Nov 23, 2020 · 1h 20m · how-i-built-this
The Lip Bar: Melissa Butler
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of How I Built This, host Guy Raz interviews Melissa Butler, who shares how she left a career on Wall Street to build The Lip Bar into an inclusive, multimillion-dollar beauty brand. From making vegan lipsticks in her Brooklyn kitchen and enduring brutal rejection on Shark Tank to landing nationwide Target distribution, Butler details her relentless grassroots journey.
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 31% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 3.3 Guest teaching 3.2 Guest disagreement 0.8 Guy pushing back 0.1
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 57:25 Butler condemns Shark Tank judges' dismissive sexism
Butler expresses deep disdain for the Shark Tank investors who patronizingly told them to quit lipstick and go into fashion rather than evaluating their business metrics.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 6:45 Butler challenges host's assumption about her neighborhoodButler immediately refutes Raz's premise that her mother's union employment afforded a safe or middle-class neighborhood upbringing.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:07:30 Butler educates on the venture capital funding disparityButler delivers a sharp breakdown of how Black women are launching businesses at the fastest rate yet receive virtually negligible venture capital allocations.
Guy holds their own ▶ 1:08:05 Raz cites beauty spending statistics from previous industry foundersRaz connects Butler's analysis to specific industry data previously shared by Bevel founder Tristan Walker regarding beauty expenditure by Black consumers.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host Guy Raz Promotes the 'How I Built This' Book | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Introductory monologue and promotional framing by Guy Raz, outlining the cosmetics industry landscape and Melissa Butler's background. | |
| Growing Up in Detroit and Lessons from a Steelworking Mother | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Raz assumes Butler's mother's union job provided a comfortable middle-class life, but Butler corrects him by detailing how dangerous and impoverished their neighborhood actually was. | |
| HBCU Education, Retail Mentorship, and Beijing Immersion | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Butler shares her college pathway at HBCUs, learning margins from her cousin, and her transformative six-month immersion studying Mandarin in Beijing. | |
| Wall Street Analyst Days and Corporate Disillusionment at Barclays | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Butler recounts the exhaustion and tokenism of corporate Wall Street at Barclays, which Raz warmly validates as notoriously tedious work. | |
| The Soap-Making Hobby and the Accidental Lipstick Pivot | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Raz and Butler converse engagingly about soap-making chemistry, lye curing, and the serendipitous supplier question that sparked the pivot to lipstick. | |
| Mid-Show Station Break and Upcoming Teaser | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Butler describes learning lipstick chemistry from scratch, purchasing secondhand steel molds, and turning her Brooklyn apartment into a makeshift lab. | |
| Designing Inclusive Beauty and Distinctive Birdcage Packaging | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Butler details designing birdcage packaging in China and establishing a makeup brand where women of color are treated as the primary default rather than an afterthought. | |
| Launching The Lip Bar and Gaining Early Media Buzz | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Butler outlines investing her entire savings of thirty thousand dollars, cocktail-inspired shade naming, and early validation from Teen Vogue at their launch party. | |
| Quitting Wall Street to Go All-In on Lipstick | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz explores Butler's transition away from Barclays, and Butler shares how choosing the risk of failure over regret helped her make the leap. | |
| Relocating the Business Home to the Detroit Renaissance | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Butler explains leaving Brooklyn to participate in Detroit's urban renaissance and ensure long-time Black residents were included in its revitalization. | |
| Mid-Show Break and 'How I Built This' Book Promo | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Butler recounts converting a shuttle bus into a mobile lipstick boutique, partnering with retailers like Urban Outfitters, and touring HBCU campuses. | |
| Pitching on Shark Tank and Overcoming Harsh Rejection | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | Features archival audio of Shark Tank where Kevin O'Leary mocks the founders as colorful cockroaches; Butler forcefully critiques the investors' condescension and dismissal. | |
| The Post-Shark Surge and Breaking into Target Stores | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Butler explains capitalizing on the Shark Tank broadcast surge, cold-outreach on LinkedIn to Target buyers, and leveraging organic community support into shelf space. | |
| Securing Venture Investment and Opening the Detroit Flagship | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Raz brings up data on Black beauty spending from past guests, while Butler highlights the venture capital funding gap for Black women founders and opening her Detroit store. | |
| Navigating COVID-19, the BLM Surge, and Product Expansion | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Butler details navigating pandemic challenges and rejects the notion of BLM-related consumer purchases as charity dollars, emphasizing long-term product value. | |
| Navigating Scale, Potential Acquisition, and Luck vs. Hard Work | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks his signature luck versus hard work question, and Butler thoughtfully explains how hard work set the foundation while timing and luck amplify growth. |
Statements from this episode (20)
Butler accumulated roughly $50,000 in student loan debt during college
“I had racked up, like, 50,000 dollars.”
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.”
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.”
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: The Lip Bar cost roughly $30,000 to start
“So I think buying the units, and then actually getting them to my Brooklyn apartment may have cost me 13,000 dollars. And then on top of that, I have to buy all the ingredients. I'm planning a launch party. I have to have pictures taken. So the startup cost fo…”
Butler: The Lip Bar launched with an unpaid six-person team
“Roscoe, who's our creative director, she moved to New York, like, she moved to New York three weeks before we launched, and, you know, some of my other friends in finance, I'm like, can you do our sales, can you do our branding, can you do, like, I had a team …”
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: The Lip Bar grew sales from $26,000 to around $56,000 in year two
“You know, if the first year we made 26,000, then I think the next year we may have made, like, 56,000, which is great.”
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: Mobilizing Delta Sigma Theta network was key driver of Lip Bar's growth
“So by leaning on them and making sure that they were super aware of what I was doing, I was also baking in a business model, essentially. And I think that's part of the reason why the Lit Bar has been able to grow, because It's just been this strong community …”
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: The Lip Bar had Target's top-selling lipstick in month one
“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.”
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: The Lip Bar grew 5x after returning to Detroit
“Like the lip bar has grown since we've come back. Like we five X the business since I've moved back. To Detroit.”
Butler: The Lip Bar grew 80% in 2020 despite pandemic disruptions
“So throughout this pandemic, even though it is uncertain still we've been able to grow the business 80% this year.”
Butler predicts The Lip Bar will reach $25 million in annual sales
“Oh yeah, totally. We'll, we'll get there. No, no doubt about that.”
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…”