Assertion Not checkable as stated
Alli Webb: Early male investors made sexual jokes about Drybar's concept
“We really had to educate a lot especially investors, but that's a whole other story. Like men in suits were like, what? You know, so many, like, sexual jokes and whatever, I'm like, yeah, yeah, you know.”
Insight
Webb: Hybrid franchise and company-owned models create competing organizational needs
“I wouldn't recommend it, what, the way we did it, because what we did was, like, we were basically now running two different organizations. One was, like, franchise, and one was company owned, and so the needs of those two stores were quite different, and mana…”
Assertion Supported
Webb: Drybar sold its product division for $255 million
“You know, I don't know if you're, you know this, but like we sold the product division for two hundred and fifty five million. We didn't sell the whole enchilada for, which is an important distinction”
Disclosure
Webb: Drybar refused investor requests to add makeup or lashes
“Our investors and even clients are always like, oh, you could sell so many other things here. You could sell makeup. You could offer lashes. You could do all this stuff. I'm like, no, no. You know, I felt very strongly of like we do this one thing and we're th…”
Insight
Alli Webb: Major beauty conglomerates buy product brands, not service companies
“Unilever, L'Oreal, like, Helen of Troy, who did end up buying us, like, those guys are product, those are huge product companies, they don't want a service company, it's a very different buyer that wants a service business”
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2027
Webb predicts Squeeze will reach 500 locations within three years
“I mean, I'd like to see Squeeze, you know, expand to, like, at least 500 locations across the country, and I think that's a real doable, achievable goal, for sure.”
Assertion Partly supported
Webb: Drybar bootstrapped to ~11 stores before raising $26M from Castanea
“Because I think we got to like 10 or 11 stores, like bootstrapping it ourselves. And then we raised about twenty six million was our first big tranche from Castaneda with the intention of, you know, opening a lot more stores and starting a product line. And th…”
Assertion Partly supported
Webb: Squeeze has sold over 100 franchise locations nationwide
“Fast forward to, you know, years later, we started a new concept called Squeeze, which is our massage concept, which is on fire, and we've sold over a hundred locations, and it will start popping up all over the country.”
Assertion Partly supported
Webb: Drybar had 150 locations with roughly 70 company-owned when sold
“And, you know, at the end of the day, it's harder to run a company owned operation because you have, you know, of the a 150, there's a 180 actually now, but when we sold it was a 150 and probably 70 or so were company owned and the rest were franchise.”
Assertion Supported
Alli Webb: Drybar raised nearly $75M in PE before exit
“At that point, we had raised almost seventy-five million, you know, from another private equity firm”
Assertion Supported
Webb: Drybar sold its product division weeks before COVID lockdowns began
“Sold the product division, like, Truly, like, what felt like moments. It was actually weeks before the whole world shut down and everything collapsed. But yeah, we got that sale done under the wire.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Webb: Overwhelming demand for $40 mobile blowouts led to founding Drybar
“I'm having so much success charging 40 dollars in this mobile business, and I can't keep up with the demand, so I feel like maybe I should start a brick and mortar instead of, you know, them coming, me going to them”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Webb: Drybar's first salon doubled expected volume with 60-80 daily blowouts
“What I thought was gonna be 30 to 40 blowouts a day turned out to be, like, between 60 and 80 blowouts a day, which we were completely unprepared for, by the way.”
