Jul 3, 2023 · 1h 11m · how-i-built-this
The Lip Bar (TLB): Melissa Butler (2020)
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
This episode of How I Built This chronicles how Melissa Butler left Wall Street to create The Lip Bar, transforming kitchen-formulated vegan lipsticks into a nationwide beauty brand that champions inclusive cosmetics for women of color while defying industry skeptics.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 33.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 3.4 Guest teaching 3.7 Guest disagreement 0.9 Guy pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 1:06:40 Refusal of pity purchases and charity framing
Butler forcefully rejects the narrative of patronizing Black businesses out of sympathy, stating she demands customer retention based purely on superior product performance.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 33:40 Pushing on broad inclusivity versus targeted demographicGuy presses Butler on whether her early branding was exclusively aimed at Black women or universal demographics, prompting her to clarify her core philosophy.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:00:30 Exposing systemic beauty funding inequitiesButler educates the host on the sharp disconnect between Black women spending nine times more on beauty and receiving virtually negligible venture capital investment.
Guy holds their own ▶ 1:45 Cosmetics industry macro analysisGuy Raz demonstrates extensive market expertise by breaking down the half-trillion-dollar beauty economy, contract manufacturing disruption, and category entry barriers.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Podcast Promotion: The Great Creators with Guy Raz | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz sets up the episode in monologue, citing macro-level data on the five hundred billion dollar global beauty market, lipstick economics, and low manufacturing barriers to entry. There is no active dialogue in this introductory framing segment. | |
| Growing Up in Detroit with a Trailblazing Mother | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Guy Raz assumes Butler's mother held a comfortable middle-class union role in a safe neighborhood. Butler gently corrects him, clarifying that she grew up in one of Detroit's most dangerous areas and that her mother lived beyond her means to support her children. | |
| Cass Tech, HBCUs, and First Lessons in Entrepreneurship | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Butler shares her transition through Cass Tech to HBCUs (Alabama State and Florida A&M) and early entrepreneurial exposure at her cousin's clothing store. The dynamic is collaborative and narrative-driven. | |
| Studying in Beijing and Gaining a Global Perspective | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Butler describes studying in Beijing and subsequently working on Wall Street at Barclays. She explains the exhausting burden of navigating corporate microaggressions and feeling expected to speak for her entire race. | |
| From Crafting Handmade Soap to Discovering Lipstick | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Guy demonstrates familiarity with soap-making ingredients and references previous brand coverage on Lush. Butler explains how a supplier's offhand question about lipstick pigments triggered her pivot from soap to cosmetics. | |
| Mid-Roll Break and Podcast Reminder | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz and Butler break down the core chemical formula of lipstick across waxes, oils, and pigments. Butler details tracking down vintage Kavala steel molds on Craigslist to manufacture from home. | |
| Designing Distinct Packaging and Centering Inclusivity | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Guy asks whether the brand was initially positioned exclusively for Black women or a broad audience. Butler firmly articulates her founding philosophy: making Black and brown women the default customer rather than an afterthought. | |
| Launching The Lip Bar with Cocktail-Themed Shades | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Butler details ordering twelve thousand custom units from China, cocktail-themed branding, and navigating hidden costs like ocean freight and customs duties. | |
| Quitting Wall Street and Navigating Financial Scarcity | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Butler describes quitting Barclays to run The Lip Bar full time despite having limited runway, sharing how she and creative director Roscoe sublet their rooms to stay solvent. | |
| Relocating The Lip Bar to Detroit's Urban Renaissance | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Guy questions why Butler left New York City, the capital of fashion and cosmetics. Butler explains returning to Detroit to manage burn rate and ensure Black entrepreneurs participated in the city's resurgence. | |
| The Mobile Lip Bar Truck and National Pop-Up Tours | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Butler explains bypassing street permit hurdles by converting an airport shuttle bus into a mobile store and partnering with retailers like Urban Outfitters. | |
| The Shark Tank Appearance and Viral Resilience | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Butler reflects on the humiliating Shark Tank pitch where Kevin O'Leary dismissed them as colorful cockroaches. She explains taking Mark Cuban's advice to step forward as the brand's primary storyteller. | |
| Cold Pitching Target and Securing Digital Placement | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | Butler describes cold pitching Target buyers on LinkedIn for eight months, emphasizing what The Lip Bar could bring to Target rather than asking for favors, and driving massive digital sell-through. | |
| Target Store Rollout and Inequities in Venture Funding | 5 | 6 | 2 | 0 | Guy cites Tristan Walker on Black consumer spending patterns. Butler expands on the systemic funding gap, noting Black consumers spend nine times more on beauty while Black female founders face severe venture capital exclusion. | |
| Securing Capital and Opening the Detroit Flagship Store | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | Butler outlines opening her Detroit flagship and adapting during 2020. She emphatically tells her team and listeners that they reject charity dollars, insisting customer loyalty must stem from product excellence. | |
| Global Vision, Personal Sacrifices, and Reflections on Success | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Butler discusses future acquisition possibilities, personal sacrifices made for the business, the role of luck versus labor, and playfully admits she still cannot apply complex makeup herself. |
Statements from this episode (18)
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.”
Butler initially planned to launch a Lush-inspired venture called The Soap Bar
“In, in my soap making, I was like, I want to be Lush, and I think that's what made me say, like, I want to start a soap business, actually, because I was obsessed. Like, this is it. I, this is my way out. I'm gonna create a company, it's gonna be called The So…”
All lipsticks fundamentally share just three core ingredients: wax, oil, and pigment
“Like, all lipstick is basically the same. It has its same, like, core ingredients. All of it has a wax, all of it has an oil, and all of it has a pigment.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
The Lip Bar generated approximately $26,000 in revenue during its first year
“Our first year in business, we launched in 2012. I think we made 26,000 dollars, right?”
Kevin O'Leary claimed major beauty brands would crush indie competitors like cockroaches
“And they would crush you like the colorful cockroaches you are. You only have so many minutes on earth, don't waste them trying to sell lipstick.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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 …”
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.”
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.”
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…”