Forbes_USA_June_13_2017

America’s Richest Self-Made Women
JAMIE KERN LIMA
topped an estimated $1 million. “It
took us a while to say, ‘Let’s give this a
shot,’ but it was an instant success from
the beginning,” Burke says. In 2011,
Kern Lima and her husband, who is
co-CEO and largely handles the operations
and finances, moved to Bayonne,
New Jersey, from California to be within
driving distance of the network’s studios
in eastern Pennsylvania.
Investors began calling. “You’re so
tempted, especially if you were a poor
entrepreneur like I was,” Kern Lima recalls.
“You’re just hoping for someone
to help you grow your infrastructure
beyond what you can do yourself.” But
she hesitated and did due diligence,
ringing up every entrepreneur and
CEO who had previously worked with
the suitors.
which took four years and more than
200 attempts to perfect. By 2014 sales
hit an estimated $117 million. Another
top seller took even longer: Superhero
Mascara, which lifts even the shortest
lashes by catching hairs through a proprietary
elastic-stretch technology and
has anti-aging ingredients in the tint.
Launched in February 2016, it took
three years and 275 tries to formulate.
ternally” (though she did bring IT to
Australia in 2014).
After meeting Carol Hamilton, the
head of L’Oréal’s Luxe Division, at an
industry conference in 2013, Kern
Lima followed up with a handwritten
thank-you note, which is currently on
display in Hamilton’s office. Hamilton
visited IT later that year and walked
out the door thinking it was the most
powerful brand she’d seen in a long
time. “I realized the connection that
Jamie had with women was authentic,”
Hamilton recalls. “She absolutely has
a fierce desire to make every woman
realize her best self. A lot of women
might say that, but her commitment
was what made me really convinced
that her brand was going to continue
to be on fire.”
While both parties were smitten,
there were several false starts.
After talks fell apart one time, Hamilton
called Kern Lima to give her the
bad news and told her not give up.
Kern Lima’s response: “I am certain
someday we’re going to be part of the
L’Oréal family.”
Kern Lima considered taking the
company public and also went ahead
with plans to expand into Southeast Asia,
the industry’s fastest- growing region.
One week before that launch, the sale to
L’Oréal finally went through. TSG founder
and CEO Chuck Esserman recalls
Kern Lima telling him IT would be the
best investment he ever made. “Every entrepreneur
tells me that. In Jamie’s case,
she did it,” says Esserman. Forbes estimates
his firm made 25 times its money
on the sale, while Guthy-Ren ker pocketed
approximately $150 million.
Under the L’Oréal umbrella, IT
Makeup
Mergers
Cosmetic
conglomerates
are snapping up
smaller brands
at a record pace.
Here are some
of the biggest
recent deals.
NYX Cosmetics
Bold colors,
drugstore prices
ACQUIRED BY
L’Oréal
$500 MILLION
2014
Glamglow
Facial masks
and skin care
ACQUIRED BY
Estée Lauder
EST. $100 MILLION
2015
IT Cosmetics
Problem-solving
makeup
ACQUIRED BY
L’Oréal
$1.2 BILLION
2016
Too Faced
Millennial fave for
lipstick, eye colors
ACQUIRED BY
Estée Lauder
$1.45 BILLION
2016
Becca Cosmetics
Highlighters
and bronzers
ACQUIRED BY
Estée Lauder
EST. $200 MILLION
2016
She focused on a couple: TSG Consumer
Partners, a $5 billion private equity
firm best known for investments
in Planet Fitness and Glacéau Vitaminwater,
and Guthy-Renker, the directmarketing
powerhouse that built Proactiv
into a billion-dollar acne-treatment
brand. Both said no. She waited. “You
have to hold your gut and your own belief
on a pedestal,” Kern Lima says. “All
the ones that had said no finally said yes.”
It wasn’t until 2012, after Ulta Beauty
signed a deal to sell the brand, that
TSG invested an undisclosed sum. A
year later Guthy-Renker followed suit;
it got an estimated 20% stake in return
for the right to package and market discounted
kits to be sold on infomercials.
Guthy-Renker has spent about $50 million
a year buying infomercial spots, according
to cofounder Greg Renker.
In 2013, IT Cosmetics rolled out
what became its top seller, CC Cream,
Interested in re-creating that success
outside the U.S., Kern Lima began thinking
about a buyer early on: “We could [go
internationally] on our own for sure—it
would just be so much slower. Every entrepreneur
learns at some point that you
don’t know what you don’t know. From
a capacity and infrastructure situation, it
would be decades longer if we did it in-
Cosmetics will have the resources to
ramp up quickly. In addition to international
expansion, there will likely be
stand-alone stores and more products,
such as its first face wash, called Confidence
in a Cleanser.
Days after the sale, Kern Lima and
Hamilton got on a plane for Singapore,
followed by Thailand and Malaysia.
Hamilton admits she was anxious
to see how IT, whose acquisition
she’d championed, would translate in
Asia. She got quick relief inside Singapore’s
biggest mall, where women who
had just met Kern Lima were suddenly
crying. Back at L’Oréal’s headquarters,
Hamilton smiles, promising the deal
was well worth it: “She allows herself
to be vulnerable in front of women.
She knows how to tap into that and
make us believe in ourselves. Confidence
is not something that is defined
by national boundaries.” F
84 | FORBES JUNE 13, 2017