Melissa Butler
Founder and CEO, The Lip Bar. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
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Melissa Butler is the founder and CEO of The Lip Bar, an inclusive cosmetics company she initially launched from her kitchen. She later expanded her retail footprint nationwide into major stores and launched the cosmetics brand Thread Beauty.
1shows
2appearances
37statements
6resolved
4supported
0contradicted
67%fully supported
6said about them ↓ Everything Melissa Butler said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Black women start U.S. businesses fastest but receive disproportionately low venture funding
“The reality is, guy, black women are starting businesses faster than any other group of people in this country, but we're not getting funding, and also, because we're not getting funding, we can't really grow our ideas, so if we really wanna, like, reduce the …”
Butler: Black women launch businesses fastest in US but lack funding
“Black women are starting businesses faster than any other group of people in this country, but we're not getting funding, and also, because we're not getting funding, we can't really grow our ideas, so if we really wanna, like, reduce the wealth gap in this co…”
Butler: Black professionals in corporate America are rarely treated as individuals
“And this is oftentimes the plight of a black person working in corporate America. You're never able to be an individual. Like, so every day, I had to answer for the entire black race, and it was exhausting.”
Consumers should buy Black-owned products for quality, not out of charitable obligation
“And that's the thing, like we don't, as a black business owner, I don't want you to support my business. I want you to shop my product because you think that this is great. Exactly. Because we make it easy for you to understand what products work for your comp…”
Butler: Black professionals in corporate America are rarely allowed individuality
“I was constantly, like, asked about either my hair or my clothes or if something happened in the media with a black person, and this is oftentimes the plight of a black person working in corporate America. You're never able to be an individual.”
Major cosmetic brands held a monopoly on U.S. lipstick molds in 2012
“So, most companies, like the huge companies, the L'Oreal's of the world, they pretty much had a monopoly on the molds market. So there was, from my understanding, and this is in 2012, there were only a couple of suppliers in the U.S. Who made molds, and the bi…”
The Lip Bar was designed with Black women as the default consumer
“I think the goal was to create a brand where black women could be the default brand. So we create products, like you said, for every single skin tone. But when we first launched in 2012, I was just like, I don't want black and brown women to feel like they hav…”
First-time founders uniquely benefit from a naive belief that everything will work
“I think one of the like magical things about being a first time founder, especially in an industry that you don't know anything about, you're completely naive and you think that everything is going to work.”
Retailers will not sell your product; founders must drive their own sales
“So the thing about launching in a retailer is it's not their job to sell your product. It's your job to sell your product.”
Black consumers reportedly spend nine times more on beauty products than anyone else
“It's been reported that we spend nine times
Anyone else on beauty.”
Butler: Major beauty giants monopolized US lipstick mold manufacturing in 2012
“Most companies, like the huge companies, the L'Oreal's of the world, they pretty much had a monopoly on the molds market. So there was, from my understanding, and this is in 2012, there were only a couple of suppliers in the U.S. Who made molds, and the bigges…”
Butler: The Lip Bar was founded to make Black women the default
“Yeah, I think the goal was to create a brand where black women could be the default. So, we create products, like you said, for every single skin tone. Like, it literally doesn't matter what complexion you are, we have something for you, but when we first laun…”
Butler: First-time founders benefit from naive belief that everything works
“I think one of the, like, magical things about being a first-time founder, especially in an industry that you don't know anything about, you're completely naive, and you think that everything is gonna work.”
Butler: Returned to Detroit to ensure Black inclusion in city's resurgence
“I knew that New York didn't need me and that I could do a lot more in my hometown. You know, I never thought that Detroit really Deserved the bad reputation that it had gotten, and I wanted to be a part of, like, this new thing, and to meet the movers and shak…”
Butler: Small cosmetics brands outpace legacy giants by changing faster
“So I'm explaining to them that, that the industry
is changing, and that the bigger companies are slow to change, and we're this smaller company, and we're fast to change, and that's our strength.”
Butler: Keeping founders hidden hurts modern consumer brands seeking transparency
“And so over time, I did realize that that was
It's hurting the company with me not being at the forefront, because today, people are looking for brands that are going to be more transparent, and they want to know who's behind the business.”
Butler: Retailers will not sell your product for you
“So the thing about launching in a retailer is it's not their job to sell your product. It's your job to sell your product.”
Butler: Small beauty brands sell because marketing spend beats creativity at scale
“And what you see within the beauty space is, like, typically small businesses end up selling because there's a constant need for money and to out-compete these bigger brands. And the reality is, like, I can't out-market Maybelline in dollars. You know, I can b…”
The Lip Bar officially launched with approximately $30,000 in startup costs
“So the startup cost for the business was probably around 30,000 dollars.”
A Shark Tank appearance drove 40,000 hits in minutes, crashing the website
“Oh, our website crashed that night. I want to say we had, like, 40,000 hits to the website within just a couple of minutes.”
The Lip Bar had Target's top-selling lipstick at launch with zero marketing
“And we had like the number one selling lipstick
For the first month of our launch with no marketing budget, and Target was like, whoa, we weren't expecting this of this brand, and so we grew very quickly.”
The Lip Bar grew five-fold after Melissa Butler moved operations to Detroit
“Like, the lip bar has grown, Since we've come back, like, we five-x'd the business since I've moved back to Detroit.”
Michelle Obama famously wore The Lip Bar's bestselling red lipstick
“Like, Michelle Obama just wore our red, which is our bestseller in the whole company.”
Butler: A supplier's question about pigments sparked the pivot to lipstick
“And he's like, wait, slow down, do you want lip gloss pigments or do you want soap pigments? And I was like lipstick. I knew nothing about lipstick, but I couldn't believe that I could buy lipstick pigments and that was it for me.”
The other half of the tape: Melissa Butler's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 6 times in 4 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 5
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 6
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2020 2 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Melissa's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder and CEO, The Lip Bar | 2 | 37 | 67% 4/6 | full record on How I Built This → |