The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan 613: Why Most Beauty Brands Fail - and How to Beat The Rest | DIBS Beauty Founder
Dec 11, 2025
Jeff Lee, co-founder of DIBS Beauty, shares insights on building a booming makeup brand that achieved mid-eight figures in just four years. He discusses their innovative strategy of a 20,000-person waitlist pre-launch, emphasizing the power of creator-led marketing over traditional ads. Jeff reveals how DIBS maintains a 60%+ repurchase rate and successfully penetrated retail with a focus on customer behavior. He candidly explores the challenges of rapid growth, the importance of community, and his visionary approach to leveraging AI for future success.
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Plan MOQs But Be Ready To Scale
- Expect cosmetic MOQs around 5k and plan conservative initial orders while preparing to scale fast.
- Use founder credibility and creator metrics to convince manufacturers and ramp factories quickly when demand exceeds MOQ.
Retail Fuels Color Cosmetics Growth
- Retail accelerates discovery for color cosmetics because customers need to see and feel shade and texture.
- Entering retail earlier than pure DTC-first play is now often essential to scale in beauty.
Engineer 90-Day Repurchase Cycles
- Design product sizing and cadence so core SKUs naturally repurchase around 90 days and keep a pipeline of newness.
- Keep founder-level proximity to customer service to strengthen loyalty and retention.