Beautycounter founder Gregg Renfrew is back as CEO

For 10 years, Gregg Renfrew spent her days constructing Beautycounter, a clear magnificence startup. Her mission was bigger than creating unhazardous lipsticks and face lotions. She had a broader objective of creating your complete skincare business safer for shoppers. However in April 2021, she determined to promote her fledgling firm to the non-public fairness big Carlyle, in a deal that valued Beautycounter at $1 billion.

It was deemed a coup for each Renfrew and the broader clear magnificence motion. However a 12 months in the past, as Carlyle restructured the corporate, Renfrew was requested to go away her place as CEO to make room for brand new management. Now, in a brand new twist, Carlyle has requested Renfrew to return to her function as CEO. She’s accepted and resumes the place as we speak. (We reached out to Carlyle, which declined to remark.)

Renfrew’s expertise supplies a glimpse into what it means for founders to steer their firm in the direction of a profitable exit. And likewise how the tradition of an organization adjustments when a founder is not on the helm.

After I just lately spoke to Renfrew, she was within the Bahamas, having fun with one final day of rest earlier than she returns to Beautycounter. “I had been going for twenty-four/7 for 10 straight years,” she says. “It was actually difficult to transition away from working an organization. I actually wished to proceed to concentrate on the mission of getting safer merchandise into the fingers of everybody.”

Renfrew spent two years constructing Beautycounter earlier than launching the corporate in 2013. The wonder business may be very crowded, with new manufacturers launching day by day, however Renfrew wished Beautycounter to face out by drawing consideration to what number of dangerous substances are broadly utilized in magnificence merchandise.

Renfrew created an inventory of two,800 dangerous and probably dangerous substances that Beautycounter would by no means use in its formulations. And in an uncommon transfer, she employed a head of mission, who would work on behalf of Beautycounter to foyer the federal government to raised regulate the non-public care sector. This meant deploying the model’s 65,000 unbiased sellers to name legislators, ship emails, and even go to Capital Hill to lobby members of Congress and Senators.

However in 2021, Renfrew made the choice that it was time to promote the model. She believed the non-public fairness agency would assist scale Beautycounter whereas staying true to its mission. “When the chance arose to promote the corporate to an establishment like Carlyle that embraced our community-driven enterprise mannequin and understood how we went about constructing the motion at giant, I used to be excited to promote,” she says. “And I used to be admittedly excited to achieve a unicorn valuation and be capable of take pleasure in some monetary success.”

The Carlyle Group is likely one of the largest non-public fairness firms in the US, with $382 billion of property underneath administration. It was based in 1987 and was initially identified for buying companies within the protection business. At the moment, its portfolio spans industries, together with aerospace, healthcare, and expertise.

Some are vital of Carlyle’s practices, which have prior to now prioritized monetary success over a company’s mission. In a latest e-book known as Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America, federal prosecutor Brendan Ballou highlighted Carlyle’s acquisition of the nursing residence chain HCR ManorCare. Ballou exhibits how Carlyle instituted many cost-cutting packages that concerned firing lots of of employees and decreasing providers to residents, a lot of whom suffered.

Renfrew says she was cautious about promoting Beautycounter to Carlyle. However she says that her main contact, Jay Sammons—who was on the time the pinnacle of world client, media, and retail at Carlyle—understood her imaginative and prescient for the corporate and appeared dedicated to sustaining its mission.

The plan was for her to remain on as CEO, however within the months that adopted, Carlyle instituted main management adjustments. In January 2022, Refrew was requested to step apart as CEO to make room for brand new leaders; she did nevertheless, keep on the board. Others on the chief staff left within the following months, together with the pinnacle of mission and the pinnacle of communications.

Marc Rey, previously the pinnacle of Shiseido Americas, was introduced on as CEO. A 12 months later, Rey departed the corporate and was changed by board director Mindy Mackenzie, who had beforehand served as chief efficiency officer at Carlyle and as a senior adviser at McKinsey. Throughout this era, the corporate centered on changing into an omnichannel model. It partnered with the wonder retailer Ulta to make merchandise extra broadly obtainable. (This mirrors Glossier’s technique of increasing past direct-to-consumer with its Sephora launch). And its new head of mission continued working to move state laws that will strengthen the regulation of the wonder sector.

However in the long run, Carlyle determined it was time to carry Renfrew again, although it has not given an express cause for her return. In a press launch, the Beautycounter board chair Roberto Marques says, “Gregg . . . has a confirmed monitor file on the Firm for driving outcomes.” He additionally mentioned she was expert at participating the unbiased sellers to “work alongside her to make significant change.”

Renfrew, for her half, is keen to return to the corporate she has devoted the final decade to constructing. In some ways, the few years have illustrated to her how an organization can change when a founder leaves. “The founder is the one who crafts the DNA and the core tenets of a model,” she says. “These values are vital to the success of the enterprise. And as I come again in, I’m going to proceed to concentrate on this mission.”

However trying ahead, Renfrew realizes that she’s going to, sooner or later, have to maneuver on from Beautycounter. And it’s essential for her to search out methods to weave the mission and the values of the corporate into the material of the model, so that they outlast her management. “I’m centered on how we set the corporate up for fulfillment, whether or not I’m on the helm or not,” she says. “My concentrate on the mission was born of ardour, however I believe it’s doable for the mission to play out in different methods. I believe each founders and company executives may be enormously profitable, so long as they keep true to the imaginative and prescient of the corporate.”