Tsai: The First $1 Million Is Harder Than the First $100M
Vicky Tsai · Advice Line with Vicky Tsai of Tatcha · Sep 26, 2024 · at 28:08
Tatcha founder Vicki Tsai advises Beya founder Brittany Lowe on early-stage company milestones and retail strategy.
0:00 / 0:02exact quote · 2.1s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I thought the first million was harder than the first hundred million.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Vicky Tsai
Most Skincare Brands Use Stock Formulas With 0.01% Active Ingredients, Tsai Claims
“You go to a contract manufacturer, they have stock formulas and stock packaging, you pick it, you put in 0.01% of a marketing level ingredient, you put your name on it, you pick a fragrance, and it's out the door. And that is how the vast majority of skincare …”
Agencies Rejected Tatcha Claiming Asian Beauty Lacked Demand in the U.S.
“PR agents, even, I couldn't even give people money to take me as a client. And then retailers were not interested at all. So, and everybody also told me at the time, too, that there is no demand or interest in Asian beauty in the U.S. Because it's not aspirati…”
Shiseido Struggled to Expand Beyond Chinatown After Two Decades in U.S.
“Shiseido had been in the U.S. For over two decades and had not been able to really make it beyond Chinatown.”
Tsai Believes Tatcha Would Have Shut Down During Pandemic Without Unilever Acquisition
“If we were independent, I think there's a very good chance we'd be shutting down the company right now.”
Tatcha Built the Beauty Industry's First Diverse Leadership Team at Scale
“It was the first diverse leadership team in beauty at any scale and so they lead the company now.”
Tatcha Used Client Advocates Over Broad Sampling and Celebrity Gifting
“We didn't do broad sampling the way that most beauty brands do. And we also did not do heavy celebrity sampling the way that most beauty brands do. Instead, we thought about how to turn our best clients into advocates and ambassadors for us because we found th…”