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23 Dec

Bala Founders Discuss Wearable Wellness – WWD

In 2020, the Bala bangles revolutionized the wearable wellness space, as consumers were searching for a convenient approach to get fit through the pandemic. With design on the forefront, the brand has continued to excite consumers by launching luxurious, elevated workout equipment. During WWD’s Wellness Forum last week, Bala founders and husband-and-wife duo Maximilian Kislevitz and Natalie Holloway sat down with senior beauty editor Kathryn Hopkins to debate the long run of the brand, and the important thing aspects behind its explosive growth.  Since its launch in 2018, the corporate has continued to expand and diversify its product offerings, with design and functional fitness being top priorities. The unique Bala bangle was a classy update to traditional ankle and wrist weights. For...
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25 Aug

Beauty’s Most Powerful Founders – WWD

Sixteen of the brightest and best beauty founders are gathered together in a photograph studio in Midtown Manhattan for a Beauty Inc cover shoot and the first-day-of-school vibes are in full effect. There are shrieks of pleasure, hugs between long-lost friends, oohs and ahhs over outfits and a fast sharing of upcoming projects, before the group is named to order by the principal — on this case the photographer whose task is to shoot a category picture, so to talk. It’s no wonder that the room crackles with energy. That is probably the most dynamic group of founders the sweetness industry has seen because the OG indies back within the ’90s. They're connectors, a lot of whom had established careers out and...
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24 Jul

Where are so many Beauty Founders Departing Their Brands?

The wonder founder flight is picking up pace.  While founder exits usually are not a latest phenomenon — and sometimes occur under essentially the most amiable of circumstances — a spate of exits in recent months raises questions as to simply what's fueling the trend.  As a refresher: In January, Gregg Renfrew left her role as executive chair and chief brand officer at Beautycounter, the brand she launched in 2013 and sold to the Carlyle Group in 2021 in a deal that valued the corporate at $1 billion. Shortly after, Melisse Shaban exited her role as chief executive officer of hair care brand Virtue Labs. She transitioned as an alternative to an adviser role just because the brand raised a latest financing round...
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2 Jul

Too Faced Founders Create Toy Box Brands Incubator –

Inside a nondescript office constructing in Corona del Mar, California sits a veritable playland of entrepreneurship. Here lies the offices of Toy Box Brands, the most recent enterprise from Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson. Emblazoned above rows of desks is the phrase “F–k average, be legendary.” Product samples are scattered all over the place. In Johnson’s office sits a framed flag that reads, “I can’t consider we’re still doing this.” “I can’t consider we’re doing this again” is more prefer it. Yes, Blandino and Johnson, partners in business and life who founded Too Faced in 1998 and sold it to the Estée Lauder Cos. in a landmark deal for $1.45 billion in 2016, then the biggest acquisition in Lauder’s history — are back at it....
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