Glow Recipe co-founder, Sarah Lee, joins Ladies Who Launch to share how she built a $300M beauty brand by rewriting the rules of Korean skincare. From landing her dream first job at L’Oréal and moving to NYC, to navigating intense work culture and building the foundations of her career, Sarah breaks down the pivotal experiences that prepared her to become a founder.

Inside the episode, Sarah opens up about the exact path to starting Glow Recipe, their journey on Shark Tank, finding the right Co-Founder and how they set out to change the global narrative around K-beauty.

In this episode, we cover:

• Key insights from working inside a legacy beauty giant (L’Oreal) to building a startup
• How Sarah identified white space in the U.S. market for Korean skincare
• Taking the Leap: Leaving L’Oréal & Launching Glow Recipe
• Glow Recipe's Shark Tank Journey
• Going from DTC to Sephora Shelves
• Evolving the Glow Recipe Brand & Category Leadership

If you’re curious about building a beauty, consumer or community-led brand, this conversation is packed with honest and relatable formulas and behind-the-scenes insight that you can adopt and feed into your strategy.

We Are Ladies Who Launch!

CHAPTERS

00:00 Meet Sarah Lee: Glow Recipe Co-Founder & Co CEO

03:17 From Watermelon Rind to Watermelon Glow: Ingredient Inspiration

05:27 Landing the Dream Job at L’Oréal Korea & Learning the Beauty Business

16:56 Finding her Co-Founder & Spotting the K-Beauty Gap in the US Market

22:22 Quitting L’Oréal & Taking The Leap

29:42 The Shark Tank Experience

41:05 Choosing Mentorship vs. Money

45:44 Dealing with Sell Out Product

47:07 The Glow Recipe Partnership with Sephora

54:18 Reacting to Viral Product Moments

01:00:37 How the Co-CEO System Works

01:06:15 $300M Business & What’s Next

01:17:31 Founder Advice & How to Build Good Company Culture

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