From L’Oréal to Glow Recipe | Sarah Lee’s Exact Path to a $300M Beauty Empire
· 1 h 26 min · Episode 63
Episode From L’Oréal to Glow Recipe | Sarah Lee’s Exact Path to a $300M Beauty Empire
Glow Recipe co-founder, Sarah Lee, joins Ladies Who Launch to share how she built a $300M beauty brand by rewriting the rules of Korean skincare. From landing her dream first job at L’Oréal and moving to NYC, to navigating intense work culture and building the foundations of her career, Sarah breaks down the pivotal experiences that prepared her to become a founder.
Inside the episode, Sarah opens up about the exact path to starting Glow Recipe, their journey on Shark Tank, finding the right Co-Founder and how they set out to change the global narrative around K-beauty.
In this episode, we cover:
• Key insights from working inside a legacy beauty giant (L’Oreal) to building a startup • How Sarah identified white space in the U.S. market for Korean skincare • Taking the Leap: Leaving L’Oréal & Launching Glow Recipe • Glow Recipe's Shark Tank Journey • Going from DTC to Sephora Shelves • Evolving the Glow Recipe Brand & Category Leadership
If you’re curious about building a beauty, consumer or community-led brand, this conversation is packed with honest and relatable formulas and behind-the-scenes insight that you can adopt and feed into your strategy.
We Are Ladies Who Launch!
CHAPTERS
00:00 Meet Sarah Lee: Glow Recipe Co-Founder & Co CEO
03:17 From Watermelon Rind to Watermelon Glow: Ingredient Inspiration
05:27 Landing the Dream Job at L’Oréal Korea & Learning the Beauty Business
16:56 Finding her Co-Founder & Spotting the K-Beauty Gap in the US Market
22:22 Quitting L’Oréal & Taking The Leap
29:42 The Shark Tank Experience
41:05 Choosing Mentorship vs. Money
45:44 Dealing with Sell Out Product
47:07 The Glow Recipe Partnership with Sephora
54:18 Reacting to Viral Product Moments
01:00:37 How the Co-CEO System Works
01:06:15 $300M Business & What’s Next
01:17:31 Founder Advice & How to Build Good Company Culture
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