Negotiating margins and being 'raggedy' with retailers

Molly Sims spent nearly six years modeling in Europe, graced the cover of Sports Illustrated, and starred in Las Vegas and The Carrie Diaries—then quietly spent three years and over $2 million of her own money developing a skincare brand nobody asked for. When she launched YSE Beauty on April 24, 2023, she had no idea if it would work. It did. The brand hit close to $30 million in revenue, is growing nearly 100% year-on-year, landed an exclusive partnership with Sephora, and closed a $15 million Series A with Silas Capital—all in under three years. In this interview, Molly breaks down why she launched DTC before she was ready, how she turned her podcast into a brand-building machine two years before she had a product to sell, and the hard-won lessons on ops, retail margins, and building a team that can survive when things go wrong. What you'll learn in this interview: • Why Molly self-funded over $2 million of her own money into product development—and the Christmas moment she nearly didn't • How three years of testing 100+ formulas to solve her own melasma led to genuine product-market fit in a crowded category • Why she launched DTC-first and treated social media as her brick-and-mortar before ever approaching a retailer • How starting her podcast Lipstick on the Rim two years before launch built the community and credibility that made YSE possible • The ops reality nobody tells you: being sold out on five products isn't a good problem—it's a sign of broken demand planning • Why she sold the Home Edit show to Netflix in 2015—and how producing taught her to spot talent and build content that converts • The exact mindset she brings to Sephora: be raggedy, negotiate your margins, and never just take what the retailer gives you • How she chose Silas Capital over larger funds—and why alignment on the customer is more important than the size of the check • Why the third year of a brand is "disciplined growth"—and how she's shifting from whack-a-mole survival mode to a three-year roadmap • The hiring mistake most fast-growth founders make: assuming who got you here will get you there If you're building a DTC beauty or lifestyle brand, trying to navigate the leap from direct-to-consumer into retail, or looking for the no-BS truth about what founder-led growth actually looks like in year one, two, and three, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about product, community, and when to jump off the cliff.

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