Hardware Podcasts

Beautycounter: Gregg Renfrew. She Built Beautycounter to $1B… Then Got Fired From Her Own Company

How I Built This · 4 May 2026 · 1h 12m

What this episode covers

Gregg Renfrew, founder of Beautycounter (now Counter), details her journey from selling Xerox machines to launching a direct-sales beauty brand that reached a $1B valuation. After being ousted by the Carlyle Group, she bought back the company's assets during foreclosure and rebuilt it as Counter, shifting to a commission-only affiliate model. Renfrew explains the technical challenges of formulating 'clean' beauty products without traditional ingredients and the strategic pivot away from team-based MLM structures to focus on brand integrity and safety standards.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up and early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Beautycounter, Counter, Martha Stewart, Xerox, Best & Company, The Honest Company, L'Oreal, Estee Lauder, Carlyle Group, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Avon, Tupperware
Tools
Shopify
Also
TikTok, Instagram

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