Beautycounter: Gregg Renfrew. She Built Beautycounter to $1B… Then Got Fired From Her Own Company
Digest
This episode chronicles Greg Renfrew's entrepreneurial journey, from her early career in sales to founding "The Wedding List," an online wedding registry. After its sale to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she led "Best & Company" before consulting for Jessica Alba, which sparked the idea for Beautycounter. Driven by concerns about toxic chemicals, Renfrew launched Beautycounter with a clean beauty mission, utilizing a direct sales model for growth. Despite significant investment and expansion, the company faced challenges, including a pandemic impact and eventual acquisition by The Carlyle Group, which led to Renfrew's ousting. After a period of struggle and a failed relaunch under new leadership, Renfrew reacquired Beautycounter's assets out of foreclosure and launched "Counter," a new iteration focused on a multi-channel strategy and establishing a clear standard for clean beauty.
Outlines
Greg Renfrew's Entrepreneurial Journey: From Early Ventures to Beautycounter's Genesis
Greg Renfrew shares her path from early career struggles and financial difficulties to founding her first business, "The Wedding List," an online wedding registry. She details the challenges of the dot-com bubble, its impact on her business, and her subsequent role at "Best & Company," highlighting the lessons learned from these experiences.
The Birth of Beautycounter: A Mission for Safer Beauty
Renfrew's consulting work for Jessica Alba evolved into a focus on safer products for children, leading to the creation of Beautycounter. Driven by concerns about toxic chemicals, she aimed to establish a "clean beauty" standard in the market, facing challenges in manufacturing and choosing a direct sales model to build brand loyalty and community.
Growth, Acquisition, and Renfrew's Departure from Beautycounter
Beautycounter experienced rapid growth and attracted significant investment. However, the COVID-19 pandemic shifted consumer behavior, impacting sales. The Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake, and despite initial successes, growth plateaued, leading to pressure from Carlyle and Renfrew's eventual removal as CEO.
Renfrew's Return and the Foreclosure of Beautycounter
Following her ousting, Renfrew navigated the aftermath. After a new CEO's departure, she was asked to return to Beautycounter. However, shortly after her return, Carlyle ceased funding, leading to the company's foreclosure and winding down of operations.
Reimagining Beautycounter: Acquiring Assets and Launching "Counter"
Renfrew acquired the assets of Beautycounter out of foreclosure, using personal funds and investor support. She shut down the old company and launched "Counter," a new iteration focused on a multi-channel strategy, including affiliate sales and e-commerce, with a continued commitment to establishing a clear standard for clean beauty.
Keywords
Clean Beauty
A movement and product category focused on cosmetics and skincare formulated without potentially harmful ingredients, prioritizing health and environmental safety. It emphasizes transparency and ethical sourcing, though regulatory definitions can vary.
Direct Sales Model
A business strategy where products are sold directly to consumers, often through independent representatives who earn commissions. This model builds community and leverages personal networks for sales and brand advocacy.
Entrepreneurship
The process of designing, launching, and running a new business, which typically begins as a small business, such as a startup company, offering a product, process or service for sale or hire. It involves innovation, risk-taking, and resilience.
Venture Capital
Financing that investors provide to startup companies and small businesses with perceived long-term growth potential. It's a crucial funding source for scaling businesses, often involving significant investment rounds.
Brand Rebranding
The process of changing the corporate image of an organization. It can involve changing the name, logo, design, or overall marketing strategy to create a new, distinct identity in the market, often to attract new customers or revitalize an existing brand.
Foreclosure
A legal process by which a lender (mortgagee) takes possession of a property or asset from a borrower (mortgagor) who has failed to make payments on their mortgage or loan. It typically results in the sale of the asset to recover the outstanding debt.
Q&A
What was the initial inspiration behind Greg Renfrew's first business, "The Wedding List"?
Renfrew was inspired by her own experiences attending weddings and noticing the disconnect between what brides wanted for their bridesmaids' dresses and what bridesmaids could afford or desired. This led her to create a bridesmaids dress company, which eventually evolved into "The Wedding List," an online wedding registry.
How did the dot-com bubble impact "The Wedding List"?
The bursting of the dot-com bubble led to a drying up of financing, forcing "The Wedding List" into a premature and less successful sale. This experience taught Renfrew a valuable lesson about the risks of "growth at all costs" when market conditions change.
What is Greg Renfrew's definition of "clean beauty"?
For Renfrew, "clean beauty" means high-performing products that are significantly safer for health, free from certain chemicals of concern. While often environmentally friendly, she emphasizes that the term is complex and not strictly regulated, requiring a comprehensive approach beyond simply removing a few chemicals.
Why did Greg Renfrew choose a direct sales model for Beautycounter?
Renfrew opted for a direct sales model to build a community of brand advocates who genuinely believed in the mission of safer beauty products. This model allowed for cost-effective customer acquisition and brand amplification through trusted recommendations, differentiating it from traditional advertising.
What led to Greg Renfrew's ousting as CEO of Beautycounter by the Carlyle Group?
After the Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake, growth at Beautycounter plateaued. This led to pressure from Carlyle, who ultimately decided Renfrew was not the right person to lead the company forward, resulting in her removal as CEO.
How did Greg Renfrew end up acquiring the assets of Beautycounter after its foreclosure?
Bank of America, a lead lender, approached Renfrew's lawyers, offering to sell her the brand's assets out of foreclosure. Despite the financial risk and tight deadline, she decided to purchase them, believing in the importance of the movement she had created.
Show Notes
Gregg Renfrew started a movement by making better-for-you cosmetics, then enlisted an army of women to build the business through direct sales. But after selling Beautycounter, she was pushed out of the company she created.
Then she got to do something almost no founder gets to do:
She bought her company back. Then lost it again. Then took the risky step of rebuilding it into a new brand, now called Counter.
This is a story about ambition, humility, and second chances.
Gregg learned her first lessons by launching an early online wedding registry and selling it to Martha Stewart. She briefly led a clothing company and was summarily fired—by messenger.
In this candid conversation, Gregg talks about the bold innovation she brought to the beauty industry, and the lessons she learned from working with difficult people—including, at times, herself.
What You’ll Learn:
How to build a movement—not just a product
The hidden risks of “growth at all costs”
Why direct sales (done right) can outperform traditional DTC
The emotional toll of being fired from your own company
How to rebuild your identity after losing your business
What it takes to come back—and do it differently the second time
Timestamps:
(00:06:15 ) – Selling Xerox machines and getting doors slammed in her face
(00:08:09 ) – The early inspiration for an online wedding registry.
(00:16:44 ) – The brutal lesson of the dot-com crash: “growth at all costs”
(00:21:58 ) – Standing up to Martha Stewart: “I was cocky.”
(00:23:51 ) – Getting fired as CEO… by messenger… in front of her team
(00:32:47 ) – The moment she realized the beauty industry had a massive gap
(00:35:25 ) – “Clean beauty didn’t exist”—and why that made it so hard
(00:47:04 ) – Building a 60,000-person sales force, scaling to hundreds of millions in sales
(00:46:40 ) – Selling Beautycounter for $1B… and losing control months later
(01:00:13 ) – The emotional aftermath of being pushed out—and what came next
This episode was produced by John Isabella with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Noor Gill. Our engineers were Patrick Murray and Jimmy Keeley.
Follow How I Built This:
Instagram → @howibuiltthis
X → @HowIBuiltThis
Facebook → How I Built This
Follow Guy Raz:
Instagram → @guy.raz
Youtube → guy_raz
X → @guyraz
Substack → guyraz.substack.com
Website → guyraz.com
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Table of contents
United States
