Ju Rhyu
Co-founder & Former CEO, Hero Cosmetics. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutive
In 2017, Ju Rhyu co-founded Hero Cosmetics and popularized hydrocolloid pimple patches in the United States with the Mighty Patch. She scaled the direct-to-consumer and retail business prior to its $630 million acquisition by Church & Dwight in October 2022.
2shows
2appearances
24statements
8resolved
6supported
1contradicted
75%fully supported
Everything Ju Rhyu said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Rhyu: Scaling past $200M revenue risks shrinking the strategic acquirer pool
“There is something called too big to buy. And so I really, cause you know, we were growing really fast and so the worry is once you know, get to like 202 50 in terms of revenue, then you're gonna be, you know, people might want a billion dollars for valuation.…”
Rhyu: A three-person founding team provides a built-in tiebreaker
“In hindsight, actually, the reasons why it worked out, I actually think three, if you have a co-founding team of three, it's actually great, because, I remember, and I remember someone told me, like, oh, three is one too many. But I think it's great because if…”
Rhyu: Driving fast corporate innovation requires explicit executive-level prioritization
“It takes, you know what, it takes a lot of support from the top, actually. And I mean, I'm sure we'll get to this, but, so my company, Hero Cosmetics, we got acquired by a company called Church & Dwight, and they are a big company, not unlike, you know, the Pr…”
Rhyu: No brand owned the US acne patch category in 2015
“This was back in, yeah, probably, 2000 fifteen-ish? But there was no one that really owned the category.”
Rhyu: Fast growth cash flow strains impede investments in talent
“When you're growing really fast that cash flow sort of chase is always tricky, like, you know, you get paid, but then you need to buy more inventory, and just the timing of it all can be really tricky, and then it can sort of impede you from make, making inves…”
Rhyu: Founders should hire experts who direct strategy rather than needing direction
“I hired people who would tell me what to do. I didn't want to tell them what to do. So I wanted people who had the experience, who were experts in their fields, and I would just, you know, I just let them go. And I wanted them to tell me, like, you know, we sh…”
Rhyu: Founders selling their companies must emotionally detach early like a breakup
“I tell people you have to, like, emotionally detach. So, because I've heard there's founder depression. So, you know, you work so hard at building this business, you know, it's like, it takes up your whole life, it is your life, and then boom, you sell, and yo…”
Hero Cosmetics Intentionally Avoided K-Beauty Branding to Build US Consumer Trust
“So I actually did not want it to be K-Beauty... Just because I thought it should be an American brand for this American audience. And that was actually part of the value prop, because sometimes when you buy, I mean, even today, it still happens, like, I think …”
Hero Cosmetics Initiated Its Sale Process After Crossing $100M in Revenue
“And I remember, you know, 20, 21, it was clear we were going to hit that hundred million dollar threshold. So there was a board meeting, and then it was a topic, and the question was, like, should we start a process? Should we think about this? And then everyo…”
Hero Cosmetics bootstrapped for three years on a $50K initial investment
“So I think it was 50,000 initially, so that's what got us up and running, but then, and then we were growing really fast, so we had to make loans to the company just for cash flow, but we bootstrapped until, for the first three years.”
Hero Cosmetics' 2020 fundraise collapsed the week COVID-19 lockdowns started
“Our term sheets were due the week in March when the lockdown started. So it, I mean, that was a disaster. The raise didn't happen.”
Ju Rhyu: Hero Cosmetics Launched Physical Retail Exclusively with Target
“We were exclusive at Target, grew very deeply with them.”
Hero Cosmetics set a $100M revenue threshold to initiate an exit
“Early on, with the three of us, we knew, ultimately, we did want to go for an exit. We always had that hundred million dollar revenue mark in the back of our minds as, That's the threshold. So the idea was like, once we get here, we're going to start a process…”
Ju Rhyu: Church & Dwight expanded Hero Cosmetics to 50 countries in two years
“In two years, they've taken us to 50 countries.”
Ju Rhyu plans to start another company as a second-time founder
“I would like to do it again, and I would also like to do it again because I'm interested to see what it's like to be a second time founder. I think some things will be easier, and I think you can short circuit a lot of things .”
Samsung Monitored Mandatory 8 AM Broadcast Attendance With Clipboard Inspectors
“They had another rule where everyone had to be in their seat at eight AM watching what they call Samsung news, because they would have sort of like corporate communications at eight. And they'd have people with clipboards walking the aisle at eight oh one. And…”
Kraft Created 100-Calorie Packs After Observing Moms Using Small Ziploc Bags
“The way that that got innovated or launched is because they were doing focus groups, and they saw women, moms, buy a whole box of Triscuits or Ritz or whatever, and decamp them into their own small Ziploc bags for portion control.”
Rhyu: South Korean regulations mandate listing cosmetic manufacturers on packaging
“In Korea, cosmetic manufacturers are required to list the name of the manufacturer.”
Hero Cosmetics Sold Out Initial 10,000-Unit Amazon Inventory in 90 Days
“I think within 90 days we had run out of our initial inventory, so, and I remember before launch we were talking about, like, how long do you think it's going to take us to sell through 10,000 units? Would it take us a year? Is it going to take us six months? …”
Hero Cosmetics Bootstrapped for Three Years Using Amazon Profits to Fund DTC
“Amazon for us was a very profitable channel, and the money we made from Amazon, we put towards launching our DTC site, launching slowly in retail, and I mean, we were, we bootstrapped for the first three years, and I think largely the economics of our product …”
Hero Cosmetics Shelved Planned Face Mask to Dominate the Blemish Patch Category
“And then I had a coffee chat with this investor in the space, showed her a mighty patch. I said, I want to do this new product. I think it's going to be a wash off face mask. She said, no, you should not do that. You should stick to patches. You should dominat…”
Hero Cosmetics Avoided COVID-19 Sales Dips Because Target and Amazon Remained Open
“No, we didn't. I mean. Luckily, we were in the channels that were still deemed, like, essential retailers, so Amazon was still online, Target was deemed essential retailers, so so we really didn't see much impact.”
Samsung Enforced 6 PM Departures by Automatically Shutting Down Computers
“They instituted something called family day. And family day was every Wednesday, and you're supposed to leave the office at six. And it wasn't enough just to have the policy. They literally reconfigured everyone's computers to shut down at six PM, like six dot…”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Ju's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Co-founder & Former CEO, Hero Cosmetics | 1 | 13 | 50% 1/2 | full record on Masters of Scale → |
 HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Co-founder & Former CEO, Hero Cosmetics | 1 | 11 | 83% 5/6 | full record on How I Built This → |