A beauty brand sells on mission, but the product is what keeps it alive
Thrive Causemetics first made a false lash for people who lost their lashes to chemo, then used one iPhone ad to push daily sales from $5,000 to $100,000 in seven days. The founder says mission drives repeat purchase, but product decides survival.
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A specific problem comes first, the brand second
Carissa didn't think up a startup and then make a product. Volunteering at Look Good Feel Better, she saw that women who had lost their lashes to chemo had no solution: mascara had nothing to cling to, and traditional false lashes used latex and parabens in the glue — too irritating for immunocompromised people, and they wouldn't stick anyway. At the same time she thought about her friend Christy, who after losing her hair still wanted to feel like herself, and about dignity. So she went to ophthalmologists and oncologists and used fiber suppliers she had met during her Clarisonic days to make the first false lash that didn't depend on natural lashes, plus Infinity Waterproof Lash Adhesive, which contains no latex or parabens.
— Karissa BodnarScarcity isn't an obstacle, it's a focusing tool
She quotes "scarcity drives focus," and says her scarcity was capital and time. With no money for ads, she sent DMs one by one: an Instagram message to Elena George at Good Morning America, a LinkedIn message to April Franzino at Good Housekeeping. She LinkedIn-messaged more than 20 editors; only one replied, and even after replying it was another six months before they met. The first print coverage came out in July 2015 — just a very small slot in Good Housekeeping. Her logic: do it one person at a time, because you never know who will change your life.
— Karissa BodnarDuring those seven viral days, the company had no employees
Before Black Friday 2016, she shot an ad on an iPhone about Infinity Waterproof Eyeliner, customers started commenting on their own, and the business took off. She called her sister to say they'd do $5,000 that day, then $25,000 the next, and within seven days $100,000. At that point the company had not a single employee: her friend Megan, a dental hygienist, came after work to do customer service; her sister did customer service on her lunch break; her mom came too. The first official hires came from Christy's sorority at the University of Washington — women five years younger than Carissa who had never met Christy, but knew Thrive and its mission.
— Karissa BodnarFailing to raise money is what preserved control
From 2013 to 2015 she spent a huge amount of time fundraising, very unsuccessfully. Only after the company was already profitable, with revenue above $30 million, did she take capital — and she only needed a few hundred thousand dollars for inventory. Because she wasn't desperate for money, her negotiating position was completely different: she and her lawyer wrote the term sheet themselves, kept majority equity and control of the company, and no one else could decide whether she sold it. Her advice is to raise less, because scarcity sustains that focused mindset. She also says that if she had gotten more money than she could spend early on, she might have lost that focus and never polished the products one at a time.
— Karissa BodnarMission drives repeat purchase, product decides survival
People always ask her: mission or product? Her answer is product — it has to be product. Mission and product are bound together: because they donate to cancer patients, there are thousands of ingredients they will never use. But she's equally clear that customers don't come for the mission — they come because Liquid Lash Extensions won Allure's best of beauty, the Grammys of beauty. If the formula and the product don't give customers a solution, you're dead. Anyone who just wants to donate can write a check to a local charity; Thrive's value is letting people do two things at once.
— Karissa BodnarDon't own the factory, own the formula
She believes no one needs to own their own manufacturing facility; what matters most is owning your formulas. Ownership comes from creation, so they invest in their own cosmetic chemists. Then you negotiate exclusivity — those two things protect the formula and its integrity. She also stresses not to rely on handshake deals: have contracts, and reinforce them repeatedly, because once a product takes off it attracts competition. She says she likes competition because it keeps the team sharp, but she always keeps one question in view: what do our customers want from us.
— Karissa BodnarEvery product has to fund the next one
Thrive is bootstrapped and has always been profitable, so every product has to pay for the next one. She gives a very concrete example: if Empower Shine, a lipstick in development for years, doesn't sell well enough, they can't launch Lasting Mark Lip Stain, which they hoped to bring out within a month. The skincare line, though developed with dermatologists, oncologists and ophthalmologists, is still small relative to the whole business. She sees complexion and sun care as opportunities, but the brand was built one product at a time, and that discipline can't loosen.
— Karissa BodnarShe says plainly that she doesn't want to sell the company
Asked whether she'd be willing to be acquired by a big company the way Tatcha was, she says flatly no, I don't want to sell the company, and they've had the chance. She sees the ending as continuing to show up and continuing to develop products that change people's lives. She says she now has more money than she needs, so she can give it away; more important is how to leave the world better than she found it, and how to build a sustainable business that outlives them. She believes staying private is the best way, and growing people from within — for example, someone who started as a cosmetic chemistry intern is now a product development manager, and she hopes one day she'll run the whole company.
— Karissa BodnarIn their own words · checked verbatim
And so I was funding the production through working my full-time job as well as my life savings. And I wiped out my entire life savings.
Karissa Bodnar26:36
Having a $150 revenue day, I felt like an absolute baller.
Karissa Bodnar26:36
I had LinkedIn messaged over 20 editors, and she was the only one who responded. And even when she did respond, it took six months to get a meeting with her.
Karissa Bodnar27:38
People have always asked me, is it the mission or is it the product? And I said, product, it has to be the product.
Karissa Bodnar36:31
They're not coming to us because of that. They're coming to us because liquid lash extensions is Allure's best of beauty winner.
Karissa Bodnar37:33
I don't think anybody needs to own their manufacturing facilities. I think what's most important is owning your formulations.
Karissa Bodnar40:48
No, no, I don't want to sell the company. And we've had opportunities to.
Karissa Bodnar44:00
Figures
| Daily revenue before going viral | $150 | 26:36 |
| Annual revenue before taking capital | over $30 million | 32:56 |
| 2020 revenue | about $150 million | 36:31 |
| Headcount | about 70 | 39:38 |
| Time for Liquid Lash Extensions Mascara to sell out | 48 hours | 30:50 |
Glossary
- direct-to-consumer
- A brand sells straight to consumers instead of going through retailers.
- term sheet
- The document in a financing that lays out the core terms: valuation, equity, control and so on.
- co-manufacturer
- A brand doesn't build its own plant but contracts a third-party factory to make the product.
- one for one
- For every item sold, one is donated — the model Toms shoes made famous.
How to listen
Founders and early investors in consumer brands, beauty or D2C, especially anyone weighing whether to raise or to build their own manufacturing.
The first 5 minutes on making lipstick as a child can be fast-forwarded; low information.