - [Contact](https://www.segarraip.com/contact) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [Trademark Services](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-services) - About Show submenu for About - [About Pablo](https://www.segarraip.com/about-pablo-segarra) - [Speaking](https://www.segarraip.com/speaking) - Resources Show submenu for Resources - [Ultimate Trademark Guide](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-registration-guide) - [BLOG](https://www.segarraip.com/writing) - [Contact](https://www.segarraip.com/contact) - [Get A Free Trademark Review](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-services) [Get A Free Trademark Review](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-services) [All posts](https://www.segarraip.com/segarraip-blog/all) October 4, 2026 # VicBlends Raises $7M Pre-Revenue: The Importance of Trademark Ownership ![Picture of Pablo Segarra, Esq.](https://www.segarraip.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PabloWritingCover.png?width=50&name=PabloWritingCover.png) By  [Pablo Segarra, Esq.](https://www.segarraip.com/segarraip-blog/author/pablo-segarra-esq)  ·  5 minute read Brands in Motion / Health, Beauty & Wellness / Investor Diligence Latino founders, the first serious investor question about your brand usually isn't about revenue. It's "Who owns the name?" Victor Fontanez, the barber millions know as VicBlends, just raised $7 million for a grooming line before it sold a jar. His audience made that possible. The trademark record shows the questions that come with it. | $7M Pre-revenue funding for BetterDays from Maveron and Will Ventures, announced Sept. 29, 2026. | | --- | BetterDays launched September 29 with two products, Rebound Cream and Grip Powder at $20 each, built for wavy, curly and coily hair types from 3A to 4C, [per BeautyMatter](https://beautymatter.com/articles/vicblends-launches-mens-grooming-brand-with-7-million-in-funding). It sells direct, on TikTok Shop and on Amazon. The co-founders are Fontanez and Joey Thomas, who built DUDE Wipes. The backing came from Maveron and Will Ventures, and Fontanez's audience is more than 23 million followers across platforms. My position: in a creator-led beauty brand, the creator's name and the product's name are two different assets, and the smartest structure keeps them apart. The company should own BetterDays outright. The creator should own his personal brand and license it into the product company on written terms. Founders tend to do the opposite, either blurring the two or handing everything to the new company, and that's what makes diligence slow and later exits messy. | $20 Price per product at launch | 23M+ Followers across platforms | 5 Classes in the BETTERDAYS application | Sept 22 VICBLENDS registration date | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ## Question 1: Does the company own its product name? | **Investors want the product name owned by the company they're funding, in the classes where it sells.** For a grooming brand, that usually means Class 3 for cosmetics and hair care, plus classes for tools, accessories and retail. A pending application is normal at launch. What investors look for is that it's in the right entity's name and that the field around it is clear. | | --- | The USPTO shows a [BETTERDAYS application](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn99704746) filed March 16, 2026 by Better Habit, Inc., a Delaware company, covering cosmetics and hair care, grooming tools, bags, accessories and retail services. The record doesn't name VicBlends, so I'm inferring the connection from the goods and the timing, not confirming it. The application received a non-final office action on July 21. I haven't read that action, and I won't guess at its grounds. What I can see is a smart filing choice. The application claims priority from a trademark application filed in Jamaica on February 4, 2026. Under [15 U.S.C. § 1126(d)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1126), a U.S. application filed within six months of a first application in a treaty country can claim that earlier date. That's a tool brands use to lock in a priority date quietly before a public launch. For an investor, an earlier priority date matters because, in a conflict between similar marks, the earlier filer usually starts from the stronger position. It's one of the details I'd point to in diligence as a sign the team planned the brand before it announced it. ## Question 2: Who else is called BetterDays? | **Every diligence review includes a look at similar marks, because a crowded name narrows what the company can stop and can raise the risk of a challenge.** The question isn't whether anyone else uses the words. It's whether they use them for related goods or services in a way that could confuse buyers. | | --- | The record includes a registered [BETTERDAYS](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn88753563) for entertainment services owned by a media company, and pending [BETTERDAYS CO.](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn99528533) applications covering dietary supplements and online retail. Those are different goods, and different goods often coexist. But a phrase like "better days" is the kind of warm, common expression that many businesses reach for, and that usually means a narrower scope of protection. I'd expect an investor's counsel to flag that, and I'd want the founders to have a clear answer ready. | A trademark protects your name for specific goods. A common phrase gets you a narrower lane, not a monopoly on the feeling. | | --- | ## Question 3: Who owns the creator's name, and how is it licensed? | **The creator's personal brand should usually stay with the creator's own company and be licensed to the product company under a written agreement.** That keeps the creator's career separate from one product line, while giving investors certainty about how the name can be used on packaging, ads and launches. | | --- | Here the record is clean on the personal side. [VICBLENDS](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn98977094) registered on September 22, 2026, owned by Vic Blends, LLC, a Georgia company, with Fontanez's consent of record. It covers service classes such as barbering and entertainment. A separate VICBLENDS application for clothing was [abandoned](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn98096618) after no statement of use was filed. None of those VicBlends filings covers hair-care products in Class 3, which is fine if the plan is to build BetterDays as the product brand and use "by VicBlends" as an endorsement. That endorsement line is where I'd focus. "BetterDays by VicBlends" uses one company's name on another company's product. The license that permits it should spell out scope, quality approvals, term, what happens to inventory if the deal ends, and whether the creator can endorse competing products. I have no visibility into their agreements. I'm describing what a buyer of this company would ask for in five years. Your audience is the reason investors said yes. Your license is how they know the audience stays attached. ## Here's what I'd check before the term sheet | 1 | Name the owner. Confirm the product mark sits in the company receiving the investment, not a founder, an agency or a holding entity nobody mentioned. | | --- | --- | | 2 | Map the roadmap. List the next products by category. If sprays, gels, shampoos or serums are coming, make sure the filings cover them before you announce them. | | 3 | Write the creator license. Scope, approvals, term, exclusivity, termination and post-term inventory. Put it in writing before the money arrives. | | 4 | Run a fresh search. Re-check the field for the product name and the endorsement line in the categories you're entering next. | | 5 | Answer the office action on time. A non-final office action has a response deadline. Missing it can end the application, and investors will check the status. | ## The honest complication A fair objection: investors funded this because of Fontanez, and keeping his name in a separate company could look like he's holding back. Some funds prefer the founder's personal marks inside the company, especially when the brand is the founder. That's a real negotiation, not a mistake either way. I'd still default to licensing. A license gives the investors what they actually need, which is a guaranteed right to use the name on the product, while protecting the creator's career if the product company is ever sold, merged or wound down. When the creator's name is the most valuable thing in the room, the creator should know exactly which rooms it's going into. | The audience got the meeting. The paperwork closes the round. | | --- | Fontanez built a following one haircut at a time, and that following turned into $7 million before the first jar shipped. That's a real achievement and a model for barbers, stylists and beauty creators across our community. If you're the founder getting the investor email this quarter, have your answer ready for "Who owns the name?" The best answer has two parts: what the company owns, and what you license to it. | Segarra IP PLLC · Trademark Clarity Audit Raising? Get your ownership answers ready before diligence. [Start with the trademark registration guide](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-registration-guide) | | --- | ## Sources | [BeautyMatter, "VicBlends Launches Men's Grooming Brand with $7 Million in Funding" (Sept. 29, 2026)](https://beautymatter.com/articles/vicblends-launches-mens-grooming-brand-with-7-million-in-funding) | | --- | | [WWD, "Meet BetterDays, Celebrity Groomer Victor Fontanez's New Brand"](https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/hair/victor-fontanez-better-days-launch-1239259440/) | | [USPTO TSDR, BETTERDAYS, Serial No. 99704746 (Better Habit, Inc.)](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn99704746) | | [USPTO TSDR, BETTERDAYS, Serial No. 88753563 (Betterdays Media Inc.)](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn88753563) | | [USPTO TSDR, BETTERDAYS CO., Serial No. 99528533](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn99528533) | | [USPTO TSDR, VICBLENDS, Serial No. 98977094](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn98977094) | | [USPTO TSDR, VICBLENDS (clothing), Serial No. 98096618](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn98096618) | | [15 U.S.C. § 1126 (Cornell LII)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1126) | Pablo Segarra, Esq. is a trademark attorney and the founder of Segarra IP PLLC, a federal trademark firm for Latino founders and creators behind growing brands. General information, not legal advice. 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