How Sarah Lee & Christine Chang introduced the K-beauty phenom to the world through their cult brand Glow Recipe, and the one-step-at-a-time approach that lead them to profitability 3 months in

Hey guys! Welcome back to Female Startup Club. If you’ve been following along on my Instagram you’ll know how excited I was to be recording this next episode with Sarah Lee and Christine Chang, the founders of Glow Recipe. 

You’ve probably seen this brand on social media — their Instagram has more than 725,000 followers at the time of recording — or maybe you’ve heard about their most loved Watermelon Sleep Mask which sold out 7 times consecutively and amassed 5000 person waiting lists at the time of launch… 

In today’s episode I got to chat to Sarah and Christine about the wild ride they’ve been on over the last few years and what it’s been like to build a brand at this scale. It’s packed with the good stuff and loads of advice for other entrepreneurs and I’m just so chuffed that this interview came about. 

We ended up having a few tech issues so bear with us while we have a giggle throughout the ep, and in the end we ran out of time to do the 6 quick questions! But it’ll be back to business as usual for the next one so don’t worry.  

TOPICS WE COVER:

• The origin story of Glow Recipe 
• Bootstrapping the business through self funded startup capital
• Pivoting from a DTC ecommerce k-beauty curation website to a product line of their own 
• Bringing k-beauty to the American consumer and introducing a new product to a new market 
• The Shark Tank experience 
• “One step at a time approach. You need to be patient and resilient and stay focused on what matters for your business.” 
• Navigating the relationship of being close friends and co-founders and the key to success  
• Launching in partnership with Sephora and advice for other brands wanting to follow suit 
• Lessons from working in a huge global corporate company; L'Oréal
• The realisation moments that led to the first product; Watermelon Sleep Mask
• The importance of packaging and focusing on the experience of a product; how it feels in your hand, what it looks like, how it makes you feel, what it looks like on your shelfie 
• The Influencer launch strategy they used 
• The ONE key moment that really moved the needle and sold out the entire site 
• How the brand keeps the community engaged and evolving, in particular through social media and surprise and delight pop-ups
• Why it’s important to listen to your community and implement the feedback you receive 
• What’s working in marketing at the moment 
• Advice for women wanting to launch a brand 

 LINKS:
Glow Recipe: https://www.glowrecipe.com/
Glow Recipe's Instagram
Sarah Lee's Instagram
Christine Chang's Instagram