The Blueprint Fragrances — a luxury, unisex fragrance brand — was founded by Business seniors Matthew Brown and Alex Zhang in January 2025 with the mission to raise the standards of social governance in high-margin businesses. The startup is actively producing and selling fragrances. Going forward, the founders are focused on improving the efficiency of their production process while producing quality products.
Blueprint donates 30% of profits to Habitat for Humanity, a global nonprofit organization that builds and repairs affordable housing for low-income families. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Zhang said the donation model was chosen to ensure the company could grow while still sustaining its charitable mission.
“We were trying to select a margin that would be quite generous,” Zhang said. “This is not just a business that we’re doing to make profit — we truly think that, with these sales, we can help others. The point of the business was to assemble a creative product to test our skills as businessmen, but also to improve the communities around us.”
In an interview with The Daily, Business senior Daniel Lin, a supporter of The Blueprint, said the startup’s commitment to charity, especially within the luxury industry, makes it unique among other student-founded companies in the Ross School of Business.
“Focusing on that charitable side and doing good rather than prioritizing profits, while also being a luxury appeal — I think that really helps them stand out a lot,” Lin said.
In an email to The Daily, Business senior Lucy Gold wrote the startup stood out to her as a creative way to apply what students learn at the Business School.
“I heard about it in the beginning and I thought it was an interesting way to creatively formally capitalize on our Ross education,” Gold wrote. “I think it is great and they go beyond saying with their dedication of funds. I think the fact that it is a tangible good with actual money being used for social good makes them stand out.”
Brown said the business is experimenting with marketing strategies in the broader University of Michigan community, like A/B testing, an experiment comparing scent variants for fragrances. The Blueprint aims to expand their brand by performing outreach strategies in other locations frequented by students, such as Scorekeepers and Rick’s American Cafe.
“We’ve set up a table in the (Shapiro Undergraduate Library) to do A/B testing for our scents before,” Brown said. “We’re going to, at some point, hand out little samplers in the lines to Skeeps and Rick’s and test the fragrances.”
In addition to in-person marketing efforts, Zhang said they are trying to build a digital presence for the brand.
“We’ve got an Instagram, we’re going to set up a TikTok soon,” Zhang said. “We’ve also done a photoshoot and set up a website, so we’re really trying to push this e-commerce angle and sell to a wide audience, as well as still figuring out how to paint our brand and showcase it best.”
As the company grows, Zhang said he has both short- and long-term goals, including building the reputation of The Blueprint’s products and expanding the startup’s connection with charities.
“In terms of short-term goals, we really want to create a quality product,” Zhang said. “We want to create formulas that people enjoy, can be passed down and will stand on their own. Long-term, we do ultimately want to help charity and look towards establishing maybe an official partnership with Habitat for Humanity or any other organization. One of our business’s main purposes is to help other people.”
Brown said he hopes The Blueprint’s fragrances will eventually compete beyond the student startup space.
“We don’t want to be just another student startup,” Brown said. “We want to put out a product that is high enough quality to earnestly compete on its own merits with other products in the market.”
Daily Staff Reporter Grace Park can be reached at gracepm@umich.edu.
