Gregg Renfrew didn’t start in beauty, and it’s that outsider edge she credits her success to.

“To are available in as an outsider to the industry, you might have a little bit of naïveté, but in addition curiosity that permits you the chance to challenge the established order,” she said. “That’s a part of the million the explanation why the corporate was so successful.”

Renfrew founded Beautycounter in 2011 and sold a majority stake to the Carlyle Group in 2021, a transaction which valued the business at $1 billion. To her, timing was key to the brand’s success.

“Timing is critically necessary, and our timing was spot on,” Renfrew said of Beautycounter’s entry to the market. “We got here in as a bunch of individuals experienced in business, but not necessarily on this industry, so we were at all times asking questions.”

Ingredient safety and traceability were amongst a very powerful questions the founders asked. The subsequent frontiers include carbon neutrality, sustainability writ large and fair wages for employees in every step of the availability chain.

“After I began Beautycounter, I wanted to vary the industry because I desired to take toxic chemicals out of non-public care, cosmetics products. That’s why I named the corporate Beautycounter, which was counter to the established order,” Renfrew said. “With a love of fashion and residential and other things, I got here out appreciating the ability of the wonder industry, not only when it comes to the revenues related to it, but the ability when it comes to people’s health, emotional and physical.”

The brand’s impact includes laws. For instance, in 2019, Renfrew testified in a congressional hearing on regulation reform for cosmetics

“For the primary time since 1938, Congress took motion and really adjusted the laws that govern our industry,” Renfrew said in reference to the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022, which incorporates records access from beauty corporations to the Food and Drug Administration, in addition to robust requirements for opposed event reporting.

“We made significant progress, but that said, there’s a lot work that should be done. We just began to scratch the surface, and never even just within the CPG industry. Industry at large must be held accountable for things like ethical and responsible sourcing and for taking a look at their carbon footprint,” said Renfrew.

All of it ladders as much as Renfrew’s stance that business viability and company responsibility can go hand-in-hand. “Businesses which are doing good may also do very well, they don’t have to be mutually exclusive,” she said. “As I take into consideration my next steps and what I’d pursue, I would like to give attention to the way in which we take into consideration commerce, which is that it’s exclusive from doing good work for the world. That’s not specific to our industry, that’s business at large.”