Case Studies
Real stories of women building online businesses.
Chamberlain Coffee
Emma Chamberlain filmed herself drinking coffee for two years, then turned that audience into a $22 million brand on…
Madam C.J. Walker
An orphaned, widowed washerwoman earning about a dollar a day built a haircare empire serving the customer the beauty…
Emma Leigh & Co
At 15 she covered payroll at her family's seafood factory.
dpHUE
Donna Pohlad started dpHUE in 2011 because she was tired of covering her grays.
Westman Atelier
Gucci Westman painted faces for red carpets for 30 years, then bet she could bottle the look and build the first makeup…
Bala
Natalie Holloway and Max Kislevitz redesigned the ankle weight into something people actually wanted to wear, closed a…
Fishwife
In lockdown, Becca Millstein noticed the fancy tinned fish everyone was obsessed with was all European.
Fly By Jing
For years Jing Gao went by "Jenny" to fit in.
Glowbar
Rachel Liverman was told no by 100 investors.
KraveBeauty
Liah Yoo built a skincare brand by telling people their 10-step routines were hurting their skin.
Peach & Lily
Alicia Yoon's eczema was so bad she went to esthetician school in Korea to fix her own skin.
Frida
Chelsea Hirschhorn took over a tiny company with $10,000 in the bank and one weird product, a tube for sucking snot out…
Maude
Éva Goicochea wanted a sexual-wellness brand clean and unembarrassing enough to sell at Sephora.
The Honey Pot
Beatrice Dixon's doctors couldn't fix her infection.
LOLA
Jordana Kier and Alexandra Friedman asked what was actually in a tampon, built a transparent, organic period-care brand…
Cora
Molly Hayward built Cora on a simple deal, a woman buys organic tampons she was going to buy anyway, and a girl who…
Ritual
Katerina Schneider was pregnant, reading her prenatal label, and realized she had no idea what was in it.
Milk Bar
A trained pastry chef fed up with fancy restaurants opened a bakery selling cookies made with potato chips and a pie so…
theSkimm
Two NBC News producers quit their jobs, funded their idea on credit-card debt, and built a daily email that explained…
23andMe
Anne Wojcicki convinced millions to mail her their DNA and built 23andMe into a company once worth $6 billion.
Kendra Scott
Kendra Scott started her jewelry company with $500, no investors, and no retail experience, while pregnant with her…
Cuyana
Fresh out of business school with almost no fashion experience, Karla Gallardo and Shilpa Shah started a company around…
Draper James
Reese Witherspoon's Southern-inspired brand had a beloved founder, a clear point of view, and $10 million in funding.
Saltair
Iskra Lawrence spent years as a model and a leading voice in body positivity.
Phlur
Phlur was a clean-fragrance pioneer that never broke through.
Kitsch
After seven failed businesses, Cassandra Thurswell wrote a one-paragraph plan as if it had already worked, then started…
Hero Cosmetics
Ju Rhyu found pimple patches everywhere in South Korea and nowhere in the US.
Dieux
Charlotte Palermino built a following by calling out skincare marketing nonsense, then co-founded a brand that…
Cocokind
Priscilla Tsai left an equity-research job at J.P.
Girlfriend Collective
Ellie Dinh couldn't find ethically made activewear, so she and her husband made leggings out of recycled water bottles,…
Ceremonia
Babba Rivera never saw her Latina heritage on a beauty shelf, so she built it.
Bread Beauty Supply
Maeva Heim grew up in her mother's hair-braiding salon, then watched a multibillion-dollar industry ignore hair like…
Ilia
Sasha Plavsic read the labels on her makeup, didn't like what she found, and spent two years making one better lip balm.
Briogeo
Nancy Twine left the Goldman Sachs trading floor after her mother died, went back to the hair recipes she'd made in her…
Our Place
Shiza Shahid helped build a Nobel laureate's foundation, then co-founded a cookware brand whose pastel Always Pan…
Naturium
Susan Yara reviewed skincare as a trusted, unbiased voice, then her followers learned she owned one of the brands she…
Supergoop!
A harpist with no beauty experience set out to put sunscreen in schools, and built the brand that made daily SPF a…
Anastasia Beverly Hills
Anastasia Soare arrived in Los Angeles from Romania in 1989 and was told brows were not a market.
Glow Recipe
Sarah Lee and Christine Chang spent three years importing other people's Korean skincare into the US and pitching that…
Goop
Gwyneth Paltrow launched Goop as a free email newsletter from her London kitchen in September 2008, and the company…
Lemme
Kourtney Kardashian Barker launched Lemme with Simon Huck in September 2022.
Selkie
Kimberley Gordon co-founded Wildfox in 2007 and was forced out by 2015.
Tatcha
Vicky Tsai sold her engagement ring in 2008 to pay for $30,000 of Japanese blotting papers.
Wildfox
Kimberley Gordon and Emily Faulstich designed the look that defined Tumblr-era fashion in the late 2000s.
EOS
Three men founded EOS in 2007 with an egg-shaped lip balm.
Mejuri
A Toronto DTC fine jewelry brand built by a third-generation jeweler from Amman.
Prime
Logan Paul and KSI launched a sports drink in January 2022 and hit $1.2 billion in sales by 2023.
Scrub Daddy
3M acquired Aaron Krause's buffing-pad business in 2008 and passed on the polymer foam sitting in his factory.
Glamnetic
$5,000 in savings, a bedroom in Koreatown, and 300 failed samples before one that worked.
Makeup by Mario
Self-funded for two and a half years, Sephora-exclusive, built on 20 years as Kim Kardashian's makeup artist and 30,000…
Olipop
From a failed first brand and $100,000 in startup capital to $400 million in revenue, a $1.85 billion valuation, and…
Tory Burch
$2 million from a kitchen table, $100,000 in sales on opening night, and 20 years of refusing to go public.
Victoria Beckham
15 years of losses and £66 million in accumulated debt before a beauty line and a £32 eyeliner turned a failing fashion…
Victoria Beckham Beauty
A clean beauty brand born from a fashion label that lost £66 million, now selling one eyeliner every 30 seconds and…
Athena Club
DTC razor brand that pivoted from tampons, raised $55M, landed in 1,600 Target stores, and holds a 93% customer…
Aritzia
Brian Hill opened one boutique in a Vancouver mall in 1984.
Lululemon
Chip Wilson went to one yoga class in 1997, spent the next several years building the $100 yoga pant into an $11…
Mom's Spaghetti
Eminem turned a meme into a restaurant, a merch empire, and a Detroit tourism draw by doing almost nothing that a…
Skinnygirl
Bethenny Frankel built a low-calorie cocktail brand in two years, sold it for a reported $120 million, and kept the…
Unwell Network
Alex Cooper turned a raunchy podcast she recorded in her apartment into a $125 million media deal.
UGC Creators
Rates, income ranges, and market outlook for user-generated content creation.
Blake Brown
Blake Lively's hair brand broke Target's all-time hair launch record on day one, then watched 87% of its weekly sales…
Bobbi Brown Cosmetics
A makeup artist created 10 lipsticks in her kitchen, sold them all on day one at Bergdorf Goodman, built a…
Cécred
Beyoncé's self-funded haircare brand.
Chanel
A former orphan opened a hat shop in 1910.
Diane von Furstenberg
A Belgian immigrant who married a prince, divorced him, built a fashion empire on a single dress, lost it all, and came…
Drybar
A stay-at-home mom started doing blowouts for friends in their living rooms, opened one salon with $300,000, and built…
Estée Lauder
A woman who mixed face cream in her kitchen, sold it by touching strangers' faces, and built the world's largest…
Flower Beauty
Drew Barrymore's affordable beauty brand.
Haus Labs
Lady Gaga's clean makeup brand.
Hermès
A family-owned saddlery shop founded in 1837, still controlled by the founder's descendants, now worth over $230…
Jacquemus
A farmer's son from Provence built a half-billion-euro fashion house with no fashion degree, no investors, and no…
Jo Malone
A dyslexic teenager from a London council estate who couldn't read the labels on her mother's bottles, built a…
Jones Road Beauty
Bobbi Brown sold her first cosmetics brand to Estée Lauder, waited out a 25-year non-compete, and at 63 launched a new…
Josie Maran
The supermodel who brought argan oil to luxury beauty.
JVN Hair
Jonathan Van Ness built a $28 million haircare brand with a biotech company's patented ingredient, had zero equity when…
KORA Organics
Miranda Kerr's certified organic skincare brand.
KVD Beauty
The tattoo artist who accidentally built LVMH's beauty incubator: $12M in year one on a $2M projection, 250+ products…
Laura Mercier
The French makeup artist who invented the 'flawless face.' Sold twice, now under PE ownership, with the #1 setting…
LolaVie
Jennifer Aniston spent five years developing a hair care line, launched it with a single product and no retail…
Merit
Katherine Power's minimalist beauty brand.
NARS Cosmetics
François Nars' prestige makeup brand.
Pat McGrath Labs
The most influential makeup artist alive built a billion-dollar brand on pure creative credibility, no formal training,…
Patrick Ta Beauty
Celebrity makeup artist turned brand founder.
Pleasing
Harry Styles' gender-neutral lifestyle brand.
Reformation
A sustainable fashion brand that started with $7,000 and vintage dresses in the back of a Los Angeles storefront, grew…
Rent the Runway
Two Harvard MBA students cold-emailed Diane von Furstenberg, got told their idea would never work, and built a $1.7…
Savage X Fenty
How Rihanna built a $1 billion lingerie brand in four years by doing what Victoria's Secret spent decades refusing to…
Stitch Fix
A Harvard student used SurveyMonkey and paper checks to test an idea that became a $2.1 billion personal styling…
The Outset
Scarlett Johansson turned down Shiseido and Estée Lauder, chose independent backing instead, and built a clean skincare…
The Row
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's luxury fashion label, valued at $1 billion with zero advertising, no social media…
Trinny London
A former TV presenter sold her home, sold her wardrobe, and launched a beauty brand from her kitchen table at 53.
Louis Vuitton
The world's most valuable luxury brand.
Popflex
Cassey Ho's activewear brand, built from a YouTube fitness channel with zero advertising spend.
818 Tequila
Kendall Jenner's tequila brand, built on 3.5 years of blind taste testing and a veteran spirits operator.
BÉIS
Shay Mitchell's travel brand, built with brand incubator Beach House Group.
Crumbl
Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley's cookie franchise.
Feastables
MrBeast's chocolate brand.
Kayali
Mona Kattan's fragrance brand built on the Middle Eastern tradition of scent layering.
Bumble
Whitney Wolfe Herd's dating app where women message first, taken public at a $13 billion valuation before losing 95% of…
Canva
Melanie Perkins built a drag-and-drop design tool that 265 million people use every month, after more than 100 VCs told…
Charlotte Tilbury
A celebrity makeup artist who spent 20 years backstage before launching her own line at age 40, building it into a…
Drunk Elephant
Tiffany Masterson built a skincare brand with $300K and no industry experience, sold it to Shiseido for $845 million,…
e.l.f. Cosmetics
The $1 makeup brand that became the number one mass cosmetics company in America.
Good American
Khloé Kardashian and Emma Grede's size-inclusive denim brand.
Huda Beauty
Huda Kattan's cosmetics empire.
Ipsy
Michelle Phan's beauty subscription service.
IT Cosmetics
Jamie Kern Lima built a cosmetics company from her apartment, sold it to L'Oréal for $1.2 billion, and became the first…
Khloud
Khloé Kardashian's protein popcorn brand.
Kylie Cosmetics
Kylie Jenner sold 15,000 Lip Kits in under one minute at age 18, sold 51% to Coty for $600 million four years later,…
Poppi
Allison and Stephen Ellsworth's prebiotic soda brand.
Safely
Kris Jenner and Emma Grede's plant-based cleaning brand.
Saie
Laney Crowell's clean makeup brand.
Sol de Janeiro
Heela Yang built a Brazilian-inspired body care brand from her dining room into Sephora's #1 selling brand across all…
Spanx
Sara Blakely turned $5,000 and a pair of scissors into a $1.2 billion shapewear company.
Summer Fridays
Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Ireland turned a single hydrating mask into Sephora's #1 skincare brand by market share,…
The Honest Company
Jessica Alba's clean baby and household brand, raised $503M in venture capital, went public at a $1.44B valuation, and…
Tower 28
Amy Liu's clean beauty brand for sensitive skin.
Glossier
Emily Weiss turned a beauty blog into a $1.8 billion brand, then watched it nearly collapse.
Fenty Beauty
Rihanna's beauty brand, valued at $2–3 billion.
Jay-Z
How a rapper who couldn't get signed built a $2.5 billion empire, and why almost none of it came from music.
Rare Beauty
Selena Gomez's beauty brand, valued at ~$2.7 billion.
Rhode
Hailey Bieber's skincare brand, sold to e.l.f.
Skims
Kim Kardashian's shapewear-turned-lifestyle brand, valued at $5 billion.