Ep 03 | Toni Ko
Building a Half a Billion Dollar Brand When the Odds Are Against You
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Toni Ko is the Founder of NYX Cosmetics and Bespoke Beauty Brands. At 13 years old, Toni came to the US from Korea and got started in business almost immediately. Through working in her family business and having a desire to buy makeup she could afford, she saw a white space in the market for quality cosmetics at drugstore prices. At the young age of 24, Toni was inspired to launch NYX Cosmetics and disrupt the cosmetics industry by providing department store beauty at reasonable prices.
Fifteen years later, NYX became a household name and eventually sold to L’Oreal for a reported half a billion dollars. Although Toni instantly became one of America's richest self-made women, Toni has openly talked about the personal challenges she faced while building the business and life after selling it. Toni lost her sense of self and fell into depression which made her realize that although money is valuable, it’s not the key to happiness.
As the natural serial entrepreneur that she is, Toni fell back into her passion of starting businesses, where she felt the happiest and most recently returned to the beauty industry with her latest company, Bespoke Beauty Brands.
Show Notes
How Toni’s childhood moving to the US from Korea & working from a young age taught her about resilience [4:20]
Toni talks about why she decided to leave her family business to start NYX cosmetics [10:12]
Wise words on why failure is a better option than never trying at all [12:55]
Toni describes her first year starting the company and successfully bringing in $4 million in retail sales [15:10]
Toni explains timeless business advice that allowed her to start & scale her company [16:45]
What it means to be an entrepreneur & the power we have as women [20:15]
How to still be successful entrepreneur even when the odds are stacked against you [23:35]
Toni walks through her journey bringing on investors & selling the company to L’Oreal for $500 million [28:00]
Toni describes life after becoming one of America’s richest self-made women & how she lost her sense of purpose [33:35]
Toni shares how she personally overcame depression [37:20]
Toni opens up about how she thinks about motherhood & her own personal journey [38:34]
Toni discusses why her second business wasn’t a success & three key learnings [42:50]
As the serial entrepreneur she is, Toni talks about her latest company, Bespoke Beauty Brands [49:35]
Follow Toni:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonikokoko
Website: https://bespokebeautybrands.com/
